l66 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 



roots, under the name of oak truffles. M. de 

 Gasparin visited and reported upon one of these 

 truffle grounds. " Encouraged," he says, " by the high 

 price of truffles, the proprietor of a somewhat 

 stubborn soil determined to convert it into a truffle 

 ground. The land was sown with the acorns of the 

 common oak and of the evergreen oak. In the 

 fourth year three truffles were found, and in about 

 four years more upwards of thirty pounds were 

 collected." When he visited the plantation upwards 

 of two pounds of truffles were gathered in a very poor 

 part of the plantation within an hour. All the 

 truffles were taken at the base of the evergreen oaks, 

 but other plantations in Vaucleuse produce them at 

 the foot of the common oak. It has been remarked 

 that the truffles produced about the roots of the 

 common oak are larger and more irregular in form 

 than those of the evergreen oak, which are nearly 

 always spherical. 



The truffles are gathered at two periods of the 

 year. In May white truffles are found which never 

 blacken, and have no odour; these are dried, and 

 sold for seasoning. The black truffles are dug up 

 a month before, and a month after Christmas, when 

 they have become hard and acquired all their per- 

 fume. 



The English truffle is called Tuber astivum, and 

 one of its peculiarities is that the large spores, which 

 are oval, and nearly black, have an outer transparent 



