Note 10 — Chapter XIII · THE SENSE OF SMELL
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Has the hydnocystis then a very pungent smell, able to give such positive information to its consumer’s scent? Not at all. To our nostrils it is a neutral object, devoid of any appreciable olfactory character. A tiny pebble taken out of the ground would impress us just as much with its faint aroma of fresh earth. As a revealer of underground fungous products, the Bolboceras here rivals the Dog. He would even rise superior to the Dog, were he able to generalize. But he is a rigorous specialist: he knows only the hydnocystis. Nothing else, so far as I am aware, tempts him to dig.10