396 Instructions for Truffie-Seardiing. 



many enquiries, I have never learnt that a truffle was ever found 

 in Germany in an open space entirely devoid of trees. 



Truffles are extended over the whole surface of the earth, 

 and are natives as well of the cold north, as of temperate and 

 hot climates. Linnaeus found them in Lapland, and Kaempfer in 

 Japan, where also they are eaten as a delicacy. They are dug 

 up in Africa, America, and in great abundance in many parts 

 of Asia. They are found principally in the temperate countries 

 of Europe, in England, Spain, and France, especially in the 

 south of that country; in Italy, in Switzerland, and in the 

 north and south of Germany. In the last country they are 

 abundant in the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, and in the Grand- 

 Duchy of Baden, along the Rhine. 



§ 6. Propagation of Truffles. — Notwithstanding the numerous 

 plans which have been formed, and the many experiments which 

 have been made, to effect the propagation of truffles by art, none, 

 to the best of my knowledge, have succeeded. Even in the 

 neighbourhood of Carlsruhe, the experiments made by the late 

 Margravine Caroline Louisa of Baden, the grandmother of 

 the present most illustrious grand-duke, an excellent, ingenious, 

 and learned lady, who was very much attached to natural 

 history, were attended with no favourable result. 



Truffles were several times taken up uninjured, with the 

 earth surrounding them, without their being displaced from it, 

 and again planted in the same circumstances under which they 

 had originated : but they always underwent dissolution ; and 

 no increase or renewal of them succeeded, which, however, must 

 have taken place, if the truffles had contained either seeds or 

 embryos. Bradley, Von Justi, Count Borch, and Bulliard, have 

 in their writings, respectively, proposed plans for the propagation 

 of truffles. They say that a soil should be made choice of for 

 the purpose, which resembles as much as possible the soil in 

 which truffles are produced; that it should be dug about two 

 or three feet deep : furrows or trenches should then be drawn 

 through it, into which pieces of earth should be put or sunk, in 

 which many truffles have grown, or even single truffles may be 

 stuck into it. Whether these plans have been already carried 

 into execution, and have had a more fortunate result than the 

 experiments which liave been made in our country (Carlsruhe) 

 is to me unknown ; but, though I much doubt it, I am not 

 inclined entirely to decide against the possibility of planting 

 truffles artificially, since success has been attained in the 

 cultivation of other fungi. Many requisites for the formation 

 of truffles seem only to be covered with a thick veil, which 

 futurity, and the exertions of diligent natural philosophers, will 

 perhaps raise or remove. 



§ 7. The Enemies of Trnfies, and the Remedies against those 



