Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/249

Rh the reproduction of which is dependent upon bodies generated within its substance. The truffle is composed of globular vesicles, destined for the reproduction of the vegetable, and short and barren filaments, called by the French botanist, M. Turpin, tigellules. The whole forms a substance at first white, but which becomes brown by age, with the exception of particular white veins. This change of colour is dependent upon the presence of the reproductive bodies, or trufinelles. Each globular vesicle is fitted to give birth, in its internal surface, to a multitude of these reproductive bodies; but there are only a few of them which perfect the young vegetable. These dilate considerably, and produce internally other smaller vesicles, of which two, three, or four increase in size, become brown, are beset with small points on their exterior surface, and fill the interior of the larger vesicles. The small masses thus formed are the trufinelles, and become truffles after the death of their parent. Thus the brown parts of the truffle are those which contain the trufinelles; and the interposed white veins are the parts which are destitute of trufinelles. The parent truffle, having accomplished its growth and the formation of the reproductive bodies within, gradually dissolves, and supplies that aliment to the young vegetable which is proper for them. The cavity originally occupied by it in the earth is then left occupied by a multitude of young truffles, of which the stronger starve or destroy the others; whilst they frequently adhere together, and, enlarging in size, reproduce the phenomena already described. One circumstance in the natural history of the truffle is still unexplained. If the method described be the only mode in which the truffle is reproduced, then it is difficult to comprehend the enormous multiplication of that vegetable in certain parts of France, where immense quantities are annually collected, without exhausting, or even diminishing, the race. If this fungus has no means of progression, how can the young truffles leave the place of their birth, and become disseminated over the soil?"

April 18, 1878.—Dr. F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair.

The following gentlemen were balloted for, and elected Fellows of the Society:— The Rev. A.A. Harland, M.A., Harefield Vicarage, Uxbridge; the Rev. J.J. Muir, M.A., Waterloo, near Liverpool; W.G. Piper, Esq., Cambridge Road, Anerley; and Frederick Townsend, Esq., M.A., Horrington Hall, Shipton-on-Stour.