TRUFFLE. 355 



The present method of obtaining truffles 

 is by small dogs of a peculiar breed, called 

 truffle dogs, who hunt them by their scent ; 

 and an attentive truffleman will be sure to 

 discover them. Naturalists have also found 

 the means of knowing where to dig for them 

 by the appearance of a much smaller animal, 

 which is never seen but in the neighbourhood 

 of truffles : this is a beautiful little fly of a 

 violet colour. These plants are subject to 

 be eaten by a worm, that afterwards changes 

 into a chrysalis that remains in the body of 

 the truffle, from whence it escapes and be- 

 comes the fly described. Truffles are co- 

 vered with animalculae, and soon become full 

 of worms, if not cut and dried. 



It is observed that the earth that produces 

 truffles rarely affords any other plants, those 

 either taking up all the nourishment it can 

 afford, or destroying vegetation by their 

 strong odour, by which they are easily found 

 out by those animals that carry their nose 

 near the ground. They are most abundantly 

 produced in dry fields of a reddish loamy 

 earth, not very poor. Those found in Eng- 

 land are all inclosed in a studded bark or 

 coat, and the inner substance is of the consis- 

 tency of the fleshy part of a young chesnut, 



2 a 2 



