The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-08

subtle yet penetrating aroma, and un-
 occasionally tended to enhance US
 market price.
 The Due de Lesparre has with elap- crate pains traced the genesis or the truffle step by step throughout the cy- cle of it's obscure permutations, ana no phase of it's existence has any longer l the smallest secret for us. The Whole 1 story is laid bare as clearly as that or | the silkWorm or the Taenia solluna. III l describing a circle it does not much matter where we begin, but it may pc
 as well to start with the fungus in the
 form familiar to us, especially as tne | scalpel and the microscope had alreaay furnished some information about thls organism We knew, for instance, thal
 within it's interior were minute cells or
 bags (ascD, and that these contalneu
 quantities of still more minute plach
 spores or seeds, invisible singly to the
 naked eye. Late in summer, or per
 haps earlier, these cells burst ana the
 spores are released. One might sup
 pose that they then germinated at once
 in their native soil, and so gave rlse lo
 fresh crops of truffles around the par ent fungus, the false analogy or the
 potato appearing to strengthen tlie
 view. Dame Nature, however, goes 'o
 work in a far more roundabout 1ashloii These tiny spores or spofioes naVe
 much to go through before they luilili
 their destiny. First of all, they must
 find their way to the surface ot the
 soil, and this is one reason why the
 truffe de Perigord only flourlshes Tn
 very light loams or sandy ground.
 Then, on reaching the upper alr' the
 little black speclzs lie about untll plrd' il an insect or a gust ot Wlhu carfiee
 them to the haven where they would r. be. The leaf of an oak, hazel, a plile'
 or of any tree, indeed, that hos corfu-
 gated foliage suffices to satisfy thelr Il modest ambition, for they only need l. some airy goal to which their roughen-
 ed edges can cling.
 $. Once established, they enter, about IT. IT. the beginning of December, when the s, leaves have fallen, upon another phase ra of life Each of these microscopic en-
 titles is male or female; and the former as soon begin to throw out slender trans on lucent threads having at their ends D. pseudo-spore full of fecundating plasm H. By some weird instinctive process thes as threads find out the spores of the othe IT, sex, which occasionally, it is said, g IT, half way to meet them, though thi m may be mere islander of mascullh h. science Anyhow, "their rapid vegeta ,e- ble loves' having been thus adjusted lis the male spore departs this life; pu six inc female spore lives on for six o at even nine months to give birth to ed numerous family, which, to disttnguls on them from their parents, are called tel re- eutosnores. The brood then falls me earth and, penetrating beneath the SUI an face, forms the Spawn, or mycehuh me from which the much-prized tube his springs So far as we can gather 1ro' md the Due de Lesparre's reported statt 1n- 1nents about a year is required to con at plete the cycle but the output
 spores does not appear to be limited c. 9 few weeks or even months. The pr 'uit mary examination may take place for any time from December to Februar ave hut the teleutospores never show ca 70 Her than the middle of October.
 on To come to the practical issue
 these researches It is obvious tn by adopting artificial methods to cou oke teract the wastefulness of nature or may preserve a far greater number ae- the doomed seeds than are now broug Iain to bear. Up to the present tune ! can 1.a ehown nreference for any oak. because that tree happens casu' eA- 1y to grow in the districts and So
 that favor it's development. But .o1i- foliage of many other trees IS pet i1n- 1,T adapted to the task of providing D ". dal bower and a nursery for the u 'a.,, spores. Nor is there any reason .sl they should not be artiicialiy nufs
 and propagated as successfully as oya of the trout, the salmon and '-'' oyster. Henri w. expressed a plt , ha wish to see a fowl in every frei
 peasant's pot on Sunday. When He V. has his turn he may be able = ,+ promise a poularde truffee instead a.al a mere barndoor poule, and long bef ,i,,o that era the truff1e will have foun' +ha n1ace in the costers barrow by the
 of the tomato, the banana, the pl ,rov annie and other vegetable del1ca' ,,rch which never appeared save upon ment tocrauc taples III ,. .a.c a,,a- erandfathers. "Truffffees au chs
 pagne" may still remain inaccessible with the horny handed sons of toll, but
 delicate aroma of this eccentric tt was need not be confined to the palate' rday. those who can aHora eo pay ."e were shillings a pound for the luxury
 Mall Gazette.
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