THE COASTS OF SICILY. 227 



employed in Parisian cookery.* The entire vege- 

 table is not eaten, but simply that portion which 



* The ancients were acquainted with several different processes 

 for artificially multiplying the edible Mushrooms. Menander tells 

 us that one of these methods consisted in covering a shoot from a 

 fig-tree with manure, and watering it frequently. According to 

 Tarentinus, the same result may be obtained by keeping the ashes 

 of vegetables in a constant state of humidity, at the same time that 

 they are exposed to the action of the air. Dioscorides assures us 

 that Mushrooms may be obtained by scattering the powdered bark 

 of the poplar-tree over a well manured soil, and Tarentinus informs 

 us that the poplar Mushroom (Agaricus umbelUcatus), which was 

 named iEgerita by the ancients, could be rapidly propagated by 

 watering offshoots of the black or white poplar with wine and hot 

 water. The ancients seem also to have been well acquainted with 

 the artificial Mushroom beds, such as are so extensively cultivated 

 in the neighbourhood of Paris. 



The Mushroom which is chiefly propagated in France in these 

 artificial beds is the Agaricus edulis. but different species are 

 procured in other countries by somewhat similar means ; thus 

 Rumphius informs us that two kinds of edible Mushrooms, both 

 belonging to the genus Boletus, are procured at Amboyna by dif- 

 ferent artificial processes ; the former species {B. Moschocari/a7nis,) 

 sprouts from the decayed outer shells of the Nutmeg, and is so 

 scarce that it is only met with at the tables of the rich ; while the 

 other {B. Saguarius), which springs up from the decayed wood of 

 the Sago palm {Sagus farinaced), collected together for the purpose, 

 is so abundant, that it is employed for fattening pigs. A few years 

 ago, a new species, the Naples Mushroom {Agaricus Neapolitanus), 

 was accidentally discovered, and since then has spread rapidly over 

 different parts of Italy. It had been the habit with the nuns of a 

 convent in Naples to throw into the shady corner of their garden 

 the coffee grounds remaining after each day's meal. A new 

 Mushroom was observed to have shot up from these substances 

 while in a state of fermentation ; on tasting it, it was found to be 

 excellent, and from that period it has been customary in many 

 houses at Naples to cultivate this Mushroom by collecting coffee 

 grounds in an unvarnished flower pot, which is kept constantly 

 moist, and in the shade. It is found that the Mushrooms shoot up 

 from this soil in about six months. 

 Q 2 



