44 Rev. W. Houghton's Notices of Fungi 



begun to speak of these marvels we shall follow them in order. 

 Among the most wonderful of all things is the fact that any- 

 thing can spring up and live without a root. These are 

 called truffles (tubera) ; they are surrounded on all sides by 

 earth, and are supported by no fibres or hair-like root-threads 

 (capellamentis) ; nor does the place in which they are pro- 

 duced swell out into any protuberance or present any fissure ; 

 they do not adhere to the earth ; they are surrounded by a 

 bark, so that one cannot say they are altogether composed of 

 earth, but are a kind of earthy concretion ; they generally 

 grow in dry sandy places which are overgrown with shrubs ; 

 in size they are often as large as quinces and weigh as much 

 as a pound. There are two kinds : one is sandy and injures the 

 teeth, the other is without any foreign matter (sincera) ; they 

 are distinguished by their colours being red, or black, or white 

 within ; those of Africa are most esteemed. Now, whether 

 this imperfection of the earth (vitium terras) — for it cannot be 

 said to be anything else — grows, or whether it has at once 

 assumed its full globular size, whether it lives or not, are 

 questions which I think cannot easily be explained. In 

 their being liable to become rotten these things resemble 

 wood. The following accident happened a few years ago to 

 Lartius Licinius, a person of praetorian rank, and a minister 

 of justice at Carthage, in Spain, as I myself know: he was 

 biting a truffle and a denarius inside it bent his front teeth, 

 from which circumstance it is evident that this natural pro- 

 duction of the soil had originally assumed a globular shape, 

 as is the case with those things which grow of themselves 

 and are not able to arise from seed. Of a similar nature is 

 that which is produced in the province of Cyrenaica called 

 1 misy ;' it is noted for the sweetness of its smell and flavour, 

 and is more fleshy than the other kinds mentioned ; that which 

 is called ' ceraunium,' in Thrace, is of a similar nature " 

 (xix. 3). Pliny then adds what has been already given 

 from Theophrastus, mentioning the kind of fungi known by 

 the Greeks as " pezicre," which have no root nor stalk. 



We are not anywhere informed whether dogs or pigs were 

 ever employed in ancient times as aids in finding truffles. 

 Dr. Badham refers to Dioscorides as stating that pigs dig 

 up truffles in spring ; but Dioscorides nowhere mentions pigs ; 

 he says simply that these products were dug up in the spring ; 

 had either of these animals been ever used in truffle-hunting 

 we should most likely have had a notice to this effect amongst 

 the fungus literature of the classical authors. Athenauis 

 quotes a few words from Pamphilus about a certain grass 

 called vhv6<pv\\ov< which was supposed to grow above the 

 truffle and which indicated its presence (Athenasus, ii. 60). 



