ESCULENT FUNGI. 333 



inches round the stem, weighed as much as one 

 pound eight ounces.* 



The mushroom is chiefly used to communicate its 

 peculiar flavour to ragouts, or is served up by itself, 

 prepared with rich gravy. The < button,' or fleshy 

 part, is the only portion employed, the stem, gill, and 

 skin being removed. One very general application 

 of mushrooms is, in converting them into the sauce 

 called catsup. For this purpose they are laid for 

 some time in salt, by which means a juice is extracted 

 which is afterwards boiled with spices. 



The places in which mushrooms chiefly grow are 

 dry and rich old pastures, where they are gathered in 

 the months of August and September. Their powers 

 of vegetation are extremely strong ; this is instanced 

 by the following circumstance. 



Some men in the Isle of Wight, a few years ago, 

 observed a large stone rising considerably at the 

 interstices, and upon removing the pavement to dis- 

 cover the cause, found it to be occasioned by a 

 mushroom, the vigorous efforts of which, to increase 

 upwards, had forced the stone from its proper station. "f 



In some parts of the country mushrooms are to 

 be found in great abundance, and sometimes under 

 circumstances and situations very unexpected. Some 

 cultivators of a patch of potatoes situated in a field 

 in Derbyshire, proceeding to dig up their crop, 

 found, to their great surprise, that a large quantity 

 of fine mushrooms had sprung up among their po- 

 tatoes, and in a small space of ground they gathered 

 at least five pecks. The ground, previously to plant- 

 ing the potatoes, had been dressed with road- 

 scrapings, and with a small quantity of moss taken 



* ' Manchester Herald,' Sept. 1827. 

 t Gard. Mag. vol. iv. 



