Miscellaneous. 153 



Notices of Fungi in Greek and Latin Authors, 

 To the Editors of the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History.' 



Gentlemen, — Please allow rne to correct on page 4G (text and 

 note) of my paper on Classical Notices of Fungi (Ann. & Mag, 

 Nat. Hist., January 1885) the word Terfeyia, which ought to be 

 Terfezia. This name has been used for a genus of Fungi hypogcei by 

 Tulasne (p. 177). being a Latinized form of the Arabic word Terfez, 

 which stands for some light-coloured truffle in Leo Africanus's 

 ' Description of Africa.' Terfezia Leonis, therefore, is Leo's Terfez. 

 On referring to Freytag's ' Lexicon Arabico-Latinum' (i. p. 190) I 

 find the word tirfds explained by " tubera terra)." According to 

 Leo, terfez was the name used by the rustic Arabs for a truffle, 

 Camha and Thama being those employed by medical authors. 

 Freytag gives other Arabic names for a white truffle, the most 

 common one apparently being Kama, Leo's Camha doubtless ; and 

 from the meanings of the verb Jcama (such as " to give truffles to 

 eat," "to abound in truffles," "to collect truffles"), it would seem 

 that this name Kama was the commonest one for this fungus, which 

 was extensively used as an article of food by the people of North 

 Africa ; to this day Kama is in modern Arabic the name of a truffle 

 and a mushroom. There seems to be no doubt that Tulasne's iden- 

 tification of this truffle with the truffle of Dioscorides is correct, and 

 that the Terfezia Leonis is the species of tuber referred to by clas- 

 sical writers as an African kind which was much prized. Tulasne, 

 in his valuable work, has given figures of this species, which is found 

 from the size of a nut to that of a man's fist ; it is flesh-coloured 

 outside and white within ; the odour is said to be not unpleasant, 

 but some people think otherwise, and that it has a soapy flavour ; 

 others again, and the majority, consider the flavour exquisite. 

 Tulasne mentions that the surface of the base of Terfezia Leonis 

 often bristles with sand, which also gets into the substance of the 

 plant ; and this reminds 'one of what Pliny says on this subject 

 (see p. 4-4 of my essay). 



On the question of the plant hydnophyllwm, Tulasne writes : — 

 "It is probably the Terfezia Leonis which the Spaniards of tho 

 kingdoms of Castille, Granada, and those of the neighbourhood of 

 Salamanca (kingdom of Leon) call, according to the report of 

 L'Ecluse, by the name of Turmas. This author, in course of the 

 description of his Cistus annuus (Cistus salicif 'alius, Linn. Spec. 742), 

 remarks that the Castilians call this plant Turmera, ' quia forsan,' 

 he adds, ' ubi Juec nascitur, tubera qua', ab iilis Turmas dicuntur cres- 

 cant ; Granatemes Yerva del quadrillo vocant. An Hydnophyllum, 

 herba quam Pamphylus in glossis, teste Athenceo (lib. ii. Dtipno- 

 soph.), tradit supernascentem tuberibus, cujus indieio subesse tubera 

 cognoscunt ? ' (Clusii, Par. Plant. Hist. p. 77 : Antuerpia?, 1601, in 

 fol.). Thus, as we have said above, the Cistus halimifolius, L., 

 points out to the inhabitants of Algeria the ordinary locality of 

 Terfez ; but it is probable that the Cistus tuberaria, L., renders 



