TRUFFLES. l6j 



coat which is divided into deep pentagonal cells, like 

 honeycomb. The French truffle, on the contrary 

 ( Tuber melanosporuni), has brown oval spores covered 

 with rigid spines. Any fragment of either species 

 may at any time be determined by the microscope, 

 so that it can always be decided whether the truffle 

 be the English or the French species. Although the 

 latter have a rather disagreeable odour, the flavour is 

 said to be so much superior that the French has 

 superseded the English truffle in our own markets. 

 The French truffle above alluded to is the Perigord 

 truffle. 



Of all British mycologists the one who paid most 

 attention to, and was the greatest authority upon 

 truffles, was the late Mr C. E. Broome, and from 

 a communication of his we have gleaned the following 

 notes. Four species are named as exclusively in use 

 in France. Tuber melanosporum, T. brumale, T. 

 aestivum, and T. mesentericum, of which two, or per- 

 haps three, occur in Great Britain. Tuber aestivum 

 is apparently the only species to be met with in 

 a recent state in our shops. T. mesentericum may at 

 times occur, but it has not yet been noticed there. 

 T. brumale has hitherto been found in England of 

 too small a size to be worth sending to market. In 

 Italy there are other kinds, one of which, T. mag- 

 natum, commands a higher price than any other ; and 

 in the southern parts of Italy, Sicily, Syria, and Africa, 



