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JOTTBNAL OP HOEXICULTTJES AND COTTAGE GAEDBNEE. 



[ June 16, 1863. 



Muoii of the success, too, will depend on the spawn. Some 

 of the best makers sometimes are deceived. From one of these 

 we once had a supply, and we wrote back that to ub it was just 

 worth its bulk of manure. Good spawn should present a 

 whitish appearance when broken, but the individual parts or 

 strings should not be larger than the finest down or hair. If 

 the white liDes are many of them as large as common muslin 

 sewing-thread the spawn is too far gone. What shall we say of 

 that which has no other appearance than that of dried manure? 

 In late volumes will be found full details as to the making of 

 spawn. It is of little consequence being a year or two old, or 

 several years old, provided it is good, and has been kept dry. 



For oat-door ieds there must be more material, and for the 

 bottom of flat beds and the centre of ridge-beds we need not be 

 so particular. For both shapes, well wrought and sweetened 

 dung, such as would do for Melons and Cucumbers, though not so 

 moist, will do admirably, with or without a casing of an inch of 

 fresh droppings. So material, however, excels old linings of 

 Cucumber and Melon-frames, where the manure has heated 

 itself into a dryish, caky, half-decomposed state. This, well 

 shaken and broken, and built firmly together, will make a bed 

 into which the spawn runs greedily. The same care must be 

 taken as to temperature at spawning time, and the necessary 

 heat must be maintained by coverings. We never could detect 

 much difference in the quality of Mushrooms grown in the dark 

 and in the light, but those who like to see the beds in a house, 

 without a candle, may have a small window or two. 



We have grown Mushrooms in all sorts of places out of doors 

 and in-doors, as in sheds, stokeholes, floors of greenhouses, 

 vineries, &c, and in all with much the same results, if due 

 attention were paid to temperature at spawning time. We ob- 

 serve that growing them in pots and boxes has been noticed. 

 Such has been done ever since we remember, and a good old 

 plan it is. The pots should not be less than 15 inches, and the 

 boxes should be 14 inches deep at least, as much through, and 

 about 3 feet long, to move easily. They just require the same 

 treatment as to filling and spawning as a bed, but their rnove- 

 ability is a great advantage — for instance, Buppose a score of 

 auch pots or boxes were filled, spawned, and earthed in September 

 and October, they could be kept in a cool dry place, slightly 

 covered, and be placed in a slight hotbed, or by the side of hot- 

 water pipes or a flue in forcing-houses or greenhouses. They 

 could also be placed in a slight hotbed in a shed, or under a 

 frame at any time, where the bottom heat would not exceed 80° 

 to 85°, and the top heat not above 55° to 60°. Years ago, when 

 hard driven, we have moved such boxes to the side of the heating 

 apparatus in an early vinery ; and if the Mushrooms came too 

 quick and fast, we moved the box again into a greenhouse or a 

 close shed — in fact, either by such modes, or even by beds out- 

 doors or in-doors, any one who has spare shed-room, or a spare 

 stall in byre or stable, may grow Mushrooms successfully, except, 

 perhaps, in the months of July and August, as these months 

 we have found the worst times for Mushrooms, except under 

 thatched sheds or in cellars. E. Fish. 



inauguration of the late prince 

 consort's memorial-June ioth. 



The aspect of the day harmonised with the occasion— there 

 were clouds and rain and sunshine struggling for the mastery, 

 and the sunshine prevailed. So was there sorrow tempering 

 the pleasure of raising a fitting tribute to the memory of the 

 Prince ; but the sorrow passed away as the tidings spread that 

 the Queen had seen and approved of the tribute — that time was 

 softening her grief ; and no one who looked upon the Prince of 

 Wales, his bride, and his brothers and sisters, as they passed 

 gently up to the Memorial, but felt that the cloud is less dense 

 which shadows England, as it always shadows our land when 

 grief afflicts its ruler, if beloved. 



Our pages are not for the details of ceremonies such as was 

 that, and we must not linger over it further than to record that 

 the whole was well planned, the minor arrangements correctly 

 executed, from the assembly in the balcony to the uncovering 

 of the Statue ; that there were seats for 10,000 of the nearly 

 double that number of spectators who were present ; that the 

 banners of the various nations and corporations planted along 

 the course of procession, added gaiety and importance to the 

 Commemoration ; that the presence of the Royal Family, the 

 nation's ministers, the representatives of all nations with which 



we are in amity, and of such a mass of British people, all tes- 

 tified that that day was one vast tribute of the heart to departed 

 worth. 



We copy the following narrative from our contemporary, the 

 Times : — 



Precisely at four o'clock, with characteristic punctuality, the 

 Eoyal carriages drove up to the western entrance of the Inter- 

 national building. The rattle of arms was heard as the guards 

 of honour of the Grenadiers saluted, the band struck up the 

 National Anthem, and a loud cheer greeted the entrance of the 

 august party. The Prince of Wales was in the uniform of a 

 General officer. The Princess, radiant and smiling as usual, 

 was dressed in a pale mauve silk, with a rich lace mantle. The 

 Princesses Helena and Louise were similarly attired. Prince 

 Alfred presented a manly figure in ihe most elegant of all 

 uniforms — that of the Navy ; and the two younger Princes, 

 Arthur and Leopold, wore kilts of Eoyal Stuart tartan. The 

 Executive branch of the Memorial Committee and a deputation 

 of the members of the Eoyal Society having been presented by 

 the Duke of Buccleuch to the Prince of Wales, the procession was 

 immediately formed and with trumpets sounding passed halfway 

 down the nave, and then, turning to the left and ascending the 

 gallery stairs, filed into a large temporary balcony, gaily deco- 

 rated with garlands of flowers and scarlet hangings, which over- 

 looked the Horticultural Gardens. The Eoyal party took their 

 seats in the central part of the balcony, which projected beyond 

 the rest of the structure. The appearance of the Prince and 

 PrincesB of Wales was the signal for renewed cheering from the 

 mass of spectators gathered in the open air. 



The Duke of Buccleuch, at the head of the Council of the 

 Horticultural Society, then approached the Prince of Wales and 

 presented an address, which like reports at railway meetings, 

 was " taken as read." It contained congratulations to his Eoyal 

 Highness on his marriage, an expression of profound grief at the 

 loss which the Society had sustained in the death of the Prince 

 Consort, and assurances of gratitude for the interest which Her 

 Majesty and the others members of the Eoyal Family had mani- 

 fested in the institution. The address then proceeded thus : — 



" The selection of the site for the Memorial of the International Exhibi- 

 tion of 1851 within this garden is a source of gratification to the Council; 

 we thereby have in the view ot our Fellows a lasting remembrance of their 

 late deeply lamented President, and of the efforts he made to promote the 

 welfare of the people of this land by so happily bringing the Exhibition 

 of 1851 to a triumphant close. In the gracious reply which His Royal 

 Highness made to the address which we' had the honour to present to him 

 on the 5th June, 1S61, His Royal Highness advised and directed the Council 

 to the course which should be followed to bring the undertaking to a suc- 

 cessful issue. The principles he then laid down we have carefully treasured 

 up and are endeavouring to carry out. Speaking of the union of Ihe fine 

 arts with that science which it is more especially our province to promote, 

 His Royal Highness said :— 'That which last year was still a vague con- 

 ception is to day a reality, and I trust will be accepted as a valuable 

 attempt, at least, to reunite the science and art of gardening to the sister 

 arts ot architecture, sculpture, and painting. This union existed in thebest 

 periods of art, when the same feeling pervaded and the same principles 

 regulated them all ; and if the misuse and misapplication of these principles 

 in later times have forced again upon us the simple study and imitation of 

 nature, individual arts have suffered by their disjunction, and the time 

 seems now arrived when they may once more combine, without the danger 

 of being cramped by pedantic and arbitrary rules of taste.' The excellent 

 collection of works of art which now decorate the conservatory and arcades, 

 and which your Royal Highnesses have already done the Society the honour 

 of visiting, will show that we have not been unmindful of the precepts of 

 the Prince Consort." 



The address concluded with a statement of the satisfactory 

 progress of the Society, which now numbers 3450 Fellows, and 

 some praise of the "beauty of the gardens" and the "success of 

 the promenades and shows," which would, perhaps, have come 

 with better grace from other lips. 



The Prince of Wales briefly thanked the Council for their 

 address, and stated that a reply would be forwarded to them. 



The united bands of the Guards then performed Lindpainter's 

 stirring " Procession March," after which Mr. Godwin, Honorary 

 Secretary to the Executive Department of the Memorial Com- 

 mittee, stepped forward and read the following address : — 



" May it please your Royal Highness, — 



" In the year 1853 a meeting convened by the Lord Mayor of London, 

 Mr. Thomas Chailis, M.P., and presided over by him, was held in the 

 Mansion House, to consider the propriety of erecting some memorial of the 

 Great Exhibition of 1851, in connexion with a tribute of admiration to its 

 great founder, the Prince Consort, your Royal Highness's illustrious and 

 lamented father. The propriety of the step was at once recognised ; and it 

 was resolved unanimously, as well by the country at large as by the meet- 

 ing, that tbe Exhibition ' was an event of the greatest importance to the 

 nations of the world, by enabling them to observe the relative influence of 

 science, art, and national characteristics upon production, by furnishing 

 the means of a valuable review of the past, and by.marking a new starting- 

 point for the future progress of productive industry and giving it an in- 

 creased stimulus.' The meeting saw, too, with the wise author of the 



