380 Botany, 



Some ripe capsules of a fine variety of riola tricolor, which I placed 

 in a shallow pasteboard box, in a drawer, were found to have projected 

 their seeds to the distance of nearly two feet. From the elevation of a 

 capsule, therefore, at the top of a tall plant, I should think these seeds 

 might be projected twice or thrice that distance. — J. Rennie. 



Organisation and Reproduction of the Truffle. — The truffle (Tiiber 

 cibcirium) is a vegetable entirely destitute of leafy appendages and of roots ; 

 it is nothing more than a rounded subterraneous mass, absorbing nourish- 

 ment upon every point of its surface, the reproduction of which is 

 dependent upon bodies generated within its substance. The truffle is 

 composed of globular vesicles, destined for the reproduction of the vege- 

 table, and short and barren filaments, called, by M. Turpin, tigellules. 

 The whole forms a substance at first white, but which becomes brown 

 by age, with the exception of particular white veins. This change of 

 colour is dependent upon the presence of the reproductive bodies, or 

 trufinelles. Each globular vesicle is fitted to give birth, in its internal 

 surface, to a multitude of these reproductive bodies ; but there are only 

 a few of them which perfect the young vegetable. These dilate consider- 

 ably, and produce internally other smaller vesicles, of which two, three, or 

 four, increase in size, become brown, are beset with small points on their 

 exterior surface, and fill the interior of the larger vesicles. The small 

 masses thus formed are the trufinelles, and become truffles after the death 

 of their parent. Thus, the brown parts of the truffle are those which con- 

 tain the trufinelles ; and the interposed white veins are the parts which are 

 destitute of trufinelles. The parent truffle, having accomplished its growth, 

 and the formation of the reproductive bodies within, gradually dissolves, 

 and supplies that aliment to the young vegetable which is proper for them. 

 The cavity originally occupied by it in the earth is then left occupied by 

 a multitude of young truffles, of which the stronger starve or destroy the 

 others ; whilst th^y frequently adhere together, and, enlarging in size, re- 

 produce the phenomena already described. One circumstance in the 

 natural history of the truffle is still unexplained. If the method described 

 be the only mode in which the truffle is reproduced, then it is difficult to 

 comprehend the enormous multiplication of that vegetable in certain parts 

 of France, where immense quantities are annually collected, without ex- 

 hausting or even diminishing the race. If this fungus has no means of pro- 

 gression, how can the young truffles leave the place of their birth, and 

 become disseminated over the soil? {Revue Encyc. xxxv. 794.) 



Ranitnculus bulbdsus. — I was surprised, on 

 taking up some plants of J^anunculus bul- 

 bdsus, ^to find the bulbs all double : they 

 were confined to a particular spot : some, 

 which I took up on a bank immediately 

 opposite, were of the usual form. To give 

 you a better idea of what I mean, I have 

 sent you a sketch (Jig. 171.) of two of the 

 roots. Perhaps some of your correspondents 

 may favour me with an opinion as to the 

 cause. I have not given my own, because I 

 am not quite satisfied about it. — Z>. *S'. JSun- 

 gay^ April. [May not these bulbs be the 

 usual mode of reproduction in the R. bulbd- 

 sus, similarly to the bulbs of crocus? — J. R.] 



Seed of Convolvulus arvensis and C. sb- 

 pium. — Sir J.E. Smith, in his English Flora, 

 speaking of the Convolvulus arvensis, says, « I have never seen the cap- 

 sule of seeds;" and, under C. sepium, he says, " I have not seen the fruit." 

 With respect to the existence of the fruit of the former plant, I cannot now 



