BOOK XIX. Tx. 3r-xi. 34 



and the inner bark of lime trees. It is extremely 

 probable that the Carthaginians imported the use of 

 esparto grass from Greece. 



X. Theophrastus states that there is a kind of bulb <• 

 growing in the neighbourhood of river banks, which 

 contains a woolly substance (between the outer skin 

 and the edible part) that is used as a material for 

 making felt slippers and certain articles of dress ; but 

 he does not state, at all events in the copies of 

 his work that have come into my hands, either the 

 region in which this manufacture goes on or any 

 particuhirs in regard to it beyond the fact that the 

 phint is called ' wool-bearing ' ; nor does he make any 

 mentioniit all of esparto grass,* although he has givea 

 an extremely careful account of all plants at a date 

 390 years before our time (as we have also said alreadv 



in another place) ; which shows that esparto grass xv.i. 

 came into use after that date. 



XI. And now that we have made a beginning in Tmffles 

 treating of the marvels of nature, we shall proceed 



to take them in order, by far the greatest among them 

 being that a phmt should spring up and hve without 

 having any root. The growths referred to are called 

 trufHes ; thcy are enveloped all round with earth and 

 are not strengthened by any fibres or at least fila- 

 ments, nor yet does the place they grow in show any 

 protuberance or undergo cracks ; and they theni- 

 selves do not stick to the earth, and are actually 

 enclosed in a skin, so that while we cannot say down- 

 right that they consist of earth, we cannot call them 

 anything but a callosity of the earth. They usually 

 grow in dry and sandy soils and in places covered 

 with shrubs. They often exceed the size of a quince, 

 even weighing as much as a pound. They are of two 



441 



