KITCHEX-G ARDEN PLANTS. 



[CUAP. 



handsful of the earth immediately round them : you will find a 

 quantity of small bulbs, as it were, of mushrooms, and of stuff like 

 coarse thread. Put this in ridges on an old cucumber bed, and 

 keep off heavy rains, and when you find that these have extended 

 themselves, and are formed into a quantity of mouldy-looking 

 flakes, take them up and keep them in any dry place till you want 

 them, when you plant little pieces of the size of the top of your 

 thumb, or a little bigger. There is some danger of mistaking 

 other funguses (and less innocent ones) for mushrooms, therefore, 

 observe that the mushroom comes up precisely in the form of a 

 little round white button, w hich gradually opens itself, till, if per- 

 mitted to stand long enough, it becomes almost flat on the top. 

 It is white everywhere but on the under side of the crown, which is 

 of a pale red, becoming of a brownish colour as it advances in age. 

 I cannot conclude without observing that some of these funguses 

 are deemed extremely unwholesome ; some people even think 

 them poisonous, and that the mushroom is only the least noxious. 

 I once ate about three spoonsful at table at Mr. Tiviothy Brown's 

 at Peckham, which had been cooked, I suppose, in the usual way ; 

 but I had not long eaten them before my whole body, face, hands 

 and all, was covered with red spots c r pimples, and to such a 

 degree, and coming on so fast, that the doctor who attended the 

 family was sent for. He thought nothing of it, gave me a little 

 draught of some sort, and the pimples went away ; but I attri- 

 buted it then to the mushrooms. The next year, I had mushrooms 

 in my own garden at Botley, and I determined to try the experi- 

 ment whether they would have the same effect again ; but, not 

 liking to run any risk, I took only a tea-spoonful, or rather a 

 French cofi'ee-spoonful, which is larger than a common tea-spoon. 

 They had just the same eiiect, both as to sensation and outward 

 appearance ! From that day to this I have never touched mush- 

 rooms, for I conclude that there must be something poisonous in 

 that Avhich will so quickly produce the eftects that I have de- 

 scribed, a d on a healthy and hale body like mine ; and, therefore, 

 I do no: advise any one to cultivate these things. 



160. MUSTARD. — There is a ic kite-seeded sort and a hroicn- 

 seeded. The ickite mustard is used in salads along with the cress, 

 or pepper-grass, and is sowed and cultivated in the same way 

 (see Cress). The hlack is that which the flour is made of for 

 table-use. It is sowed in rows at two feet apart early in the 



