CHAP. VI.] TOMATOES, MUSHROOMS. 161 



May, the young plants should be removed to 

 the open ground, where they should be planted 

 in rich soil, and sheltered for a night or two, 

 till they have become inured to the change. 

 They should be frequently watered in dry 

 weather, as the fruit will not swell without 

 abundance of moisture. 



Tomatoes. — The tomato, or love-apple, is a 

 tender annual, a native of South America, in- 

 troduced before 1596. The seeds should be 

 sown in a hotbed in March, and as soon as the 

 young plants come up, they should be pricked 

 out into pots. They may be transplanted into 

 a warm border in front of a south wall in May, 

 where they should be trained against the wall, 

 or pegged down over a warm bank of earth 

 sloping to the sun. They require abundance of 

 water while the fruit is swelling; and as much 

 heat as possible while it is ripening. 



Mushrooms. — It was formerly supposed that 

 mushrooms could not be cultivated, but that 

 they were only to be found in a wild state, as 

 truffles are still. Now, however, mushrooms 

 are grown both in houses and in beds in the 

 open air as constantly, and with as much 

 certainty of success, as any other vegetable 

 product. Cultivated mushrooms are notsrown 

 by either seeds or cuttings, but from what is 

 called spawn, which is found amongst old stable 

 manure when it is in a very dry state, and 

 which consists of small white fibres, looking 

 like broken threads. The spawn is procured 

 in cakes, or bricks, as they are called, from the 

 nurseryman, and it is placed in beds of stable 

 manure, either under cover, or in the open 



M 



