March IS, 1876. ] 



JOUBKAIi OP HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



207 



Bcape, and are disposed back to back, so that the internal sur- 

 face of one flower hides as it were the back of the other, pre- 

 senting so much beauty as to be admirably suited for a small 

 vase in a boudoir and for many other decorative purposes. 



I have been keeping Amaryllises moist at the roots during 

 the resting season, and now they are starting strongly, having 

 foliage several inches high, which will arch freely by the time 

 the flowers are expanded, two scapes just showing from the 

 neck of each bulb ; and on turning them out of the pots the 

 ball is a mass of white healthy roots, and altogether superior 

 to the state of plants dried into brownness or almost out of 

 existence, and which have to be restored by bottom heat to 

 enable the scapes to develope with only a modicum of foliage. 

 In their native habitat the plants are evergreen, which can 

 only be a result of the bulbs being in soil with suflicient 

 moisture to maintain the foliage and roots in a fresh state, 

 and prepared, upon the return of moisture to the atmosphere 

 and soil, for a vigorous growth of bloom and foliage. — G. A. 



MUSHROOMS. 



Hackneyed, worn-out is writing on the subject of these 

 desirable edibles. Nevertheless, I should like to note a few 

 things respecting them, which may be useful. To be under- 

 stood I think I ought to submit a section and ground plan. 

 It may be useful to those having a shed and desirous of grow- 

 ing Mushrooms, and enable our Agaric savants to follow the 

 MuBhroom mycelium so as to account for its vagaries. 



Fig. 64. — Section ol Maehioom House. 



Fig. 64 is a section, a is a side bed, the uppermost; 6, lower 

 bed ; c, corner bed on the floor ; and d, corner bed on a level 

 with b. The corner beds are shown on the ground plan, 

 fig. 65, at (,' and d. The floor bed <■ ia used for forcing Seakale, 

 Ehubarb, Chicory, and, if need be, growing Mushrooms, but 

 so as to be in before (and oiJ) the beds / in the ground plan 

 are required for the purposes named ; and after they are not 

 needed for Seakale, &c., forcing, are again available for Mush- 

 rooms. We usually fill one of these beds with Seakale every 

 fortnight from early November up to the middle of March, so 

 as to meet that coming-in in the open ground ; and Ehubarb 

 every three weeks from November up to the beginning of 

 March. 



The shelves for the Mushroom beds are of flags about i inches 

 thick, and supported by 9-inch brick walls, g ; and the sides, /( , 

 of li-ineh deal, and maintained in position by 2-inoh uprights, 

 and 6inch broad, ;. Light and ventilation is admitted by the 

 skylight j ; and a wooden shutter is provided to exclude light 

 at k. Heat is afforded by 4-inch hot-water pipes. Scale, | inch 

 to 1 foot. 



Now, the upper bed a is usually made up during the early 

 part of September, and is spawned about the middle of the 

 month. It is earthed a week after spawning, and commences 



bearing naually in six weeks after earthing ; but occasionally 

 it is not in bearing until early December. 



The bed b is made up in October or early in November, so 

 as to be spawned by the middle of the latter month. The beds 

 c and d are made up at the same time as b, and they come into 

 bearing by the middle of January, 6 being in fully a fortnight 

 before c audi/. These, with a, give Mushrooms in six months 

 of the year without renewal, the first dish being had on Novem- 

 ber 14th, 1874, and last May 26th, 1875 ; the first dish gathered 

 in 1873, November Ist, and last April 2l8t, 1874, which is the 

 only time the bearing was not continued into May. In 1873 

 the bearing was continued to June 12 th, the longest time, the 

 bed a having commenced bearing in the October preceding. 



Fig. 65.— Ground Plan of Mushrcom Houl . 



All the beds were made in the same way with a similarity of 

 materials, and the result has been the same in all instances, 

 repeating themselves year after year ; but though all the beds 

 are made alike, similar materials employed, and spawn had 

 from one place and used for all the beds alike, there is a vast 

 difference in the produce of the beds, and in the mode of pro- 

 duction as well as quality of the Mushrooms. This diSerenoe 

 is what I wish to note. 



The Mushrooms produced by the bed a come up very evenly 

 over the surface, are not disposed in clusters, or rarely, and 

 always so as to admit of their full development without push- 

 ing up or aside others to the former's benefit and latter's 

 disaster. They, as a rule, are about half as thick in flesh 

 and half the size ol those borne by the other beds, and have 

 rather thin long shanks, the head of the Mushroom inclining 

 to the back wall or southwards, the gills seeking to be exposed 

 to the hght, hence the table inclines away from it. 



Those produced by b rise in a measure in clusters, by which 

 many in the button state are upheaved — lifted, as it were, on 

 the heads or backs of the powerful risers. A majority, how- 

 ever, rise singly, or with room for development. The Mush- 

 rooms are double in thickness, and of course weight, size for 

 size, of those produced by the bed a. 



On both the corner beds, c and d, the Mushrooms appear 

 and grow in clusters — lumps of buttons — developing in tier-like 

 form one upon another, the upper ones retaining their hold 

 of the soil by the mycelial filaments, and deriving such support 

 as to preserve them, though small, in perceptible growth. 

 The whole have a powerful hold of the soil, requiring consider- 

 able force to remove the "heaps." Some of the Mushrooms 

 obtain full development, but many are buttons. One of these 

 " heaps " drew the weigh-beam in their favour at 2J lbs. 



What I wish to have explained is. Why the Muohrooms rise 

 singly are thin and small, though of excellent quality on the 

 upper bed a ; very thick, fleshy, and twice the size on the 

 bed 6, with a tendency to cluster ; and why they should in- 

 variably come in clusters on c and d, they attaining a full 

 degree of perfection in the cluster state not exhibited by the 

 other beds when clusters appear. I should also like to know 



