PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 227 
the reproduction of which is dependent upon bodies generated within its 
substance. The truffle is composed of globular vesicles, destined for the 
reproduction of the vegetable, and short and barren filaments, called by the 
French botanist, M. Turpin, tigellules. The whole forms a substance at 
first white, but which becomes brown by age, with the exception of 
particular white veins. This’ change of colour is dependent upon the 
presence of the reproductive bodies, or trufinelles. Each globular vesicle is 
fitted to give birth, in its internal surface, to a multitude of these 
reproductive bodies; but there are only a few of them which perfect the 
young vegetable. These dilate considerably, and produce internally other 
smaller vesicles, of which two, three, or four increase in size, become 
brown, are beset with small points on their exterior surface, and fill the 
interior of the larger vesicles. The small masses thus formed are the 
trufinelles, and become truffles after the death of their parent. Thus the 
brown parts of the truffle are those which contain the trufinelles ; and the 
interposed white veins are the parts which are destitute of trufinelles. The 
parent truffle, having accomplished its growth and the formation of the 
reproductive bodies within, gradually dissolves, and supplies that aliment 
to the young vegetable which is proper for them. The cavity originally 
occupied by it in the earth is then left occupied by a multitude of young 
truffles, of which the stronger starve or destroy the others; whilst they 
frequently adhere together, and, enlarging in size, reproduce the phenomena 
already described. One circumstance in the natural history of the truffle 
is still unexplained. If the method described be the only mode in which 
the truffle is reproduced, then it is difficult to comprehend the enormous 
multiplication of that vegetable in certain parts of France, where immense 
quantities are annually collected, without exhausting, or even diminishing, 
the race. If this fungus has no means of progression, how can the young 
truffles leave the place of their birth, and become disseminated over the 
soil ?” 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Linnean Socretry or Lonpon. 
April 18, 1878.—Dr. J. Gwyn Jerrreys, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 
chair. 
The following gentlemen were balloted for, and elected Fellows of the 
Society :—The Rey. A. A. Harland, M.A., Harefield Vicarage, Uxbridge ; 
the Rey. J. J. Muir, M.A., Waterloo, near Liverpool; W. G. Piper, Esq., 
Cambridge Road, Anerley ; and Frederick Townsend, Esq., M.A., Horrington 
Hall, Shipton-on-Stour. 
