682 ODORACEOTJS HERBS. 



wards. Mushroom spawn has also been planted among potatoes and 

 other crops in the open garden, and has produced mushrooms, but no 

 mode yet discovered is so certain as those in which artificial heat and 

 a bed of stable-dung is employed. The best crops in the open ground 

 have been gathered from beneath the leaves of cucumbers and vege- 

 table marrows grown on dung-ridges. The mushroom, when culti- 

 vated in houses, is liable to the attacks of various insects, slugs, and 

 worms, all of which may be collected by baits, or devoured by a toad 

 or two kept on purpose. 



The Truffle (Tuber cibarium, Sibth.) is a fungus, a native of Britain, 

 and growing naturally some inches below the surface. It is very 

 common in the downs of Wiltshire, Hampshire, Kent, and Devon- 

 shire, where dogs are trained to scent it out, and where also it is 

 sought out and devoured by pigs which on the Continent are used 

 to discover the localities of this fungus, as dogs are in England. It is 

 sent to the London market from different parts of England in a green 

 state, and imported from the Continent sliced and dried. The most 

 celebrated truffles are those from the oak forests of Perigord. Various 

 attempts have been made, both in Britain and on the Continent, to 

 cultivate the truffle, but hitherto with but little success ; but it would 

 appear that Dr. Klotzsch, of Berlin, has ascertained that the best 

 course is to take truffles which are no longer good for the table, being 

 over-ripe, and nearly in a state of decomposition, diffusing a disagreeable 

 odour ; to break them into pieces, and place them two inches or three 

 inches deep in the earth, in rather raised flat places, under copse or 

 underwood, protected from the north and east winds. Truffles in the 

 state in which they are eaten are never ripe, and therefore are unfit 

 for propagation (' Gard. Chron.,' 1842, p. 287). Mr. Barnes, late of 

 Bicton, says : " The truffle grows plentifully in Devonshire, and in other 

 parts, under large beech-trees. Their whereabouts is always known 

 by the squirrels. These little animals seek them out by scent, no 

 doubt, as they scratch holes exactly over them to take them out, and 

 sit on their hind legs holding them with their two fore-paws, turning 

 them round while they nibble and devour them, which I have seen 

 them do many times, and if disturbed, bolt up the nearest tree with 

 the truffle in their mouths." 



The Morel (Morchella esculenta, Pers.) belongs to the same division 

 of fungi as the truffle. It is a native of Britain in wet banks, in 

 woods, and in moist pastures, and is in perfection in May and June. 

 When gathered dry it will keep several months. It is used for the 

 same purpose as the truffle, but like it has not as yet been subjected to 

 cultivation. The morel is often found under elm-trees, in old dry 

 sandy loam, on banks, in plantations, where the sun seldom penetrates, 

 and under cedars of Lebanon and old white thorns. 



Odoraceaus Herbs. 



The odoraceous herbs, or perfumery herbs, cultivated in British 

 gardens in the present day are, with the exception of lavender and 

 peppermint, applied to very little use. 



