Notes and Gleanings. 367 



ture known to be so simple tliat any one possessing the convenience of an out- 

 house or cellar, with a temperature of from 48° to 55°, and a little short clung, 

 may grow them, I beg to ofter a few remarks, to those who may not yet have 

 attempted their culture, as to the way they may be produced in abundance with 

 a very little care. 



In the first place, if short dung fresh from the stables is to be had, so much 

 the better ; but I have grown abundance on beds made of short dung three 

 months old. However, let it be which it may, procure as much as will make 

 a bed sixteen inches deep and any required size ; throw the same together for a 

 few days to heat and dispel the greater part of the moisture ; then throw it down 

 for a day or two to cool and dry ; after which again throw it up together for a few 

 days, — generally about five or six will be found sufficient. It will then be fit 

 to make the bed with ; which, let the size be what it may, should be about sixteen 

 inches deep. In making the bed, take care to tread or beat it firm. As soon as 

 the bed shall have risen and declined to 75°, it is ready to spawn. Half a bushel 

 will spawn a bed ten feet square. This, broken in pieces the size of small apples, 

 placed just in the dung, and covered two inches deep, in any garden-soil well 

 beaten down, will produce abundance of mushrooms in six or seven weeks, in a 

 temperature of from 50° to 55°. 



No further care is required, except an occasional watering when dry. Mush- 

 room-spawn may be procured of any seedsman. W. Young. 



The Oldest Tree, the age of which is historically determined, is the sacred 

 fig-tree of Anarajapoura, in Ceylon. It was planted by Divinipiatissa, in the 

 year 288 B.C. ; and its history from that date is preserved by a mass of docu- 

 mentary and traditional evidence. It was described by the Chinese traveller. 

 Fa Hiam, in the year 414, and by the earliest Europeans who visited it. It 

 still flourishes, and is an object of worship to the Buddhists. 



Pruning Old Black Currants. — The proper way of pruning all old black 

 currant-bushes, and bushes of black currants of all ages, is to get rid of as much 

 old wood as can be replaced with young wood ; and to cut but the very top parts 

 from the strongest young shoots, unless it be on purpose to furnish young wood 

 for the next season. 



Champion of Paris Pea. — This is a rather strong-growing variety, five to 

 six feet high, having generally a single stem ; which is, however, occasionally 

 branched, and produces from eight to ten pods. The pods are for the most part 

 single, but sometimes in pairs, about four inches long, nearly three-quarters of 

 an inch wide, and remarkably well filled with from seven to nine large peas. 

 Ripe seed, white, medium-sized, somewhat flattened and pitted. 



This pea is also known by the names of Excelsior, Knight's Excelsior, Stu- 

 art's Paradise, and Paradise Marrow. 



The ripe seed is white, large, smooth, uneven, compressed, irregular, or egg- 

 shaped ; skin thick ; foliage blotched. 



As a table pea, it is excellent, an abundant cropper, and one of the earliest of 



