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to America. The caves at Moutrouge have 6 or 7 

 miles run of mushroom beds, aud they give a daily 

 yield of 400 pounds of fuugi. The cave uear Frebilion 

 on favourable days has bten seen to yield so much 

 as 3,000 lb. of mushrooms to the Paris markets, and 

 the beds from which this enormous supply is raised, 

 measure nearly 16 miles in length. The cave at Mery 

 belonging to M. Kenaudot, in 1869 was reported to 

 have had 21 miles of beds under cultivation. The 

 produce gave occupation to several houses in the 

 neighbourhood, one of which was said to export 14,000 

 boxes of dried mushrooms to England. 



The procedure usually followed in underground 

 cultivation of mushrooms about Paris is as follows : — 

 Long narrow beds of stable refuse (dung) are care- 

 fully spread, and all bits of horse-shoes, and broken 

 nails, are carefully picked out. In dry weather a small 

 quantity of water is sprinkled on the beds, and then 

 the spawns are squeezed on them. In a few hours the 

 beds are covered with this excellent vegetable. It has 

 also been observed that the presence of a small bit of 

 iron or old nail seriously interferes with the germin- 

 ation of the fungi. For further particulars on this 

 point the reader is referred to the article on Potato 

 and its Culture, which appeared in the Journal of 

 this Society for 1871, vol. 2, part II, pp. 304 and 

 305, and also to Mr. Broome's paper on Truffles in 

 the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society for 1886. 



Mushroom cultivation is a simple aud profitable 

 business, and the mushrooms, if properly cooked, are 

 considered as one of the daintiest nitrogenous food. 

 But there is always some risk in the promiscuous use 

 of the article. In New Zealand large quantities of 

 mushrooms are grown under the shade of felled trees 

 for exportation. The books give the following as the 

 edible varieties of Mushrooms and Truffles; — 



1. Agaricus campestris. This is the ordinary mushroom 

 which is grown in the subterranean beds of Paris. 2. 

 Tuber ^llstivum (Truffle); 3. Agaricus proceus; 4 

 Agaricus ostreatus; 5. Agaricus melleus; 6. Agaricus 

 orcella; 7. Agaricus primulus ; 8. Marchella esculenta ; 

 9. Hydnum repondum ; 10. Fistula hepatica; 11. 

 Oopriuus coneatus; 12. Maramunius or^-acles; 13. 

 Boletus edulis; 14. Lycoperda giganteum (Young). 



But there are others which, to an ordinary observer, 

 appear so very like the above, that they are often 

 mistaken for them, and their use has been seen to 

 be follow-'d by most deplorable results. The last 

 number of the " Scientific American '' supplement, 

 January 9th, p. 8357, gives some of the characteristics 

 of this "King of Mushrooms," (Agaricus procerus) and 

 the best mode of preparing the same for the table ; 

 for a great deal depends on the kind of treatment 

 which a mushroom receives before it reaches the table. 

 For further details and original information on the point, 

 the reader had better refer to the illustrated article 

 mentioned above. 



Some thing ought to be said about the poisonous 

 nature of the great many varieties of mushrooms. 

 M. T. A. Palmer, in the " Moniteur Scientifique " for 

 1879 says, that there are three ways in which the 

 poisoning takes effect — 



1. a. It acts as an indigestible matter, which occurs 

 in the case of coriaceous species. 



h. Some of the edible species when decomposing 

 emit sulphuretted hydrogen in such a sufficient 

 quantity in the stomach as to cause vomiting. 

 2- a. Gelatinous. 



b. Acrid. 

 3, Those which contain a subtle alkaloid, known as 

 or similar to Amanitin. This poison has do anti- 

 dote. In its action it is at first slow, but in 8 to 

 15 hours it causes stupefaction, nausea, diarrhcea, 

 delirium and death. 



It has been ascertained that mushrooms containing 

 Amanitin impart the poison to better varieties if they 

 are placed in the s.-vme vessel. 



To cure suspected varieties, Professor Ponfick, of 

 Breslau, recommends repeated washing with cold water, 

 which he says removes, to some extent, the poisonous 

 alkaloid, but boilhig, he believes, removes all. The 

 water in which mushrooms have beeu washed or boiled 



is poisonous, and should always be thrown away. 

 While on the mushrooms, it would not be out of 

 place to invite attention of members to the phos- 

 phorescence of some fungi. Tuls.ane, who hag written 

 a great deal on luminous fungi, describes the follow- 

 ing as the most common : — 



1. The •' Foxfire " Agaricus olarious of South Europe. 



2. Agaricus igneus of Amboyna. 



3. Agaricus Gardeneri of the province of Gayaz, in 

 Brazil, which appears on dead leaves, and which is 

 known as Flor de coco amongst the people there. 



4. Agaricus lampas of Australia. 



Dr. Hooker describes this luminosity as common in 

 the Sikkim varieties, and the light emitted by some 

 is so strong, that Mr. J. Drummond, writing from 

 the Swan River, states that he was able to read a 

 few lines of a newspaper by placing on it a specimen 

 of the .same. Rev. M. J. Berkley, in Gardeners' 

 Chronicle describes an Andaman variety, the Agaricus 

 emerici as giving light at night. The Thelephora 

 phosphora and the Polyporus sufurus are the most 

 luminous amongst the American varieties. 



Most Mushrojms while decaying have beeu seen to 

 emit light, but this is generally accompanied by some 

 chemical change Avhicli turns the mushroom blue 

 when its head or stem is broken aud exposed to the 

 air On this subject Schoenleen says that the resin- 

 ous principle of the mushroom does not seem to 

 possess the power of coloring itself, except so long as it is 

 in contact with the parenchyma of the j^lant. M. 

 Miintz in the •' Chemical News " for 1874, states that 

 fuugi placed in oxygen evolve or emit carbonic acid gas, 

 but if oxygen is excluded from them, they produce a 

 considerable quantity of hydrogen. 



It would not be out of place to mention that the 

 force evolved by a growing mushroom is enormous. 

 The soft and esquilent bulbous vegetable has t^eeu 

 observed in its growth to evince such an amount of 

 vigor and energy, as to prenetrate and burst open 

 a flooring of asphalte, and gravel about a foot thick 

 in a few hours. The case is rec irded in the Scientijic 

 American for August 26th 1882, in which the floor 

 of a grain elevator in Buff aloe, N. Y., was burst open 



by a stem of a mushroom two inches in length. 



^ 



CiTHON Culture in Corsica. — The Citron seems 

 to be the most important article of trade in Corsica. 

 It is stated to have much improved of late, after 

 some years of stagnation. The 1885 crop was very 

 large. About one-fourth of the annual produce is 

 usually exported to England in brine, to be there 

 manufactured into candied citron. The remainder 

 formerly went to Leghorn, to be manufactured for 

 Holland and America, but two large preserving fact- 

 ories are now at work at Bastia, and the whole of 

 this important manufacture will probablv be carried 

 on in the island in future. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



CiNOHONA Culture in Java. — We call attention 

 to Mr. Christie's letter and reassuring information 

 on page 167. Mr. Beck has been telling us that he 

 thinks Mr. Mundt made a blunder in converting 

 his "buows" (If acres each) into acres; but he 

 says truly enough that even 20,000 acres fully 

 stocked with 6 and 7 years old trees yielding bark 

 with 5 to 8 per cent quinine, would tell heavily 

 on the cinchona market as the crops begin to 

 come in. There is a report of Java bark yielding 

 up to 10 per cent, having been sold lately by 

 private sale in England. 



Utilisation of Sawdust. — It is at times difficult 

 to find any use for sawdust, but the following is a 

 way of deriving advantage from it : — Water is added, 

 up to a degree of plasticity ; the .mixture of one 

 to three parts of resinous sawdust and one part of 

 washed kaolin is ground and pressed by means of 

 a press. The lumps thus obtained are dried in the 

 air, then placed in a stove, and, lastljs vitrified in 

 the ovens under white-red temperature. These 

 blocks can be sawn, planed, and polished in the 

 shape of incombustible bricks, which are used in 

 America for building houses. 



