It is known to me as a fact, that the following circumstance happened to Lartius Licinius, a person of prætorian rank, while minister of justice,[879] a few years ago, at Carthage in Spain; upon biting a truffle, he found a denarius inside, which all but broke his fore teeth—an evident proof that the truffle is nothing else but an agglomeration of elementary earth. At all events, it is quite certain that the truffle belongs to those vegetable productions which spring up spontaneously, and are incapable of being reproduced from seed.[880] CHAP. 12. (3.)—MISY; ITON; AND GERANION. Of a similar nature, too, is the vegetable production known in the province of Cyrenaica by the name of “misy,”[881] remarkable for the sweetness of its smell and taste, but more fleshy than the truffle: the same, too, as to the iton[882] of the Thracians, and the geranion of the Greeks. CHAP. 13.—PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE TRUFFLE. The following peculiarities we find mentioned with reference to the truffle. When there have been showers in autumn, and frequent thunder-storms, truffles are produced, thunder[883] contributing more particularly to their developement; they do not, however, last beyond a year, and are considered the most delicate eating when gathered in spring. In some places the formation of them is attributed to water; as at Mytilene,[884] for instance, where they are never to be found, it is said, unless the rivers overflow, and bring down the seed from Tiara, that being the name of a place at which they are produced in the greatest abundance. The finest truffles of Asia are those found in the neighbourhood of Lampsacus and Alopeconnesus; the best in Greece are those of the vicinity of Elis. CHAP. 14.—THE PEZICA. Belonging to the mushroom genus, also, there is a species, known to the Greeks by the name of “pezica,”[885] which grows without either root or stalk. CHAP. 15.—LASERPITIUM, LASER, AND MASPETUM.