Monograph of the Truffles

adhering, one would have to see the solution of the truffle in prepared humus, and the infused crystal in the living truffle!!

THE NATURE AND GERMINATION OF SPORIDIA.

The debate is still under consideration as to whether the reproductive corpuscles of cryptogams are true seeds, or rather so many small plants differing from the parent only by reason of their smallness. Most recent authors have embraced this latter opinion, and Bulliard himself formed his own sexual theory regarding truffles. However, this opinion is not yet supported by any observations, and the extreme smallness of the bodies and their barely conspicuous germination will always stand in the way. These, however, are entirely void in truffles. Truffles lack leaves and true roots, and their reproductive corpuscles are called acotyledonous without seed leaves. In what, therefore, will the germ of a seed (if you wish to call it a seed), deprived of a plumule, radicle, and cotyledon, differ from the preformed truffle itself?

The sporidia of the Elaphomyces false truffles, from the family Lycoperdineae puffball-like fungi, when they approach maturity, are adorned on the surface with short tufts or small tubes which, as the sporidium increases, come more and more into view and make its surface appear as if flocculose-echinate (see table V, fig. II). These tufts grow out in the germinating sporidium, multiply, accumulate, and, congested in the manner of a fabric, envelop the sporidium entirely and foster it in their own fold. In such a way arises the crust of the Elaphomyces (see Elaphomyces), which, as it spreads widely into the surrounding humus, draws in humors and serves the nutrition of the germinating sporidium, in the manner of cotyledons. The sporidium, truly in the form of a whitish granule, increases bit by bit, is covered by a rind, and as it hastens toward maturity, the crust separates from it more or less completely. This was possible to observe in the germinating sporidia of Elaphomyces citrinus, mutabilis, and Persoonii, whose yield is ubiquitous.

Does this also happen with truffles? The mature sporidia of truffles, just as those of Elaphomyces, show a surface echinate with tufts (see table V, fig. X). This was also known to Bulliard, who believed that these thin threads communicate with the sporangia (seminal chambers)