Marie Edwards, age 10 of Kew Gardens, N,Y, for her question:

Are truffles plants?

Yes indeed, the truffle is a member of the mushroom family a1t is a small fungus colored from whiteish to dark brown. It is round in shape and an inch or two in diameter, It lives its whole life underground and only once in a while is truffle found with its nose above the earth.

Though the truffle is considered a great delicacy as a food flower, no one as yet has discovered how to cultivate it. The truffle, it seems, refuses to be tamed and grown to order.

In France and Germany, where most of them live their underground lives, dogs and sometimes pigs are trained to sniff out the hidden fungus. A truffle hound or a truffle pig can scent the underground delicacy and show his master just where to dig.