58 FUNGL 
Fungi. floor be covered to the above thickness; but they must et large, and push up small ‘hills above thelr 
<=" not be allowed to ferment or heat. During the forma~ heads. . te: NB a 7 
oR of tion of the bed, the materials should be as much ex- © Mushrooms, Suna sought after by many, o,, aa 
a Be posed to the air as possible ; and if out of doors it should are by no means a nouri Rah of food. Their of », 
beds, be defended from rain’ When this first course is quite fibres are’ tough, and very a cult to digest, sw : .. 
cy 
dry, and judged to be past a state of fermentation, cover 
it to the thicknéss of two inches with light dry earth, 
if sandy so much the better. The use of the earth here 
is for the spawn to’run in. After this lay another 
- course of droppings, and earth them over as above, when 
‘past a state of fermentation ; then a third course, which 
in like manner earth over. This finishes the bed, 
which will bea very strong and productive one if pro- 
_perly managed afterwards. - But the tyro in gardening 
will naturally enquire from whence the plants are to 
spring in this bed. Where is the seed? The seeds 
‘are contained in the droppings of horses, which have 
been employed. These produce mushrooms more plen- 
tifully, and with greater certainty, than the dung of 
other animals. The digestive organs of horses seem to 
‘have less power to hurt the vegetative quality of these 
seeds, which must be collected along with their food, 
than the stomachs of other animals. Or it may be that 
the dung of horses is a better nidus for the seeds than 
other dungs, and that these seeds are very widely dif- 
fused, The droppings of hard fed horses only are useful. 
Those ‘of horses fed with green food will of them- 
selves produce few or nomushrooms. Hence the dung 
of carriage or saddle horses, fed-entirely on corn and 
hay, is generally the most productive. 
Whether the bed be in the open air or in a house, it 
must not be watered until the spawn begins to run. 
This may be known by thrusting in the hand into the 
bed a few inches deep, and examining the state of that 
which is brought up. It ought to smell exactly like 
mushrooms, and have the appearance of small bits of 
thread. But generally you will be forewarned of the 
spawn running, by a previous crop of spurious fungi, 
which rise more or less abundantly according to the 
fineness or grossness of the materials of which the bed 
is composed. These fungi have all a nauseous sickly 
smell ; and although some of them belong to the genus 
Agaricus, they do not possess those salmon-coloured 
gills which characterise the cultivated species. When 
itis thus ascertained that the spawn is fully formed, 
give’ the bed two or three hearty waterings, in order to 
set it a growing, for otherwise it will lie dormant, and 
show no symptoms of vegetation. But beware not‘to 
damp the bed too much, as thereby the growth of the 
spawn would be greatly retarded. If afew old mush- 
rooms be previously steeped and broken in the water, 
you sow innumerable seed at the time of watering, 
and thus ensure future crops. 
When the bed is in full perfection, it should be ex- 
amined twoor three times a week to gather the pro- 
duce, turning off the straw covering very carefully. 
Two methods are recommended by gardeners to be ob- 
served in collecting: the mushrooms. According to the 
first, they are to be detached clean to the bottom by a 
gentle twist, as if the stump is left, it is apt to become 
maggoty, and infect ‘the'rest of the bed. According 
to the opinion of other gardeners, they ought never to 
be pulled, but always cut; as by pulling, many young 
-ones might be destroyed, there being always a number 
* of these forming or clustering’ about the roots of the 
old ones, which should not be disturbed. . If the spawn 
be deeply situated in the beds, mushrooms will often 
form and come to maturity entirely under the ground. 
They may be easily recognised, however, as they are 
‘symptoms of uneasiness -and stupidity, 
in the stomach like a sponge ; and there are instances aliment, | 
on record of their remaining three days in that ve a 
in an undigested state. So indigestible are some of 
Boleti, for example, that they have been found as be- 
zoars in the intestines of some of the inferior animals. 
Thus the Boletus igniarius has occurred disposed in 
layers, and cemented by an animal matter. (Ann ‘de 
Mus. d'Hist. Nat.’ iv. 835.) But it ‘would be fortiinate 
if no objections could be urged against their being used 
in diet, but those which arise from their coriaceous in~ 
digestible nature, and their want of nourishing 
ticles. All of them are a doubtful and suspicious food, 
and the most innocent ‘of them have often proved pre- 
judicial, nay poisonous. whiee 
It would be desirable if we could draw the line of 
distinction between the harmless and the noxious. “But 
neither the eye’ of the’ botanist, nor the laboratory of 
the chemist; can render us assistance. No reliance can 
be placed on either taste, smell, or colour, The qualis 
ties of the same’ species are different when the plant 
grows. in wet ground, from what they are when it ob- 
tains a dry’ situation. The same species is sometimes 
innocent when young, but noxious when old. From 
these considerations it has even been recommended, and 
with much propriety, to erase their names from the 
list of aliments. Not a year passes in which’ instan- 
ces do not occur of the deleterious effects of mush- 
rooms. The newspapers abound with such, and yet 
these warnings are not sufficient to deter the inexpe- 
rienced from using them. The reason is obvious ; they 
hear that some kinds are in common use at the tables of 
the great ; and trusting to’ colour and shape, they too 
often gather the horefal in place of ‘thé harmless.” 
The effects produced upon the constitution by the use 
of the noxious kinds, are of the most alarming nature. 
In cows ‘and other ‘cattle, they have been known to 
create bloody urine, nauseous milk, swellings of the 
abdomen, inflammations in the bowels, stoppages, diar- 
rhceas, and death. In sheep, they bring on a scirrhous 
liver, a cough, a general wasting, and dropsy. * In 
men, nearly the same symptoms have “pre red, with 
vomitings, fainting, trembling, and death. In such 
cases, when persons have unhappily eaten deleterious 
kinds, vomiting ought to be excited as speedily as pos- 
sible, and gentle laxatives administered ; and after the 
first evacuation, a drachm of sulphuric ether, in a_glass 
of water of marshmallows, may be given. e 
Some few attempts have been made for the pu 
of ascertaining whether the poisonous matter resides in 
the substance or in the juice of the mushroom. M. 
Parmentier, in order to determine the matter, took some 
mushrooms of the deleterious kind, and distilled them 
with water in‘an alembic. The water which came over 
into the receiver’ was administered to a dog, without 
producing on the animal any visible effects. Havin 
emptied the‘contents of the alembic in a vessel, an 
mixed with some food to disguise them, he adminis- 
tered these to a dog ; but the residue differed widely 
in quality from the condensed vapour, for the poor ani- 
mal expired in a few hours after. The same author 
informs us, that having ‘administered some poisonous 
‘mushrooms along with some food to a dog, he observed 
‘to shew 
the following symptoms: -The dog first began to s 
ards it 
