362 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



They are planted in rows, about forty inches apart, at intervals 

 in the rows of about sixty inches apart, Tliey are carefully cul- 

 tivated, by gradually from time to time drawing the earth up to 

 the roots. When they are grown, during the first summer, the 

 stems are bent in opposite directions and separately tied to small 

 stakes, except fou? stems, which are left erect. After the bent 

 stems have given their fruit, they become dry and are taken away 

 and the erect one bent into their places. This operation is per- 

 formed every year. 



HOW* TO COLOR HORTENSIAS BLUE. 



It is now rather an old practice with us to make hortensias of 

 any shade of the cyanic scale, (blue,) by employing Roman alum, 

 which is a triple sulphate of alumina, pot ash and iron. With 

 this we dust tiie pots containing the hortensias, in March, before 

 the plants begin to grow. The quantity of dust regulates the 

 cyanic shade, (the shade of blue.) We repeat this dusting of the 

 soil in the pots once or twice when we want the flowers to be of 

 the deepest blue. 



JVote hy H. Meigs. — Hortensia is of the order 215 of Lindley's 

 vegetable kingdom, called Hydrangeads. It is a hydrangea of 

 which China and Japan own one half of all known species ; "and 

 there they have been the ornaments of their gardens from remote 

 antiquity. Weak solutions of glue are good for them. At Torlo- 

 nia, in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, there are gardens of these 

 plants of beautiful rose,* and some of deep ultramarine blue, the 

 latter color is owing to the ferruginous silicates, in a state of de- 

 composition in the soil, which is of volcanic origin. 

 CULTURE OF MUSHROOMS. 



Mons. P. Blot, at No. IS Second avenue, 119th street, desired 

 some gentleman who had capital, to examine his plan for raising 

 a regular supply of mushrooms for the markets of this city. The 

 great cities of the old world are supplied, and ours may easily and 

 profitably be well supplied with abundance of the perfectly whole- 

 some and delicious edible mushroom. 



Mons. Blot acquired his knowledge, in part, in the mushroom 

 gardens in Paris; but he now grows them perfectly well in gar- 

 dens, as well as they do in the stone quarries of Paris. 



