Natural History. 491 



serene sky, and a bright sun, we may say with confidence that 

 this change of colour is produced by the action of the sun*s rays. 



Seven years ago, next month, I had a still more favourable op- 

 portunity to observe this phenomenon in company with the Hon. 

 J. Lansing, late Chancellor of this State. While we were engaged 

 in taking a geological survey of his manor of Blenheim, the leaves 

 of the forest had expanded to almost the common size in cloudy 

 weather. I believe the sun had scarcely shone upon them in 

 twenty days. Standing upon a hill, we observed that the dense forests 

 upon the opposite side of the Schoharie were almost white. The 

 sun now began to shine in full brightness. The colour of the forest 

 absolutely changed so fast that we could perceive ks progress. By 

 the middle of the afternoon, the whole of these extensive forests, 

 many miles in length, presented their usual summer dress. — SillU 

 maiCs Journaly xiii. 193. 



12. Organization and Reproduction of the Tnifle. — The trufle, 

 according to the account given of it by M. Turpin, in a memoir 

 read to the Academy of Sciences, is a vegetable entirely destitute 

 of leafy appendages or of roots ; it is nothing more than a rounded 

 subterraneous mass, absorbing nourishment upon every point of 

 its surface, and the reproduction of which is dependent upon bodies 

 generated within its substance. The trufle is composed of, i. glo- 

 bular vesicles, destined, to the reproduction of the vegetable ; ii. 

 short and barren filaments, called by M. Turpin, tigeUutes, 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 tntfinelles. Each globular vesicle is fitted to give birth, on 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 considerably, 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 vesicle. The small masses thus formed, 

 are the tntfinelles, and become trufles after the death of their parent. 

 Thus the brown parts of the trufle are those which contain the tru- 

 finelles, and the interposed white veins are the parts which are des- 

 titute of trufinelles. The parent trufle, having accomplished ita 

 growth and the formation of the reproductive bodies within, gra- 

 dually 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 lefl, occupied by a multitude of young trufles, of 

 which the stronger starve or destroy the others, whilst they fre- 

 quently adhere together, and, enlarging in size, reproduce the phe- 

 nomena already described. 



The reporters of this memoir to the Academy state that they 

 have verified M. Turpin's account, but point out a circumstance in 

 the natural history of the trufle, which is still unexplained. If the 



