SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF A PLANT. 



built with timber, would not be expensive. Allowing three and a half feet on each side 

 for beds, there would be three feet in the center for a path, underneath which a flue or hot 

 water pipes should be placed. By having a bed on the surfiice, there would be space for 

 two tier of shelves on each side, affording in all upwards of six hundred square feet of 

 surface for growing the crop. This would be sufficient for a constant supply the whole 

 j'ear. Means should be provided in the roof for light and ventilation; four windows, 

 three feet square each, would be sufficient for this purpose. 



The principal material for forming beds in winter, or at any season, on shelves, should 

 consist of horse droppings, with a little short litter intermixed. As this is collected, 

 spread it out thinly to dry, turning it over frequently to prevent violent heating. The 

 object is to get it into a dry state without decomposition. When it is in this latter condi- 

 tion, commence making the bed by throwing in the manure to the depth of three or four 

 inches, and beat it firmly with the back of a spade, or, what is more expeditious, a flat 

 heavy board, having two handles to work it with. Proceed in this manner until there is 

 a depth often inches or so, firmly beaten, then insert the spawn just below the surface, as 

 before. Insert the bulb of a thermometer into the bed, and should the heat rise above 

 eighty degrees, bore holes eight or nine inches apart all over it. When the temperature is 

 about sevent3'-five degrees, cover the surface with two inches of strong turfy loam, well 

 beaten, leaving the surface smooth and level. The atmospheric temperature may range 

 from fifty to sixt}' degrees with proportionate humidity. A sprinkling of short hay laid 

 over the bed will keep it moist. When it is found necessary to moisten the surface, apply 

 it on the hay, which is preferable to watering directly on the surftice of the soil; pass it 

 through a syringe or fine rosed watering pot, observing to use the water a few degrees 

 warmer than the temperature of the house; better to give it frequently than too much at 

 a time. If duly attended to, mushrooms will be gathered in six or seven weeks, and keep 

 in bearing for two or three months. An occasional watering with weak, clear manure 

 water, will prolong their duration. In gathering the crop, the mushrooms should be hoist- 

 ed up as far as possible without disturbing the young ones around. When cut over, the 

 remaining part of the stem is liable to hurt the others from its decomposition. 



William Saunders. 



Clifton Park, Baltimore, Md., April 9, 1851. 



THE SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF A PLANT.* 



By JOHN M. AIISLEY, Esq., Lecturer on Clemistry to the Iluiiteriaii School of Medichie. 

 (A Lecture delivered before the Royal Medico- Botanical Society of London.) 



At the request of my friend, the learned Professor of Chemistry to this society, I have 

 been induced to throw together, into a connected form, a few facts, tending to show how 

 the sciences of chemistry, geology, and meteorology, are by means of botanical geography 

 and structural botany mutually related to each other. It was with a feeling of diffidence 

 that I approached such a subject as this, considering how very limited my knowledge 

 must necessarily be upon many of the topics which it includes; and this feeling was in no 

 way diminished, when I found that this grouping of the sciences led me within the portals ( f 

 a 712W science, which is founded upon more enlarged generalisations than any other that has 

 gone before it, and this because it is the last product of the rearing and creative faculty 



* From the Gardeners' Magazine of Botany. 



