in Greek and Latin Authors. 43 



is a lamellose agaric at first enclosed in a volva, to denote 

 fungi whose hymenium consists of tubes or pores. 



But to return to the vhvov. Theophrastus (i. 6, § 9) 

 speaks of the vhvov which some call ao-\iov, and the ovijjov 

 and other such subterranean things, as having no root, in 

 i. 6, § 13, he says, the vhvov is sometimes called filav, and is 

 very sweet with a fleshy odour; that in Thrace it is called 

 irov. " With regard to these things, peculiar beliefs are held, 

 for they say that they are produced during autumn rains, and 

 thunderstorms especially, which are the main reason of their 

 growing, and that they do not last more than a year, and are 

 best for food in the spring. Some think they are produced 

 from seed, because those which grow on the shore of the 

 Mityleneans only appear after floods, which bring down the 

 seed from Tiara where many vhva are found. They grow on 

 the shore where there is much sand. They are found around 

 Lampsacum of Abarnis, and in Alopeconnesus (Asia), and 

 in Elis." 



Dioscorides calls the vhvov a root, and says it is roundish, 

 without leaves and stem, inclining to yellow ; that it is dug- 

 out of the ground in the spring, and is eaten either raw or 

 cooked" (Mat. Med. ii. 174). 



With respect to the Greek words vhvov, ao-^tov andtheThra- 

 cian ltov, and the p,iav, the name of the plantnear Gyrene, there 

 is no clear etymology forthcoming. If olhvov is another form 

 of vhvov, according to Liddell and Scott's Lexicon (but I can 

 find no authority for its use in Theophrastus), then one would 

 naturally refer the name to olhia> or olhdvco, u to swell," and 

 the etymology would be sufficiently exact, answering to the 

 Latin tuber. Aetius and later Greek writers use the word 

 Iltvov for the truffle. Sibthorpe found the names vhvo? and 

 ckvo<; to denote this fungus in Greece, and Heldreich ( l Die 

 Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands,' p. 2) gives vhavov or vhvov for 

 the Tuber cibarium in Peloponnesus, and ^oipoyfrcofxa in Crete, 

 adding that truffles occur in woody places in Greece, but are 

 not much sought after. According to the last-named autho- 

 rity the ancient Greek name aayiov for a truffle is now used 

 for a polyporus or a fungus generally, under the form of tcrfca, 

 Pelasg. eske, eska. The /iiav must remain quite unexplained. 

 Another Greek name is apparently used by Theophrastus to 

 signify a truffle, viz Kepavviov, but given by Athengeus, who is 

 quoting Theophrastus, as yepdveiov. 1 suspect Kepavviov is 

 the proper reading, and that it refers to the popular idea that 

 such plants appeared chiefly after thunderstorms. 



The truffle w T as a source of wonder to Pliny, who con- 

 sidered it one of the marvels of nature. a Since we have 



