144 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



markable for the sweetness of its smell and taste, but more 

 fleshy than the truffle : the same, too, as to the iton 81 of the 

 Thracians, and the geranion of the Greeks. 



CHAP. 13. PAKTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE TETJFFLE. 



The following peculiarities we find mentioned with reference 

 to the truffle. When there have been showers in autumn, and 

 frequent thunder-storms, truffles are produced, thunder 82 con- 

 tributing more particularly to their developement ; they do 

 not, however, last beyond a year, and are considered the most 

 delicate eating when gathered in spring. In some places the 

 formation of them is attributed to water ; as at Mytilene, 83 for 

 instance, where they are never to be found, it is said, unless 

 the rivers overflow, and bring down the seed from Tiara, that 

 being the name of a place at which they are produced in the 

 greatest abundance. The finest truffles of Asia are those found 

 in the neighbourhood of Lampsacus and Alopeconnesus ; the 

 best in Greece are those of the vicinity of Elis. 



CHAP. 14. THE PEZICA. 



Belonging to the mushroom genus, also, there is a species, 

 known to the Greeks by the name of " pezica/' 84 which grows 

 without either root or stalk. 



CHAP. 15. LASEEPITIUM, LASER, AND MASPETUir. 



Next to these, laserpitium 85 claims our notice, a very re- 



81 These truffles or morels do not appear to have been identified. 



82 Juvenal alludes to this ahsurd notion, Sat. v. 1. 116. " The long 

 wished-for thunder will provide a more ample repast." 



83 Theophrastus, as quoted by Athenaeus, B. ii. speaks of this. 



84 "Peziza" was a name given by the ancients to a kind of cupuliform 

 mushroom ; in which, however, we cannot recognize the " pezica" of 

 Pliny. Some writers think that this was the same as the lycoperdon and 

 geastrum of botanists, our puff-ball : while others take it to be the morel, 

 the Morchella esculenta, Sprengel in the number. Fee is inclined to be 

 of opinion that an edible mushroom is meant, but is quite at a loss to 

 identify it. 



85 Possibly the Ferula asafcetida of Linnaeus ; or, according to some, the 

 Thapsia silphium of Viviani, Flor. Lib. It was a plant common, accord- 

 ing to ancient writers, to Syria, Armenia, Media, and Libya ; but it was 

 the produce of this last country, probably, that afforded the" juice or gum 

 resin here mentioned as " laser," and so highly esteemed by the ancients, as 

 forming a component part of their perfumes. Fee is inclined to think 

 that the Laserpitium here spoken of was the Thapsia silphium, and to 



