BOOK XIX. XI. 34-xiii. 37 



kinds, one gritty in texture and unkind to the teeth, 

 and the other devoid of iinpurities ; they also diifer 

 in their colour, which is red or bhick, and the inside 

 is white. The Africau variety is the most highly 

 spoken of. I do not tliiiik it can be easily ascertained 

 whether they grow in size, or whether this bleinish of 

 the earth — for they cannot be understood as anAthing 

 else — fornis at once a ball of the size that it is going 

 to be ; nor whether they are aUve or not, for they 

 decay in the same way as wood does. We know for 

 a fact that when Lai-tius Licinius, an ofHcial of 

 praetorian rank, was serving as Minister of Justice at 

 Cartagena in Spain a few years ago,he happened when 

 biting a trutiie to come on a denarius contained inside 

 it, which bent his front teeth ; this will clearly show 

 that truffles are lumps of earthy substance balled 

 together. One thing that is certain is that truffles 

 will be found to belong to the class of thinjis that 

 spring up spontaneously and cannot be grown from 

 seed. 



Xn. There is also a simihir plant the name o( simiiar 

 which in the province of Cyrene is misy, which has ?'"""• 

 a remarkably sweet scent and flavour, but is more 

 fleshy tlian the trufHe ; and one in Thrace called iton, 

 aiid one in Greece, ceruunion or ' thunder-truffle '. 



Xin. Pecuharities reported about truffles are that Parttcuiars 

 they spring up when there have been spells of rain """"'"■^^' 

 in autumn and repeated thunderstorms, and that 

 thunderstorms bring them out particuhirly ; that 

 they do not last beyond a year; and that those in 

 spring are the inost dehcate to eat. In some places 

 acceptable truffles only grow in marshy places, for 

 instance at Mytilene it is said that they oiily grow on 

 ground Hoodcd by the rivers, when the floods have 



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