206 Qiieries and Ansuoers. 



lowing that it liad been weaned), except they are indeed animals ; then the case 

 is different. And, if A. Von Bernholz had not flatly denied their being animals, 

 I shoukl have thought that he considered them as such ; for we find them 

 changing place to suit themselves with a comfortable bed, and acting as a 

 social body by combining their efforts to produce a result. This locomotion 

 he attributes to attraction ; but, if they are so volatile, so easily repulsed and 

 attracted, that they keep bobbing up and down like so many ball-cocks, I do 

 not think that they would stand to be squeezed into deformity by every con- 

 tumaceous clod, or to be gutted as in the case of the denarius that so nearly 

 choked the Roman praetor. Their rising in wet seasons, and sinking in dry 

 ones, is, nevertheless, an important fact, as it goes far, in my opinion, to prove 

 that truffles are propagated like other fungi. Seeds possessed of the greatest 

 vitality require a certain degree of moisture to call them into action: give them 

 excess, and they either perish, or remain dormant, until the medium be ac- 

 quired. The truffle is, probably, very nice in this respect ; and occupying the 

 intermediate space, will easily account for its different position in different 

 seasons, without troubling it to movebackwards and farwards, A. Von Bernholz 

 would likewise persuade us that they are only to be found in perfection under 

 the fostering arms of the " gnai-kd oak." The experience of others would 

 lead them to prefer the beech. Hence, it appears that shadcy rather than any 

 particular shade is necessary to their production ; and 1 think the old wattled 

 hurdles that you have somewhere proposed, very preferable to planting small- 

 leaved trees to shelter them. But, after all, we may live to see them luxu- 

 riating among the millepedes, beneath a bundle of straw, or a few old mats, 

 in the dark corner of some back shed.. I do not live where they can be 

 readily procured ; but, if you could persuade some of your correspondents to 

 send me a box of the soil, with a whole batch of truffles, from the unlicked 

 cub, to the dingy veteran, I would subject them to a number of trials ; and, if 

 they would not live out of a natural bed, I promise you that some of them 

 would die a most unnatural death. If 1 had any design upon the 100/. that 

 you think ought to be held out as an inducement, I would have kept these 

 remarks to myself. — iV. M. T. Folkslone, Dec. 4. 



Art. VI. Queries and Anstoers* 



Do decaying Leaves absorb, and assist in evaporating, the Sap of the Plant? 

 — In Maund's Botanic Garden for February is the following paragraph : — 

 " Leaves ivithered. — As with the stems of the fuchsia, so it is with wither- 

 ing leaves : in their decay they absorb, and assist in evaporating, the sap of 

 the plant, without perforniing any office in return. Therefore, when leaves 

 of any shrubby plant begin to wither, take them off immediately. We have 

 seen orange trees, which have been removed at an unseasonable period, with 

 their leaves dropping and partly withered. Some of these trees, by way of 

 experiment, were entirely strippetl of such leaves. These threw out young 

 foliage, and soon recovered; whilst those on which the withered leaves 

 continued till they fell off naturally, recovered with difficulty, and evidently 

 suffered more than those which had a contrary treatment. It must not be 

 for<n)tten that it is prejudicial to the course of nature to destroy the foliage 

 of a healthy plant : but here it was the choice of two evils ; the destruction 

 of the foliage, or the continuance of it when worse than useless." I have 

 "i-eat doubts on the subject of decaying leaves assisting in evaporating the 

 sap of a plant; and I can hardly think'that professor Henslow, who is said in 

 the advertisements to be Mr. Maund's coadjutor, will be of this opinion. 

 However, I may be wrong; and, at all events, I should wish to knovy what 

 some of your scientific readers think on the subject. I do not agree with Mr. 

 Maund's dictum, " When leaves of any sJirubby plant begin to wither, take 



