32 



GUIDE TO THE MODELS OF FUNGI. 



nitrogen, not from the atmosphere, but from the organic nitrogen of 

 the soil. 



According to Prot. Church the constituents of mushrooms 



are :- 



Water 



Albuminoids, etc. 

 Carboh^'drates, etc. 

 Fat . 

 Mineral matter 



In loo parts. 



900 

 50 

 3-8 

 07 

 0-5 



The same authority saj's that, though mushrooms contain, when 

 dried, about half their weight of nitrogenous matter, the nature and 

 feeding value of this matter has not been ascertained. 



In the first attempts to raise mushrooms artificially, young 

 living mushrooms were transferred from pastures to gardens and 

 manure heaps ; and by taking full-grown mushrooms, breaking them 

 up, steeping the fragments in water, and applying the infusion to 

 a bed thought to be suitable. Mushrooms were first grown from 

 spawn in the seventeenth century ; at that time gardeners and 

 nurserymen sought in pastures for the supposed true spawn. The 

 first successful attempts at mushroom growing from such spawn 

 were made by introducing it into melon and cucumber beds at the 

 time the melon seeds were sown. At the present day "virgin 

 spawn " is obtained from old, rich pastures where horses and oxen 

 have been feeding. This spawn is made up with partially dried 

 cakes of compacted horse and cow dung and earth. If the cakes are 

 too wet or too dry, the spawn will not " run " ; it runs best and 

 with greatest vigour in a moist heat of from 70° to 75° Fahr. Cocoa- 

 fibre waste is a good ingredient in mushroom beds ; the spawn freely 

 runs in it. In the prepared cakes the spawn, if good, will generally 

 live in a resting state for five years. It has been known to live for 

 twenty years. 



Sawdust should never be used in the composition of mushroom 

 beds. Other fungi grow freely on it. 



In France it is usual to apply nitre or saltpetre to mushroom 

 beds, for the purpose of increasing the size of the mushrooms. 



In 1879 M. Charollois exhibited at the Central Horticultural 

 Society of Paris a basket of mushrooms produced from spawn by 

 sowing the spores on a plate of glass kept constantly moist and 

 sprinkled with dung ; the spawn thus produced was transferred to 

 a mushroom bed. 



Mushrooms grown on strong manure arc often oftcnsive and 

 uneatable. 



Numerous fungi appear on mushroom beds, sometimes to the 

 exclusion of the mushroom itself The spores of good and worthless 

 species alike are carried by the air, and, alighting by accident on 

 prepared manure, find it a suitable habitat for germination and 

 growth. In this way Xylaria pcdunculata Fr. sometimes invades 



