494 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 512. 



Begonia Mrs. Heal. — This new hybrid, recently sent 

 out by Messrs. Veitch, was shown in fine condition at this 

 meeting-, and plants a foot or so high showed fleshy dark 

 green leaves six inches across and tall erect scapes with 

 flowers two inches or more across and of the richest scarlet 

 color. A second hybrid of the same parentage and origin 

 was shown under the name of Julius. This is remarkable 

 for its double, Carnation-like pale pink flowers, borne on 

 nodding scapes and measuring nearly two inches across. 

 It received an award of merit. 



Carnation Winter Scarlet. — This useful addition to 

 bright-colored winter-flowering Carnations was shown by 

 Messrs. H. Low & Co., who have a large stock of it. It is 

 superior to Winter Gem in its habit of flowering earlier, the 

 latter being at its best in early spring, whereas this new va- 

 riety is in perfection in November. It forms a compact plant 

 eighteen inches high, with short, narrow foliage and numer- 

 ous well-formed full flowers of a rich, glowing scarlet color. 



Alberta magna. — A bush of this handsome Rubiaceous 

 plant from Natal is now an attraction in a warm green- 

 house at Kew. I have before noticed this plant when it 

 flowered in a pot in a cold house, but it is much superior 

 now after having been grown in an intermediate tempera- 

 ture and planted out. The leaves are as large and glossy 

 as those of the common Laurel, and the terminal-branched 

 racemes of bright crimson tubular flowers are thrice as 

 large and much more effective than those borne by pot- 

 grown plants. Flowering in winter, too, the plant is all 

 the more valuable. I anticipate for it considerable popu- 

 larity when it becomes better known. 



Hybrid Orchids. — These were largely represented at the 

 last meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. Mr. Cham- 

 berlain sent Cattleyas and La?lias, among them a beautiful 

 hybrid between C. Dowiana and L. praestans, in which the 

 broad mauve-colored segments and the large open-crisped 

 labellum, colored maroon-crimson, with streaks of a darker 

 shade and a few splashes of yellow, were peculiarly attrac- 

 tive. Messrs. Linden showed Cypripedium Beekmani, said 

 to be a hybrid between C. Boxalli and C. bellatulum, but 

 showing little of the character of the latter, although quite 

 different from and vastly superior to any form of C. Boxalli. 

 The flower is very large and richly colored. C. insigne 

 luciani, from the same exhibitors, is a near approach to the 

 greatly treasured C. insigne Sandera. Messrs. Veitch & 

 Sons showed La;lia Olivia, a hybrid between L. xanthina 

 and L. crispa, and fairly intermediate in form and colors. 

 Cattleya labiata, White Queen, is the best white form of 

 this Cattleya that I have seen. Cypripedium Deedmania- 

 num, raised in the Birmingham Botanic Garden from C. 

 Chamberlaini and C. Spicerianum, has a scape nine inches 

 long, with a flower in which the dorsal sepal is not unlike 

 that of the latter parent, while the rest of the flower resem- 

 bles in form and color the remarkable Chamberlaini. 



Mushroom Culture. — The demand for mushrooms at all 

 times of the year is a great and increasing one. Their cul- 

 tivation has, therefore, become an important industry in 

 the neighborhood of large towns, and particularly of Lon- 

 don, where there are now numerous large market-gardens 

 in which Mushroom culture is practiced on an extensive 

 scale. The outdoor ridge method and the indoor shed 

 method are practiced, and while the latter is, perhaps, 

 somewhat more costly, the mushrooms thus produced are 

 cleaner and generally better in flavor than those grown on 

 ridges. I have lately had an opportunity of inspecting one 

 of the largest of these Mushroom farms, that of Mr. Tebbutt, 

 in Isleworth, near Richmond, who kindly gave me particu- 

 lars of his methods, which I think may be of interest to read- 

 ers of Garden and Forest. 



Cultivation in the Open Air. — The ridges or raised beds 

 are formed by arranging specially prepared horse-manure 

 in mounds about a yard wide at the base and a yard high, 

 narrowing it gradually from the base upward. These 

 ridges may be any length to suit the convenience of the 

 ground. The manure must be fresh horse-droppings and 

 straw, and the better the food the horses have been fed 



upon the better the results will be. Manure from the stables 

 of corn-fed horses is much superior to that from stables 

 where the food is chiefly grass or hay and otherwise poor. 

 This manure is turned three or four times before it is made 

 into ridges. It is well shaken, pressed with forks and 

 trodden down firmly as the ridge is being formed. The 

 sides are then combed with forks and beaten with spades 

 or forks. When finished it looks like a long ridge of straw 

 arranged to throw off the rain. The temperature of the 

 ridge must now be watched, as inserting the spawn in too 

 great a heat would mean inevitable failure. When the tem- 

 perature of the manure an inch or so below the surface has 

 fallen to about eighty degrees pieces of spawn-brick two 

 inches long and wide are inserted about nine inches apart 

 all over the surface of the ridge. Two or three days later 

 the ridge is coated with about two inches of soil, which is 

 put on wet and beaten with spades, a good clayey loam 

 being preferable to any other, although ordinary garden 

 soil will serve. The ridge is then covered with straw litter ; 

 the longest of that taken from the manure heap when it is 

 being turned is generally used. In cold weather this cov- 

 ering may be twelve inches thick, but in mild weather less 

 will do. The temperature on the surface of the soil should 

 be maintained at about sixty degrees. In from six to eight 

 weeks the first crop of mushrooms will be up, and if the 

 ridge is well made a continuous supply will be yielded for 

 from eight to twelve months. The estimated cost of these 

 ridges, including labor, rent, etc., is about five shillings for 

 each lineal yard, while the yield of mushrooms from a yard 

 is from twelve to fifteen pounds, the average value of which 

 is one shilling a pound. 



Cultivation under Cover. — The method of growing 

 Mushrooms in large sheds or barns is as follows : The shed 

 is divided into floors or shelves of wood four or five feet 

 apart, with passages for convenience of working. Hot- 

 water pipes are arranged for the purpose of keeping the 

 requisite surface temperature in winter ; the covering of 

 litter is thus dispensed with. The manure is prepared in 

 the same manner as for the ridges. It is then put on the 

 floors or shelves, pressed down firmly, and when finished 

 the layer of manure is from nine inches to a foot thick. 

 The beds are spawned when the temperature is about 

 eighty degrees, and a coating of wet clayey soil is placed 

 over all and pressed down firmly with a wet board or the 

 back of a spade. The mushrooms thus grown are perfectly 

 free from litter or soil of any kind, and when placed in the 

 punnets ready for market they are as white and smooth as 

 eggs. Mr. Tebbutt grew two tons of mushrooms in an old 

 barn last year, and he has this year built a shed about fifty 

 by twenty-five feet, containing four layers of shelves or 

 floors from which he expects four tons of mushrooms. Dur- 

 ing the winter and spring as much as two shillings a pound 

 is not an unusual price for these first-grade mushrooms. 



It is generally supposed that frost destroys the mycelium 

 or spawn of the mushroom if allowed to get to these arti- 

 ficial beds, but Mr. Tebbutt has proved that frost does no 

 harm beyond retarding the growth. Beds which had been 

 frozen through in severe weather have yielded a good crop 

 when brought on again by coatings and linings of fresh 

 manure. 



Many old disused buildings could be made to do good 

 work by turning them into mushroom houses, and given 

 good spawn, properly prepared stable-manure and intelli- 

 gent management the production of mushrooms by the 

 ton does not appear difficult of accomplishment. 



London. W - WatsOtl. 



We are accustomed to speak of urban parks as the lungs of 

 cities, but the ideal park is more than a laboratory for puri- 

 fying the air. It does more than offer an invitation to agree- 

 able physical exercise and a change of mental occupation. 

 Contact with and contemplation of natural scenery, especially 

 of pastoral scenery, brings positive refreshment to the mind. 

 Green pastures and still waters now, as in the days of the 

 Hebrew poet, restore the soul. This is a fundamental truth, and, 

 therefore, it has profound practical importance. — W. A. Stiles. 



