262 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 6, 1870. 



wet, the heat will be too strong, and must be carefully examined 

 from day to day, either with a thermometer or with trial sticks, 

 before inserting the spawn. If the sticks when tried are about 

 the heat of new milk, or the bulb of the thermometer a few 

 inches below the surface stands at from 80° to 90°, and espe- 

 cially if the heat is gradually declining, you may spawn with 

 saiety. This fall in the temperature is a matter of importance, 

 for, if the heat is increasing, it will become too much for the 

 spawn, and you may look in vain for Mushrooms ; 80° and 

 failing may be considered a safe heat to spawn at. 



The spawn, if good, may be broken in pieces a little larger 

 than walnuts, and placed firmly just beneath the dung at about 

 S inches apart. If you place it deeper, the stirring of the bed 

 might excite fresh heating. It is better to leave all solid and 

 smooth to prevent this heating, and if en daily examining the 

 bed yon find the temperature still inclines to fall, then yon may 

 add from 1 to 2 inches of pure droppings all over the bed, and 

 beat it firmly, which will slightly raise the temperature and 

 encourage the spawn to run freely. If after this you find the 

 temperature remain uniform, or if anything slightly declin- 

 ing, then the bed may be earthed over with from li to 2 inches 

 of good soil. This soil should be somewhat damp, but not wet, 

 so that it may be beaten firmly together. When this is done 

 make the surface smooth, water it with a fine rose, and 

 shortly afterwards draw a clean spade firmly over it, so as to 

 leave a clean, smooth, firm surface, which will enable you 

 easily to clean the beds afterwards with a hair broom when 

 necessary. 



Several times, notwithstanding every care, I have had to take 

 cut the pieces of spawn because the bed became too hot. With 

 the care alluded to above, I should say that this was necessary 

 in the case of one out of two hundred beds. In a cellar there 

 is no absolute necessity for covering the beds, but I have found 

 a little covering of hay, straw, or even a mat a little raised 

 over the bed a great equaliser of heat and moisture. After 

 earthing, when the spawn is running, the heat will be gradually 

 increased, but not to an injurious extent, and that is always a 

 sure sign that the spawn is running ; but if after earthing-up 

 the bed should seem to be getting rather cool, a little covering 

 will help to raise the temperature a little so as to produce the 

 desired result. When wateiing is necessary, it is well to give 

 the water at back and front, and make a few holes with a 

 pointed stick over the surface instead of puddling the surface 

 all over. 



If I knew better the conditions under which you are 

 placed, I might be more particular, but attention to tne above 

 details will enable anyone to have Mushrooms in a cellar, if 

 ordinary care be taken. 



I will add, that mere slap-dash work i3 of no use in Mush- 

 room-growing ; th? fresher the material, if you can prevent it 

 heating too much, so much better for the Mushrooms ; too much 

 heat after spawning will render useless the best bed ; too much 

 dryness in the material will starve the spawn, unless there are 

 free waterings, a rather difficult thing with beginners. Too 

 much moisture in the materials will also kill the spawn, from 

 being too wet. I have had fine beds in wet material by 

 wrapping each piece of spawn in a handful of dry litter ; this, 

 however, is better avoided. Where droppings cannot easily 

 be obtained, littery dung watered and worked until sweet, will 

 grow first-rate Mushrooms, cased or not cased with horse drop- 

 pings. On the whole, however, nothing beats horse droppings, 

 and a little short litter to keep the droppings open ; and the 

 better fed the horses are, the more likely are the Mushroom 

 beds to flourish. — R, Fish. 



them, and that he would be glad to learn if either Jones' or any 

 of the others' have been published. On referring to the works 

 of Jones, of Nayland, eight volumes, Rivington, 1826, I find 

 in vol. iv. sermon 1, "On the Religious Use of Botanical Philo- 

 sophy, - ' preached on Mr. Fairchild's foundation at the church 

 of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, on 1st of June, 1784. — B. Hubst. 



STOCKS FOR APPLE GRAFTING. 



" Readeb," page 243, inquires about various stocks. I offer 

 my experience for what it may be found worth. 



English Paradise, as far as I have been able to prove it, 

 appears to me to be only the Burr Knot, and the French 

 Paradise a melange of sundries, two of which are varieties of 

 Doucin — i. e., the broad and narrow-leaved. The Stibbert, alias 

 Harvest LoEging, Avant tout hatif. and Dutch Creeper (?) is 

 a very early Apple, often called in nurseries Dutch Codlin, and 

 is here in great request, although why, I am rather puzzled, 

 as it is a very secondary sort — " soon ripe and soon rotten." 

 None of the above are worth anything for growing healthy trees 

 upon, and I may say the same of two kinds called the Broad 

 and Narrow-leaved Nonesuch English Paradise : these grow the 

 first-year's shoot well, but afterwards get so stunted as to be 

 useless. " Amongst the faithless, faithful only " is the true 

 Pommier de Paradis, or Mains precox, from the Caucasian 

 Mountains. This is a free-growing hardy stock, on which the 

 Apple grows healthily, and bears abundant fruit of high flavour 

 and enlarged size. 



As to the Crab stock, so called, this is not raised from seeds 

 of the wild Crab, as " Readeb " supposes, but is the produce of 

 seed washed out of the pomace after cider has been extracted. 

 The seed when sown and grown produces three qualities of 

 stock — i.e., the first culling, robust free growers, with strong 

 roots, and fit to work orchard trees upon. The next, or 

 second size, are nice finely-rooted plants fit for garden trees, 

 of medium growth. The third, or small size, are generally 

 surface-rooting stocks, fit to produce nice healthy free-bearing 

 trees of a dwarf character. None of the above will produce 

 fine fruit, and often not so fine either in size or flavour as the 

 true Pommier de Paradis. I send you samples from Crabs, 

 also from the Pommier de Paradis, to show the difference. 



It must be borne in mind that Apples worked on the Pom- 

 mier de Paradis require strong damp soil, and the same holds 

 good with Pears worked upon the Quince stock. — John Scon, 

 Merriott Nurseries, Somerset. 



LAPAGERIA ROSEA. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM. 

 It may interest the lovers of Cyclamens to know how quickly 

 they may be made to flower from seed. I sowed a packet of 

 seed on the 26th of February this year, and my first Cyclamen 

 was in bloom on the 12:h of September. I raised more than 

 a hundred plants from the packet of seeds, and the greater 

 part of them are now showing flower buds. They have been 

 kept, since sowing, in a Cucumber house until about a month 

 ago, when the most forward were moved into a cool house 

 They have received no peculiar treatment, merely potting 

 whenever they required it. The largest are now in 48-pots. 

 — As Ahateub. 



The Floweb Sebmons. — In the Journal of September 22nd 

 I find a communication by " A Constant Readeb," page 225, 

 in which he says that Jones, of Nayland, delivered some if 



I have now under my care, growing in a cool conservatory, 

 and gradually covering a good portion of the roof, a plant of 

 this fine greenhouse twiner. It came into my hands in 1865, 

 and was then a plant about 13 inches in height, growing in a 

 48-pot. I planted it at the south-west corner of the conser- 

 vatory, in a spot which gets some shade at the latter part of the 

 day ; and to receive the roots I made a small pit or tank, about 

 3 feet in length by 1 foot in width, and edged it with stone. 

 The pit was made about IS inches in depth, and one-third of it 

 filled with brick rubble for drainage. The Lapageria was then 

 planted in some bog peat, as spongy as I could get it, with 

 which was mingled some rough sand. It soon began to grow, 

 and flowered for the first time in 1868; since then it has 

 bloomed yearly ; and as the plant increases in size and strength, 

 the flowers not only become more numerous, but larger and of 

 finer quality. 



My mode of treatment is as simple as it appears to be effec- 

 tual. During the summer, at the growing season, I water 

 plentifully ; during the winter, when at rest, it is watered only 

 occasionally — just enough to keep the soil moist. Occasionally 

 I top-dress the plant with peat and sand as required ; the con- 

 stant watering during summer tends to wash away the soil 

 from the roots. It is well to thoroughly top-dress at the be- 

 ginning of winter, just as the summer supply of water is with- 

 held ; then the newly-added soil gets pretty well settled about 

 the roots by the time growth commences in the spring. 



I get a supply of flowers about nine months in the year ; 

 and it seeds freely, some of the pods hanging on the plant for a 

 considerable time. The plant makes vigorous growth, and 

 during the past summer has made shoots 16 feet in length. It 

 has been in robust health, and made wood freely. 



I find it necessary to shield the young growing shoots from 

 the attacks of woodlice and snails and slug?. These young shoots 



