NATURE STUDY. 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 



Vol. IV. February, 1904. No. 9. 





Expansion in a New Quarter. ^ jARDBri 



BY SUSY C. FOGG, 



How often, after a warm dewy night in summer, there ap- 

 pears on the lawn, a company of mushrooms scattered 

 among the grass and jeweled cobwebs ; a kind of plant so 

 fragile that a gentle touch will sometimes bruise, and yet 

 again wonderfully equipped for the real, hard struggle of 

 existence. 



The epicure has found that he may continue his mush- 

 room diet even through the winter by proper culture of 

 certain species. So-called bricks of mushroom spawn are 

 procured of the florist, and planted in rich beds of earth, 

 in a warm cellar, or where an even temperature may be 

 maintained, and unless molested by mice or unseasonable 

 insects, all goes well, and the result is satisfactory. 



But to have this growth spring up spontaneously in the 

 cellar, in mid-winter, is unusual ; moreover, to force its 

 way to the light through a layer of concrete of ordinary 

 depth, and which had been spread for a period of three 



