Order Gasteromycetes.' Suh-Or dev Jn^io^astres. 



Plate XI. 



TUBER CIBARIUM, ^/^^/.o;7^ 



T//e Common Truffle. 

 Family TUBERACE^. 



Qen. CJiar. Sporangia membranaceous scattered on the serpentine vein-like hymenium, included in the concrete 

 uterus. 



Spec. Char. T. cibauium ; uterus closed, marbled with veins internally ; sporangia pedicellate, confined to the 

 veins. " Rough irregidar rounded uodides, from one to two inches in diameter ", black or dark brown, covered 

 with obtuse polygonal warts, rootless (" at first covered with the thin fibres of the mycelimii ", Corda) then naked 

 except a little brown Aovra (proJjably the remains of the iiij/cdhiiii) ; inner substance fleshy, pallid, veins at first 

 white, darkening with age, tortuous ; sporidia echinulate. 



Tuber cibariiun, Sibthorp, Fries, Berh., With., Sow., Bull., Fersoon. 



Hal). Downs and forest-laud, in pai'ks, under vai'ious trees in rich allu\ial soil ; buried from two to eight inches 

 deep. 



Evelyn in liis diary for 1644, notes — "We got to Vienne in Daupliine * * * here we supped and lay, 

 having amongst other dainties, a dish of Truffles, an earth-nut found out by a hog train'd to it, and for whicli 

 those animals are sold at a great price ". Now, as Evelyn was a gentleman brought up in the best society. 

 Truffles had not become an English luxury, at the date he mentions their appearance at table as a novelty 

 to him ; it by no means follows, however, that there were then no Truffles in England, but simply that they 

 had not been commonly found ^; at the present time they would be discovered in many unsuspected 

 localities if sought for. It has beeu asserted by several authorities that the Truffle is not an indigenous pro- 

 duction, but that it came to Rushton in Northamptonshire, in the earth attached to the roots of trees, 

 brought over from Languedoc ; Truffles certainly abound at Blenheim, at Avington, at Audley End, and in 

 the parks of many of our ancient mansions, which were early embelHshed with transplanted ornaments from 

 France and Italy, and this gives some plausibility to the opinion ; on the other hand, they are found where 

 no trees but such as are truly indigenous, come within the limits possible for their propagation. 



About the period, however, when Dr. Taucred Eobinson first noticed the Tuber cibarium, 1693*, it 

 became an imperative fashion for English gentlemen to make the " grand tour ", and thus they doubtless 

 acquired a taste for ragouts, wliich, not even a transplanted French cook could manufacture without their 



' From yas-r^p, the stomach, and ixvKr)s, sl fungus. — Hymenium included. 

 ^ From ayy^iov, a receptacle, and yarrrip, the stomach. — Uterus distinct from the included proper receptacle. 

 ^ The " Tubera minima, nucis magnitudine, coloris purpurei " of Eay, seem to have been the Ttiber cibarium 

 in a young state ; he does not mention them when mature. 



" Phil. Trans. No. 202. p. 824. 



