VEGETABLE STRUCTURE. 
19 1 
ball Lycoperdon, and that loofer part of it above, which is intermixed with 
Seeds. Tlie difference is the place, very little more. 
This white fubftance of the Truffle is fpungy, and very like the 
fpungy ends of the Hellebore Fibres ; it would take nouriOiment at every 
Pore ; but that would be too much ; theretore Nature has given it this 
double Bark, lined between with a fubftance impenetrable to water and 
indiffoluble in it, as appears by its floating feparate and entire in boiling ; 
and has left only a certain pioportion of its furface open at the Head of 
every Tubercle. There, and there only, the white Fiefh or Blea of the 
Truffle is naked, and there only it draws nourifhment. 
We fee thus what are the Coats, and what is the Flcfli or Subflance 
of the Truffle, how they are connedled, and how they are difpofed. 
There remain the Seeds to be confldered, and their Receptacles. For they 
erred who, having feen Seeds in the Truffle, thought they were laid 
loofc in this Flefliy Subftance. 
The body of the Truffle, within the circle of pure Flefli, is com- 
pofed of one great VelTel, abfolutely continuous, but folded, and, as it 
were, divided into a multitude of oblong and irregular paits. There are 
fifty, lixty, or more of thefe in one Truffle ; they lie dole in the center, 
and they run out toward the furface in all parrs, Fig. 14 : they terminate 
in obtufe ends, at a fmall diflance within the furface j the white and pure 
Fleth always covering them. Thefe parts of the great Seed-Veflel are all 
full of Seeds ; and the Membranes are fo flrong, that they keep them fe- 
curely in their places. It is tlierefore the pure FI (h is always white, and 
has none of them among it ; it is, indeed, impoflible it fhould in the per- 
fedl flate of the Plant, for the Membranes abfolutely envelop them. 
By long and careful maceration we may dilfolve this Pulp or Flelh en- 
tirely olf, and leave the Veflll naked. This might lead us to call it a Coat j 
but that it is continued to the center : it not only covers, but fepara'.es the 
L jbes of the great Seed-VelTel ; and it is this which makes the marbling 
of the Truffle. All v.e fee brotvn is tliis prodigious and varioufly con- 
voluted Seed-Veflel. The white Line^ tb.at run among it are lo many 
portions of the Flefliy Subflance, continued from the outer circle of it, 
and running whereibever the convolutions of the Seed-Veflel give it way. 
This is therefore not a Coat, but a peculiar matter, ferving, as the Root; 
for it gives ail the nourilhment. Long boiling burfls the VelTel, and fwel- 
ling the lines of pulp between it, lets loofe the Seeds among that matter. 
• IS- 
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