433 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



TRUFFLES. 



August. A truffle-hunter called on us, having in his pocket 

 several large truffles found in this neighbourhood. He says these 

 roots are not to be found in deep woods, but in narrow hedge- 

 rows and the skirts of coppices. Some truffles, he informed us, 

 lie two feet within the earth, and some, quite on the surface ; the 

 latter, he added, have little or no smell, and are not so easily 

 discovered by the dogs as those that lie deeper. Half-a-crown a 

 pound was the price which he asked for this commodity. Truffles 

 never abound in wet winters and springs. They are in season, in 

 different situations, at least nine months in the year. WHITE. 



TREMELLA NOSTOC. 



Though the weather may have been ever so dry and burning, 

 yet after two or three wet days, this jelly-like substance abounds 

 on the walks. WHITE. 



FAIRY RINGS. 



The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy rings, subsists 

 in the turf, and is conveyable with it : l for the turf of my garden- 

 walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appear- 

 ances, which vary their shape, and shift situation continually, 

 discovering themselves now in circles, now in segments, and some- 

 times in irregular patches and spots. Wherever they obtain, puff- 

 balls abound ; the seeds of which were doubtless brought in the 

 turf. WHITE. 



1 Fairy rings are caused by certain fungi which throw their seeds outwards, 

 so that a gradually increasing circle is formed of greener and brighter vege- 

 tation. 



