Cbap. 12.] MIST, ITON, AND GEEANION. 143 



Truffles generally grow in dry, sandy soils, and spots that 

 are thickly covered with shrubs ; in size they are often larger 

 than a quince, and are found to weigh as much '® as a pound. 

 There are two kinds of them, the one full of sand, and con- 

 sequently injurious to the teeth, the other free from sand and 

 all impurities. They are distinguished also by their colour, 

 which is red or black, and white within ; those of Africa " 

 are the most esteemed. Whether the truffle grows gradually, 

 or whether this blemish of the earth — for it can be looked upon 

 as nothing else — at once assumes the globular form and magni- 

 tude which it presents when found ; whether, too, it is pos- 

 sessed of vitality or not, are all of them questions, which, in 

 my opinion, are not easy to be solved. It decays and rots in 

 a manner precisely similar to wood. 



It is knowTi to me as a fact, that the following circumstance 

 happened to Lartius Licinius, a person of praetorian rank, while 

 minister of justice,'^ a few years ago, at Carthage in Spain ; 

 upon biting a truffle, he found a denarius inside, which all but 

 broke his fore teeth — an evident proof that the truffle is no- 

 thing else but an agglomeration of elementary earth. At all 

 events, it is quite certain that the truffle belongs to those 

 vegetable productions which spring up spontaneously, and are 

 incapable of being reproduced from seed.'^^ 



CHAP. 12. (3.) — mist; ixojf; and geranion". 



Of a similar nature, too, is the vegetable production known 

 in the province of Cyrenaica by the name of " misy,"^ re- 

 found to contain diminutive truffles. Pliny is wrong in saying that the 

 truffle forms neither cleft nor protuberance, as the exact contrary is the 

 fact. 



'^ Haller speaks of truffles weighing as much as fourteen pounds. 

 Valmont de Bomare speaks of a truffle commonly found in Savoy, which 

 attains the weight of a pound. 



■"■^ Those of Africa are in general similar to those found in Europe, but 

 there is one peculiar to that country, possibly the same that is mentioned 

 in the following Chapter under the name of " misy." 



"'^ " Jura reddenti." 



''^ It is really propagated by spores, included in sinuous chambers in 

 the interior ; but, notwithstanding the attempts that have been made, it 

 lias never yet been cultivated with any degree of success. In c. 13, Pliny 

 seems to recognize the possibility of its multiplication by germs, where he 

 says that its formation is attributed by some to water. 



"^ Fee takes this to be the Tuber niveum of Dcsfontaines, the snow- 

 wliite truffle. It is globular and somewhat piriform, grows to the size of a 

 walnut, and sometimes of an orantre, and is said to be most delicate eating-. 



