General Notices. 329 



from a cistern in an adjoining shed. In the morning, the boiler being filled 

 with water, I put a little fire under it, which soon causes it to boil. The 

 house is soon filled with a mild sweet steam, which I generally keep up for 

 two successive hours. In the evening a similar process is observed. A mild 

 and uniform temperature is thus produced, generally ranging from 33° to 60° 

 of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and an- atmosphere saturated with moisture, in 

 which the mushrooms thrive vigorously. I have thus produced weekly, 

 from the 10th of November up to the present time (March), upon a surface of 

 eight square yards, at an average, four large dishes of fine mushrooms, some 

 of them measuring 23 in. in circumference, and thick and fleshy in proportion. 

 I was led to adopt the use of steam from my beds requiring to be watered very 

 often ; and, in doing so, many of the small mushrooms were destroyed : but 

 watering is now quite dispensed with ; the steam coming in contact with the 

 cold surface of the beds is rapidly condensed, and a copious supply of moisture 

 is thus obtained. That a humid atmosphere is an essential point in the arti- 

 ficial culture of mushrooms, no one who has watched them in their natural 

 haunts will deny. (iS. H. Crumpsall, near Manchester, in Gard. Chron,, 

 March 20. p. 181.) 



Earthworms have been found by Mr. Dunlop, gardener to George Fuller, 

 Esq., Streatham, 14i ft. below the surface, in the crevices of basaltic rock, 

 on his father's farm. Well of Barnwell, in the parish of Craigie, near Kilmar- 

 nock. — A.D. Streatham, April, 184.1. 



On boiling Potatoes. — My comfort has been so much increased since I have 

 had practised the preparing and boiling of potatoes according to the receipt 

 given in the Gardener^ Mag., vol. vii. p. 369., that I cannot any longer refrain 

 from informing you of the fact for the benefit of your readers, and in gratitude 

 to your correspondent A. W., of Crosslee Cottage, near Glasgow, who 

 furnished the receipt. The potatoes constitute a regular Pennsylvanian ci-op, 

 but either from their inherent deficiency of good quality, or from ignorance in 

 the mode of preparing and boiling them, a dry mealy tuber is rarely seen at 

 dinner. Hence, when Lancashire or Irish potatoes are announced they are 

 eagerly bought up, because they resist ignorance or carelessness on the part 

 of the cook. Next to them, if not fully their equal, are the potatoes from the 

 state of Maine (the most northern state in the Union), which originated in 

 Mercer county, one of the extreme western counties of Pennsylvania, a few years 

 since, from sowing the seeds of potato apples. The climate and soil of Maine 

 agree admirably with these Mercers, and are so fine that they are in great de- 

 mand. I find it, however, unnecessary to lay in a stock of them ; for, since 

 A. Ws. receipt has been followed, the common produce of our mai'ket turns 

 out white, dry, mealy, and well flavoured, and is purchased as wanted. — 

 J. M. Philadelphia, March 9. 1811. 



The receipt referred to is as follows : — Wash the earth off the potatoes, and 

 scrape or pare the skins off ; which last should be done as thin as possible, 

 not only from motives of economy, but also because the outside of the potato 

 is always the best. Then let them stand covered with, and soaking in, water 

 an hour and a half or two hours. Wash them well out of this water ; put a 

 handful of salt with them in the pan they are to be boiled in, covering of 

 course, with cold water, and boil quickly, the quicker the better. 



Aspergillus glaucus is a species of fungus which grows on damp and putre- 

 fying fruit, bread, cheese, &c., and on plants while drying for the herbarium, if 

 not regularly shifted. " This is the plant so well known," says Dr. Johnson, 

 *' by the name of the mould, and there is much interest in its history. At 

 first, some white cobweb-like filaments spread over the substance infected, 

 whence sprouts up a thick forest of other filaments, about one eighth of an 

 inch in height, pellucid, tubular, and obscurely marked with one or two joints. 

 Each filament is terminated with a globe, minute indeed to our enlarged 

 vision, but large and heavy when compared with the slender stalk which 

 supports it. This globe is entirely composed of pellucid grains, uncovered by 



