26 



In one of the subterranean Mushroom caves at Paris, the pro- 

 prietor is said to gather an average of 300 pounds weight a 

 day, and one French house has sent to London in one year as 

 many as 14,000 boxes of Musln-ooms. In one great cave at 

 Mery-sur-Seine ^I. Renandot a few years since had 21 miles of 

 Mushroom beds, and at a cave at Frepillon there were sixteen 

 miles of them.* 



For those who wish for information as to methods of culti- 

 vation a good treatise has been written by Mr. Cuthill, and another 

 by j\Ir. Robinson. To ensure success Mushrooms require as much 

 skill and care as most other things which come within the domain 

 of the gardener, but they can fortunately often be procured in 

 abundance for the simple trouble of gathering them. To those 

 A\ho ha^■e meadows favourable for their growth, the only advice 

 is to get up early enough, so as to anticipate the invasions of 

 mushroom poachers, who never fail, if left alone, to clear off the 

 crop. 



Allied to the ]\Iushi-oom, but belonging to a different division 

 of the Agaricini is another excellent fimgus Agaricus p-ocerus, 

 sometimes called the Umbrella or Parasol Agaric, from the curious 

 ring which surrounds the stalk, and which is moveable up and 

 down like the ring of an umbrella or parasol. This species is 

 not uncommon, but it never appears in such large quantities as 

 the Mushroom. It generally grows in patches of ten or a dozen 

 plants together. It is a handsome species to look at. Unlike 

 the Mushroom it varies very much in flavour, but good specimens 

 when gathered just at the right time are little, if at all, inferior 

 to the Mushroom. 



It is curious that in the Medical Gazette for 1839 a case of 

 poisoning by Ag. jn-ocerus is reported. I believe this to be a 

 gross mistake. I am able to certify, from many years personal 

 experience, that the plant is perfectly wholesome. There is 

 always extreme difficulty, in cases of poisoning by fungi, in 

 arriving at a determination of the species by which the injury 

 has been caused. The characters of fresh fungi of the fleshy kind 

 likely to be used for food, are so ephemeral, that a delay of a day 

 or two in examining the specimens may make it impossible to 



* See Perkeley and Cooke on Fungi. 



