An Account of the Tubera Terrae, or Truffles Found at Rushton in Northamptonshire; With Some Remarks Thereon. By Tancred Robinson, M. D. and R. S. S.

Years Old. And Fig. 3. was brought away from the Child Ten Years Old; both these without any Section. IV. An Account of the Tubera Terræ, or Truffles found at Rushton in Northamptonshire; with some Remarks thereon. By Tancred Robinson, M.D. and R.S.S. SIR, THE Tubera Terræ (which you was pleas'd to send me, together with a Draught of them drawn with your own Pencil) observ'd lately at Rushton in Northamptonshire, by that curious and learned Gentleman Mr. Hatton, are indeed the true French Truffles, the Italian Tartufi or Tartuffole, and the Spanish Turmas de Tiera, which are not noted by Mr Ray to be found in our British Soyl. I have seen them thrice as large at Florence, Rome and Naples, where they eat them as a delicious and luxurious piece of Dainty, either fry'd in slices with Butter or Oil, Salt and Pepper; or else out of Pickle, and often boil'd in their Soup. Of these there are three or four Species mentioned by Matthiolus, Imperati, J. Bauhine and Mentzelius. These observ'd in England are all included in a studded Bark or Coat, the Tubercules resembling the Capsules or Seed-Vessels of some Mallows and Alcea's; the inward substance is of the consistence of the fleshy part in a young Chestnut, of a paste Colour, of a rank or hircine Odour, and unfavourly, streaked with many white Veins or Threds, as in some Animals Testicles; the whole is of a globose Figure, though unequal and chinky. What these Trubs are, neither the Ancients nor Moderns have clearly informed us; some will have them Callosities, or Warts bred in the Earth: Others call them subterraneous Mushrooms. If you could ever find Vestigia or Marks of a Stalk, or of Fibres, or Capillaments about their outsides, I should be then almost tempted to guess, that they are the Product of some Bulbose or Tuberosè Plant, perhaps a Satyrion or Orchis, or some other Root of that numerous Tribe, many of which have a Seminal Smell. I conjecture that these Tubera Terræ were found after the late Thunder and Rains; for some of the Ancients call'd them Ceranvia, to which Juvenal seems to allude, Sat. V. Post hunc raduntur Tubera, si ver Tunc erit, facient optata tonitrua coenas Majores: tibi habe frumentum, Alledius inquit O Libye: disjunge boves, dum tubera mittas. They are most tender in the Spring; though after Showers and sultry Weather they may be plentifully found in the Autumn: the Wet swells them, and Lightning may dispose them to send forth their particular Scent so alluring to the Swine. Ludovicus Romanus, Navigat. Lib.1. cap. 7. affirms, That Thirty Camels Load of these Truffles or Trubs brought from Armenia and Asia Minor have been all sold at Damascus in two or three days. The manner of finding and rooting them up may be read in Mr. Ray's Itinerary of Italy, p. 403, 404. and in his Catal. Stirpium Exot. at the end of his Travels, p. 109. I need not tell you the Uses to which the Greeks and Romans apply'd these Vegetable Bodies, nor how they are dress'd and eaten at this day. Pliny, Martial, Plutarch, Athenæus, Galen, Apicius, &c. may be consulted for the first; Nonnus, Bruyerinus, Ciccarellus, &c. for the last. POSTSCRIPT. After the writing of the foregoing Letter, I received Intelligence, that Mr. Hatton observ'd Fibres issuing out of some of these Tubera, which lay Spit deep under ground; so that perhaps they may be Plantæ sui generis, and their sulcated Papillæ analogous to, if not Seed-Vessels. You know several Vegetables bear their Seed near the Root, as the Trifolium subterraneum tricoccum reticulatum flosculis longis albis; most of the Arachydna's, and some other Legumes, which flower above, but seed under ground. As to the Truffles lying so deep, that is common to many Roots that shoot up Stalks above the Earth. To instance only in that Lathyrus tuberosus, call'd commonly Chamaebalanus and Terraë Glandes; in English, Pease-Earthnut, digg'd up and eaten by the poor People, Non nisi altà fossione inveniendæ, says John Bauhine. But for a clear History of these, our Judicious Mr. Ray may be consulted, Histor. Plant. Vol. i. p. 895, 899, 918, 919, 942. The Roots of our Bulbocastanum (of the Umbelliferous Tribe) commonly call'd Kepper-Nuts, Pignuts and Ger-nuts in the North, lie very deep, and fatten Hogs, which are very greedy of them. I have often observ'd the Shepherds and Boys in Yorkshire digging them up for a delicate Dish: Perhaps this is the Nucula Terrestris Septentrionalium of Lobel, and the Apios of Turner. Fleetstreet, Aug. 29. 1693. Tours, &c. Tancred Robinson.