TROWEL. 
monly weighs from 12 to 18 pounds, but some- 
times rises so high as 30 pounds. It hasa similar 
appearance to the common trout, but is thicker 
in proportion to the length, and has a redder hue 
of flesh both before and after being dressed, and 
possesses the remarkable peculiarity of having a 
gizzard somewhat similar to that of a large fowl 
| or a turkey,—and this gizzard, when dressed, is 
a very favourite morsel. Some supposed varie- 
ties of trout, in many of the waters of Britain, 
_ or rather peculiar salmonic individuals which 
anglers regard as curious or remarkable trouts, 
are probably salmon smelts. 
In the end of September trouts leave their 
| hot-weather retreats, and go in search of suit- 
able spawning ground; in October in some 
_ rivers, but chiefly in November in most rivers, 
they spawn; in the following months, they are 
feeble and wasted,—though some barren females 
may sometimes be found who continue plump 
and strong during all the winter; and in Febru- 
ary in mild open seasons, or in March in more 
severe years, they begin to leave their winter 
quarters, and approach the shallows and tails of 
streams, and there cleanse themselves and seek 
restoration to health and vigour. As they ac- 
quire strength, they advance still higher up the 
rivers, until they find summer residences, and 
for these they generally choose eddies, behind a 
stone, a log, or bank that projects forward into 
the water, and against which the current drives, 
—whirlpools and holes into which sharps and shal- 
lows fall, under roots of trees, and in places shaded 
by boughs and bushes. In small rivers, they fre- 
| quently lie under sedges and weeds, especially in 
| the beginning of the year, before their perfect 
strength is recovered; but when in their prime, 
they feed in the swiftest streams, and are often 
found at the upper end of mill-pools, at locks, 
flood-gates, and rivers, also under bridges, or 
between two streams running from under their 
arches, and likewise in the returns of streams, 
where the water seems to boil; and in the de- 
cline of summer, they lie at mill-tails, or end of 
other streams, and in the deep water. ‘routs 
may be said to be in season from March to Sep- 
tember, but are fattest during the five or six 
weeks succeeding the middle of August. 
TROWEL. A mason’s hand implement for 
applying mortar. A narrow one of 7 inches long 
in the blade, 5 inches long in the handle, and 14 
inch high in the vertical connexion of the blade 
with the handle, is serviceable in various opera- 
tions of the farm and the garden, and will be 
found indispensable in laying the sole- tiles of 
some kinds of subsoil drains. 
TROXIMON. A small genus of ornamental, 
hardy, perennial-rooted, herbaceous, North- Amer- 
ican plants, of the succory division of the com- 
posite order. The glaucous species, 7’. glaucum, 
was introduced to Britain from Missouri in 1811. 
It is about a foot high, and carries yellow flowers 
from June till August; and it comprises two dis- 
TRUFFLE. ; 493 
tinct varieties,—the one with spreading and hir- 
sutely tomentose scape and leaflets of the involu- 
cre, and the other with these organs erect and 
perfectly glabrous. Two other yellow-flowered 
kinds, the cuspidate and the marginate, both 
about the same height as the glaucous, and re- 
garded by some botanists as varieties of it, and 
by others as separate species, were introduced 
several years later from Louisiana. The name 
troximon signifies “eatable ;” and points at the 
supposed useful qualities of the plants. 
TRUFFLE,—botanically Tuder. A genus of 
fungi of the gasteromycetous tribe. The escu- 
lent species, Tuber cibarium, is one of the most 
wholesome and nutritive of the eatable fungi; 
it grows under ground, and has neither roots 
nor leafy appendages, but consists of globular 
vesicles, and absorbs nutriment at every point 
of its surface; it abounds in some situations in 
a wild state, and is also raised artificially in beds 
so formed as to contain suitable niduses for its 
spores; it is discovered in its natural habitats 
by means of dogs, who are taught to scent it, 
and who, on finding it, bark and scratch it up: 
and it is served up as a rare luxury at the tables 
of the wealthy, either roasted in a fresh state 
somewhat like potatoes, or dried, shred, and 
dressed as an ingredient in soups and ragouts,. 
The form of it is rugosely tubercular, more or 
less approaching the form of a sphere, or of an 
egg, or of a kidney, with a somewhat warty 
roughness. The colour of the surface, in the 
young state, is whitish, but, in the full-grown 
state, either blackish or a deep black. The colour 
of the inside is. whitish, with dark blue and 
white, grey, reddish, light brown, or dark brown 
veins, of the thickness of a horse-hair, which are 
usually variously entangled, and which form a 
kind of network or mat. Between the veins are 
numerous cavities filled with a great deal of 
mucilage and small solid grains; and these 
scarcely visible glands were formerly said to be 
the seeds or germs of the young truffles. The 
less the inside of the truffie is coloured by dark 
veins, the more tender and delicious is its flesh. 
The blackish external rind is hard, and very 
rough, by means of fine fissures, grains, and pro- 
tuberances; and forms with its small facets, 
which are almost hexagonal, an appearance by 
which it somewhat resembles the fir apples of 
the larch. Whilst the truffle is young, its smell 
resembles that of putrid plants, or of moist vege- 
table earth. When it first approaches the period 
of full growth, it diffuses an agreeable smell 
which is peculiar to it, resembling that of musk, | 
but which lasts only a few days; this smell then 
becomes stronger, and the nearer the fungus is 
to its death and its dissolution, which speedily 
ensues, so much the more unpleasant and urinous 
is the smell, till at last it is quite disagreeable 
and putrid. Whilst young, the flesh is watery, 
and insipid; but when fully formed, it is firm 
