The Mushroom, Uses and Culture. 345 



with warm straw manure ; this will cause the spawn to spread 

 to the surface of each block. These blocks will keep several 

 years without impairing their vegetative powers. When a crop of 

 mushrooms is desired, all that is necessary is to make an ordi- 

 nary hot-bed, using an old plant pit for the purpose ; the pit 

 may be of any size. The manure for the bed should incline like 

 the angle of the sash, the back part elevated higher than the 

 front side. After the rank heat of the bed has escaped, whicl^ 

 generally takes about a fortnight, cover it with an inch and a half 

 of black loam, sifted fine, upon which the spawn may be planted. 

 One of the blocks will plant a bed four feet square, as it can be 

 broken in pieces the size of a hickory nut. Plant in rows about 

 four inches each way, covering with another inch of loam. The af. 

 ter cultivation consists in keeping an equable temperature, some- 

 where in the vicinity of 65° will answer, occasionally watering 

 with tepid water. The length of time required to produce a 

 crop, is five weeks. If the bed has been kept too moist, the crop 

 will sometimes fail. Mushrooms can also be grown in the open 

 air on beds of manure, guarding against the fluctuations of 

 temperature by using a covering of straw when the weather is 

 too inclement. I hope in a few years to see mushrooms grown 

 as an article of every-day food, as it is cheap, nutritious, and a 

 luxury that never produces satiety. 



FoRSYTHiA ViRiDissniA. — The culture of this plant, hitherto so 

 little known, being very easy and within the means of every 

 possessor of a garden, I will, with permission, give your reader 

 a few brief hints. The flowers, which are produced in great pro- 

 fusion, are of a deep yellow, very delicate in texture, and will 

 not bear exposure to a rough wind, or draught in a green-house, 

 as they are readily bruised. To ensure the plants blooming in 

 the open ground, it is necessary that they should be planted in 

 rather poor soil, so as to make well-ripened wood of a medium 

 growth, rather than long succulent shoots, which seldom, if ever, 

 bring forth flowers. As a plant for early forcing, it is very ap- 

 plicable ; and for that purpose, strong, healthy plants, with well 

 ripened wood, should be procured, and placed in pots suitable to 

 their size, using some rich decomposed turf, and taking care to 

 stop the shoots, in order to ensure nice compact specimens. The 

 Forsythia is readily propagated from cuttings, stuck under a hand 

 glass, in autumn. — W. C. N. 



