Sept.] THE CULINARY GARDEN. 22\ 



CULTIVATION OF MUSHROOMS. 



That mushrooms are produced by seed is beyond all doubt, 

 and, although exceedingly minute, it is proved by microscopic 

 examination to be produced in astonishing quantities, and 

 placed between the gills. Thin plates of talc have been placed 

 under a large mushroom by Knight, as detailed in the Horti- 

 cultural Transactions, at the period when the minute globular 

 bodies, which are supposed to be the seeds, first begin to be 

 disengaged from the gills, and the numbers which fell in a 

 given period, within the narrow field of a very powerful lens, 

 amounted, according to the nearest and lowest calculation that 

 could be made, to two hundred and fifty millions of seeds, 

 from one mushroom, in ninety-six hours. These seeds were 

 mixed with unfcrmented horse-dung, and produced plenty of 

 spawn. A great portion of these minute seeds is, probably, 

 abortive, and, when ripe, are disengaged from the parent 

 plant, and caiTied in all directions by the wind, or other ef- 

 fective causes, and falling upon bodies not congenial to their 

 natures, many remain in a dormant state, or soon lose altoge- 

 ther their vegetative properties. 



This seems to be the general case with the seeds of cryp- 

 togamous plants ; the air at times must be replete with these 

 minute bodies, which are blown about in all directions, and 

 falling on all objects, vegetate in particular seasons on certain 

 bodies and in certain situations, so that no space is left in the 

 whole universe, that is not productive of the works of nature. 

 Those seeds of mushroom, which may have fallen on matter 

 congenial with their nature, make their appearance in due 

 time, when put into a state of active vegetation by a genial 

 temperature, and a proper degi*ee of moisture. The dung of 

 some animals seems to be the proper nidus for the reception of 

 their seeds. That of horses is found to preserve them in a 

 greater quantity, and with gi'eater certainty, than any other. 

 " Hence it would appear," says Nicol, " that their stomachs 

 have less power to hurt or to destroy the vegetable quality of 

 these seeds, which being collected along with their food, must 

 pass through their intestines, than that of other animals ; or 

 perhaps the dung of horses is a better nidus for the seeds than 



