148 THE GARDENER. [April 



From the Continent comes an announcement that will be specially- 

 interesting to botanists, and we should think the offer is one likely to 

 induce a spirited competition, particularly so among the Continental 

 botanists. It is as follows : A prize is offered by the Royal Belgian 

 Academy for an essay " to fix, by new researches, the place to be 

 occupied in the natural system by Lycopodlum, Selaginella, Psilotum, 

 Tmesiptcris, and Phyloulossumr The prize is to be a gold medal 

 with £24. The essay must be written in Latin, French, or Flemish, 

 and addressed, prepaid, to M. Ad. Quetelet, the Perpetual Secretary, 

 before 1st June 1871. The Academy requires the greatest exactness 

 in quotations, and the pages as well as editions of works cited must 

 be given. 



There appears to be reason to hope that the whole of the Chiswick 

 Gardens will not be abandoned by the Royal Horticultural Society. 

 We learn that it is proposed to retain all that part of it on which the 

 glass structures are placed, and it is hoped a good piece of ground 

 southward of that ; but the walled-in kitchen-garden, as well as that 

 part occupied by the collection of ornamental trees, will be given up. 

 So it is stated ; as a matter of course, there is much uncertainty as to 

 what is really to be done, but there is certainly too much reason to 

 fear that in as far as illustrations of practical horticulture are con- 

 cerned, we have seen pretty well the last of any attempts in that 

 direction at Chiswick. 



A bulletin just issued by the Society of Acclimatisation of Paris is 

 extremely interesting for the pregnant information it gives in regard 

 to the Truffle. It has been compiled by M. Chatin, and at the outside 

 he intimates that the Truffle is spoken of in the Book of Genesis 

 under the Hebrew denomination of dudain. How the Truffles are 

 generated, is a question M. Chatin cannot quite settle. Always found 

 at the roots of certain trees, it was supposed by some that the raw 

 material was furnished by the juice of the leaves penetrating into the 

 ground ; but one day a Truffle was found under a tub which had caught 

 the juices, and that theory was destroyed. Others pretend that Truffles 

 are simply tubercles of the roots near which they are found ; but they 

 seldom adhere to these roots, and there is no continuity — so that theory 

 cannot stand. Many persons maintain that the Truffle is a subterran- 

 eous fruit, or a gall due to the sting of an insect, like the Gall-Nut. 

 But the insect has not yet been discovered, nor the gallery by which 

 it would have to withdraw, after having deposited the necessary mat- 

 ter. It is true, however, that certain flies are found to hover over 

 Truffle-beds, and the poachers prefer to watch them to taking out a 

 dog or a pig to hunt. As regards the cultivation of the Truffle, M. 

 Chatin considers that we are still in the infancy of the art as regards 



