1879] CALEDONIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 479 



his remarks to the common species, " Agaricus campestris," which, he showed, 

 could be successfully grown under a greater variety of circumstances, and 

 these within the reach of most gardeners, than was generally supposed. He 

 strongly advocated their more extended cultivation, not only for private use, 

 but for the market ; and suggested that the now disused Scotland Street 

 tunnel in Edinburgh would prove as suitable for the purpose as the celebrated 

 underground caves of Paris. He mentioned that the simplest test to dis- 

 tinguish the edible from the poisonous species was to put salt upon the "gills," 

 which would cause the former immediately to turn black, but would have no 

 such effect upon the latter. In the course of a long and very interesting dis- 

 cussion, one of the speakers alluded to the enormous quantities of Mushrooms 

 annually sent to this country from Paris; that an increased supply at reason- 

 able prices would doubtless create a still greater demand, and that he was as- 

 sured, from his knowledge of the trade in Edinburgh, there was no more profit- 

 able field open for market-gardeners than their culture. 



Mr John Cowe next read the conclusion of his paper on " The Hyacinth," the 

 first part of which he brought forward at last meeting. He dealt chiefly with 

 the treatment of the plants after removal from the shed in which they had been 

 plunged among leaf-mould, sand, or ashes, after potting : this he recommended 

 should be done so soon as the crowns were about half an inch high ; and in this 

 operation great care should be taken to avoid damaging the tips, as the foliage 

 was sure ever afterwards to bear the marks of such damage, seriously affecting 

 their prospects as competition plants. In a few remarks upon the selecting of 

 bulbs most likely to produce fine bloom, Mr Cowe cautioned beginners against 

 laying too much stress upon mere size, — medium-sized solid bulbs, with firm 

 crowns, and not too wide at the base, were, as a general rule, to be preferred. 



The customary votes of thanks were unanimously accorded to the authors of 

 the several papers. There was as usual a large number of plants and cut 

 flowers on the table, including trusses of a new fancy Pelargonium of a dark 

 colour, but striped and spotted in a peculiar manner with pure white, from Mr 

 William Pirrie, Leith. Mr L. Dow, Saughton, had a fine specimen of the 

 now little-known " Geranium anemonefolia," a species introduced many years 

 ago from Maderia, with elegant palmate leaves, and a profusion of small but 

 beautiful pink flowers. And two plants of new seedling Tropaeolums, both 

 of considerable merit, one named " Cetywayo," having very dark flowers, and 

 light, almost golden foliage, will doubtless "come to the front " among bedding- 

 plants. Messrs Dicksons & Co. had a small collection of cut blooms of seedling 

 Phloxes ; Matricaria chamomila plena, a pretty double form of the old- 

 fashioned herb "Chamomile;" Liliums longiflorum and Humboldtii and 

 Bravoa geminiflora, a beautiful liliaceous plant from Mexico, with red Pent- 

 stemon-like flowers. The plant from which this spike was taken has been 

 growing in the open air during the last two winters without protection. 



ROYAL CALEDONIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The autumn exhibition of this Society was held in the Waverley Market on 

 10th September. Excepting the great International Shows, this was generally 

 admitted to be the most extensive show of plants and fruits ever held under the 

 auspices of this or any other Society in Scotland. Of course, after a season of 

 unprecedented cold and wet, hardy fruits and all out-door flowers were both a 



