inhabits rich loam; ¢ and woods of 
vak and chesnut. re soone is so ting, that dogs 
and swine smell it ata distance, The former of these 
- animals are taught to hunt it out, and when they come 
_ to the place, they bark a little, and begin to scratch up 
_ the earth with their feet. . Sometimes the herds atten- 
tively watch the swine when rutting up the ground, 
and deprive them of their hard-earned. morsel by appro- 
priating it.to themselves. . Truffles are found in various 
parts of England and, Scotland. They are regularly 
sold in Covent.Garden market, and are principally 
employed to thicken soups and sauces, and to give them 
a-fine flavour. , Morels are used for! the same purpose, 
are reckoned, but little inferior. | 
_ But the most common mushroom in use at our tables, 
i Agere campestris... In this sention the cap is 
white, changing ‘to. a, brown when old, and becomin, 
seurfy ; regularly convex, with the margin inflected if 
beckoning fat with age. Flesh white, firm, and solid; 
‘The stem is short, white, and solid, nearly cylindrical, 
about a finger thick, and) surrounded.with a, membra- 
maceous ring, the remains. of the curtain, which-at first 
covers the gills. The gills are loose, pinky red, chan- 
ing with age into a liver colour, in contact ‘with 
it not united to the stem; very thick set, irregu- 
lar in disposition, some forked near the stem, some 
next the edge of the pileus, some. at both ends, and 
general in that. case excluding the intermediate smal- 
i They differ very much in size, the head 
varying from two to nine inches in diameter. It is 
principally found in rich. ay old. pastures, where the 
turf has not. been ploughed up for many years. In 
such situations,it may..be found in abundance during 
the months. of August and September, of a much. finer 
flavour, and firmer in the flesh than, those which are 
raised by gardeners. Several other agarics are also in 
use, as the Oreades, which is rather tough, but of a 
fine flavour ; the Mouceron, which is held in very high 
estimation in France; the Deliciosus, which the an- 
cient Romans esteemed as one of the greatest luxuries 
of the table, and which is still, brought to the markets 
of Italy for sale: it occurs also in this country, but. is 
here seldom employed. if 
... These mushrooms are either eaten while fresh, stew- 
or boiled, or preserved, when. pickled or pulverised: 
For these purposes, both the skin, the gills, and the stem 
are taken away, and the fleshy, which remains, 
termed the button, is employed. _ When. sprinkled with 
galt, and allowed to remain for some.time, a consider- 
able quantity of juice is obtained, which, when boiled 
jp with various kinds of ,spiceries, forms the well 
eS: sauce called ketchup. This sauce is often very. 
successfully counterfeited with. bullock’s liver, which is 
mid. to produce a liquor equally savoury and agreeable, 
at least in stews. 
_ Since these vegetable bodies are in such request, we 
need not be surprised to find, in books of gardening, 
yarious directions concerning the culture of mushrooms, 
The most.simple and easy method of raising these cu- 
rious productions is mentioned in the Trans. Swedish 
Acad. 1797, where we are informed that there'is a stone 
used in Italy for producing mushrooms, by keeping it 
moistened with water in a cellar. There ap to be 
two kinds of it; one found in the chalk hills near 
Naples. resembling a white stalactite, intermixed with 
fine roots of shrubs ; the other is a hardened turf from 
some volcanic mountains near Florence. This loses by 
calcination about 15 per cent, and the. residuum gives 
. VOL. X, PART I. 
ae which 
FUNGLEL 
57 
4G silica; .23 alumina, .07 lime, .20 oxide of iron, with Fungi. 
some traces of magnesia and potash. To render these 
stones more productive, and prevent their quality of 
producing mushrooms from, being exhausted, it is ne- 
eessary, we are told, to water them with water in which 
mushrooms have been washed! thus furnishing them, no 
doubt, with a store of the minute seeds of the plant. 
. Gardeners contrive other methods of propagating me of 
mushrooms, soas to produce them,at all seasons of the rca 
year. These plants do not require light during theirvege- peas, 
tation, so that they may be raised on beds made.om pur- 
4 within. doors, under sheds, in lofts, stables, or cel- 
- These beds should be made of the best warm stable 
dung, which ought to be first mixed up in a heap, that the- 
whole-may ferment together equally ;,and after the first 
great heat'is over, it may then be employed in the for. 
mation of the bed. | But before proceeding to this part of 
the process, it is necessary to obtain a sufficient quantity 
of good mushroom spawn, as itis called. The natural 
ann, as it is termed, and which consists of white 
ei radicles, is frequently: found in the dung of old 
cucumber or melon jit is also often to. be met with: 
in oldheaps of horse-dung,: which have lain for two or 
three months. | It is frequently to be found in pasture 
unds, in stable yards, and in mill tracks. In all 
nen situations it is in lumps of dry rotten dung or 
mould, of a white fibrous substance, and possessing the 
smell of a:mushroom. ..Such spawn is sold by the mar- 
ket gardeners, and may be conveyed with safety to 
any distance. Having obtained a supply of spawn, 
the next — of the process is to prepare the bed. 
Choose a dry lying place, and having levelled the surs 
face, make the fermented dung into a bed from $ to 4 
feet in height, and let the whole be finished in the form 
of the ridge of a house. The dung in this case must 
not be ‘too closely pressed, and it must remain for a 
fortnight or three weeks before the spawn is put in, or 
until the heat is become quite moderate. If the spawn: 
is put in when. the bed is in its warmest state of fer- 
mentation, it would be entirely destroyed. When the 
bed has been brought into a proper state, let the spawn. 
be, divided into small lumps, and plant it in. rows 
lengthwise. of the bed, observing to begin the first row 
within about five or six inches of the bottom. Plant 
the spawn immediately under the surface of the dung 
in lines\six inches distant, and leave the same space be- 
tween the pieces in the rows. When this is done, let 
the surface of the bed be made smooth, and then let 
every, part of the bed, from the bottom upward, be co- 
yered with some rich dry earth, about an inch and a 
half thick, making the surface smooth with the spade. 
When this is done, let the whole be covered with clean 
dry straw, d footthick at least, to keep out the wet and 
id. Such’ a bed, with proper care, will begin to pro- 
duce mushrooms in five or six weeks, and will continue 
bearing for several months. j 
This mode of culture supposes that you have pro- 
cured roots of the plants which you wish to cultivate ; 
but, according to other methods, the use of this spawn 
is superseded, the seeds of the mushroom seeming to 
be everywhere, and- merely requiring favourable cir- 
cumstances to ensure their germination. According to 
.this last method, a floor is laid of ashes or bricks, so as 
to keep the bed quite dry, and free from under damp. 
Upon this place a layer of horse droppings, six inches- 
thick. These should be new from the stable, and must: 
not be broken, and the drierthey are so much the bet- 
ter. They may be collected every day, until the whole. 
H 
