358 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



they are thought to fix themselves in the 

 earth, after they are separated from the 

 mother plant ; the young truffles still visibly 

 preserving those fibres, which only disappear 

 by age. From these observations it will be 

 seen that, if they are not taken up at a proper 

 season, they burst and rot : which accounts 

 for those found late in the autumn being 

 small and possessing less flavour : from 

 whence it is also plain, that they are annual 

 plants, which only exist till they have per- 

 fected their young. 



If the place where the old truffles have 

 decayed be carefully examined, the young 

 plants will be found after some time to have 

 vegetated, and a great number of young 

 truffles may be seen in the place : these, if not 

 destroyed by the frost, are what in the en- 

 suing summer furnish the young white truf- 

 fles. It is the general idea that truffles, once 

 displaced, will never thrive again, even by 

 replacing them in the same earth from whence 

 they have been drawn ; but we are of opinion 

 that they could be propagated, were proper 

 attention paid to the soil ; and if the earth 

 where they have burst in the autumn, was 

 removed to a genial situation. A premium 

 offered from the Horticultural Society might 



