228 FUNGI. [Tuber. 



pedicellate, confined to tLe veins — Name, tlie Latin name for 

 some fungus. 



1, T. cibdriuyn, Sibtli. {common Truffle); warty black. 

 Sihth. Ox. p. 398. With. v. 4. p. 340. Bull. t. 356. Sow. 

 t. 309. Tratt. Essh. Schw. t. A. Nees, Syst.f. 148. Fr. SysL 

 Myc. V. 2. p. 290. Roques, t. 24. 



Buried in the soil of woods, especially beech woods. Very abun- 

 dant in some parts of England, rare in Scotland.— Rough, irregular, 

 rounded nodules, 1—2 inches or more in diameter, cracked into small 

 subpyramidal warts, smooth, but here and there furnished with a little 

 brown down ; white within and marbled with darker veins. The white 

 portions are of a distinctly filamentous structure, and, as it appears to 

 me, constituting a sort oUnycelium to the veins, which are indistinctly 

 cellular, and contain many subovate, shortly pedicellated sporangia, at 

 first filled with a granular mass, which is ultimately collected into one or 

 two globular, yellowish, echinulate sporidia.—T\\e real affinities of this 

 genus are very doubtful, and it is no easy matter to decide between the 

 view of Nees, who considers it allied to the Hymenomycetes, and that of 

 Fries who looks upon it as a true member of the Gasteromycetes. In 

 the first case we nmst regard the whole mass as an intricately sinuous 

 Tremella or Thelephora, the interstices being filled up with white, 

 nuicedinous filaments inconsequence of its subterraneous mode of growth, 

 and portions having become obliterated by pressure, in consequence of 

 which the veins are visceriform; and there seems much reason in 

 favour of this opinion, if I am correct as to the structure ; analogous 

 forms of asci occurring in Thclephora incrustans and byssoides; and, 

 as 1 believe, in Tremella albida: or in the other case the veins may 

 be either considered as analagous to the cancellated network of Clath- 

 rus, the interstices being as before mucedinous; or the interstices must 

 be considered, which appears to be the view of Fries, as the branched 

 receptacle, and the veins as hymenium spreading over it ; this, however, 

 appears to me scarcely as tenable as the converse ; for if a portion of 

 the substance of the fungus be gently pulled out, the vems will sepa- 

 rate from the interstices, with a villous aspect, as though they were the 

 principal component part. The affinity is, however, so strong between 

 this and the following genus, which can scarcely belong to the suborder 

 Hymenomycetes, that I am convinced Fries has shown a sound judg- 

 ment in placing it here. Truffles are much sought for, as a luxury, 

 and are hunted by do^s trained for the purpose, or by swine. Nees 

 von Essenbeck relates an instance of a poor crippled boy who could de- 

 tect truffles with a certainty superior even to that of the best dogs, and 

 so earned a livelihood. They have been successfully cultivated by 

 Bornholz. See Roques, Hist, des Champ, p. 17. Truffles J^^e often 

 preyed upon by a species of Ldodes, abundant specimens of which have 

 been collected"by Professor Henslow at Audley End, Essex. 



2. T. moschdtmn, Bull. Qnusk- scented Truffle); roundisli 

 even blackish. Bull. t. 479. Soiv. t. 426. Fr. Syst. Myc. v. 



2. V- 291. 



' Growing beneath the soil. Very rare. Nork Park near Epsom. 

 Miss Fa)ishaw.— This appears from the analysis of Bulliard to belong 

 certainly to the same genus with the foregoing. 



