MONOGRAPH OF THE TRUFFLE FAMILY

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TUBERACEAE.

TUBERACEAE, best placed by Fries in the class of Gasteromycetes, constitute a suborder of Angiogastra, whose characters are:

CHAR. Uterus the fruiting body sessile, round-deformed, generally rootless, but equipped here and there with a thallus or absorbing points, sometimes even with rooting fibrils, closed, indehiscent, inside hollow or vesicular-fleshy, often marbled or cancellated with veins. Sporidia various, rather large, enclosed in asci or membranous sporangia, or perhaps even naked?

Obs. The uterus is formed either from a simple receptacle or from a conglomeration of partial receptacles. Hence the peridium (the walls of the uterus) is either essential and manifest (Tubereae) or accidental and spurious (Hymenogastereae).

HIST. Fungi generally subterranean, sometimes partially emerged (Rizopogon Fries, Gautieria Nob. short for nobis, meaning "by us", etc.), and epiphytic (Endogone Link, Polygaster Fries); when young they are sub-pulpy, when adult they are entirely without tufts, hence easily distinguished from Lycoperdineae. The history of the species has been neglected until now. Linnaeus noted only one species under the genus Lycoperdon. Persoon in his synopsis described four species under a single genus (Tuber). Fries arranged twelve species into four genera (Tuber, Rizopogon, Polygaster, Endogone), of which some are exotic and little known. We have described forty and more species, distributed into eight genera. We have simply indicated the exotic ones and many of our own not seen by Fries that were noted by him (Rizopogon, Polygaster, Endogone).