Culture of Mush'ooms under Hothouse Paths. 227 



Evelyn seems to entertain some well-founded suspicion upon 

 this alleged incombustibility of the larch, and refers to the note 

 of the editor of Vitruvius Philander, who, it appears, put the 

 veracity of his author to the test, by trying the experiment at 

 Venice, and igniting a piece of larch in the presence of his 

 Msecenas (Cardinal D'Armagnac), then ambassador to the 

 republic. 



It remains to be ascertained whether these stories of the im- 

 possibility of igniting the larch, narrated by Vitruvius and other 

 Roman authors, be not so many more instances of the larix 

 being confounded with the alerce (Thuja articulata) of Africa, 

 (see Gard. Mag., vol. xiii. p. 512.). Perhaps, also, the submerged 

 ship described by Witsen may, from its locality in the Numidian 

 Sea, be presumed to have been built of the African alerce, rather 

 than of the European Z/drix. 



March, 1841. 



Art. XII. Description of a Mode in which Mushrooms may he 

 J groxan under the Paths of a Hothouse. By W. Jones, Gardener 

 to I. M. D'Ollier, Esq. 



In November last I considered it necessary to make some al- 

 terations in a plant stove, the principal feature of which was 

 the raising of the whole interior surface 14 in. higher than it 

 originally was. Having completed the front and end passages, 

 a thought occurred to me, that the vacuum in the rear might be 

 filled to advantage with a mushroom-bed, placing bearers for 

 planks to rest on, as a substitute for the tiles with which the 

 passage was laid. I accordingly set to work, filled in and beat 

 (with a pavier's rammer) four successive layers of half-dried 

 unfermented horse-droppings. When done, I had 8 in. of this 

 material as hard as a Wicklow black turf. The length of the 

 passage alluded to is 30 ft. by 3 ft.^ wide; so that six 1^-inch 

 planks, 15 ft. long by 1 ft. wide, cover the bed so completely 

 that nothing is to be seen but the level passage all round ; and 

 this, so far from being unsightly, I think adds much to the ap- 

 pearance of the house, as heretofore this part of the house was 

 rather damp, which is frequently the case in houses where the 

 fire enters at the flues, and passes along the front. In this house 

 it goes along the front twice, and once along the back ; so that 

 the water used in front to subdue the too great aridity of the at- 

 mosphere, rising in vapour, falls condensed in this as being the 

 coldest part of the house. The planks absorb this humidity, 

 and look neat and clean. The bed itself, which is the finest and 

 most productive I ever saw, can be examined or watered without 

 the least inconvenience, by raising the planks on their edges ; if 

 they be soiled, they can be laid on the flue and washed, or they 



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