TRUFFLES. 145 



and those who have seen the hop-gardens of Kent, Surrey, 

 Worcester, and Hereford, will be willing to confess that on 

 growing crop has superior claims to our admiration. Under 

 cultivation the hop is most luxuriant, and its clusters of 

 strobiles, or female flowers, are more than quadrupled in 

 size. When the seeds are ripe, the strobiles are gathered, 

 dried, and packed in bags called pockets, and sent to the 

 market. A few hundred pockets have been sent from the 

 United States, but have not suited the English market. 

 The quantity of hops raised in England is perhaps greater 

 than all the rest of the world put together : in 1850 21,668 

 tons were cultivated and gathered; they occupied 43,127 

 acres, which paid to the revenue, as duty, an average of 

 £6. 4s. 6d. per acre. The quantity imported was 320 tons, 

 from the United States, Belgium, and Erance; and the 

 quantity exported was 98 tons, sent to the United States, 

 Australia, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Cape of Good Hope, 

 and Russia. 



Truffles. Tuber cibarium. (Nat. Ord. Fungi.) 



These curious fungi are produced entirely underground, 



chiefly in beech-woods ; they appear to thrive best in the 



neighbourhood of beech-trees. Besides the one mentioned, 



there are several others, as T. cestivum, T. brumale, T. mela- 



L 



