[868] It is not dangerous in itself, but is too tough to be a favourite article of food with cattle.
[869] Fifteenth of May and thirteenth of June.
[870] The same word, σχοῖνος, signifying both a “rush” and a “rope.”
[871] Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 13. Athenæus, B. ii., mentions it also.
[872] Fée is at a loss to identify this plant, but considers it quite clear that it is not the same with the Eriophorum augustifolium of Linnæus, a cyperaceous plant, of which the characteristics are totally different. Dodonæus, however, was inclined to consider them identical.
[873] On the contrary, Theophrastus does mention it, in the Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 8, and speaks of it as having a bark composed of several tunics or membranes.
[874] In B. xiii. c. 13, and B. xv. c. 1.
[875] “Tuber.” The Tuber cibarium of Linnæus, the black truffle; and probably the grey truffle, the Tuber griseum.
[876] This callous secretion of the earth, or corticle, is, as Fée says, a sort of hymenium, formed of vesicles, which, as they develope themselves, are found to contain diminutive truffles. Pliny is wrong in saying that the truffle forms neither cleft nor protuberance, as the exact contrary is the fact.
[877] Haller speaks of truffles weighing as much as fourteen pounds. Valmont de Bomare speaks of a truffle commonly found in Savoy, which attains the weight of a pound.