692 



FUNGACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



1577. The garden mushroom^ Agaricus campestris Z,., is a hynienomyce- 

 taceous fungus, a native of Britain and most parts of Europe^ appearing in 

 pastures in August and September, and readily distinguished from other 

 fungi by its fine pink or flesh-coloured gills, and pleasant smell. As the 

 natural history of the mushi-oom was given when treating of the mode of 

 forcing it (Till), and as there are no varieties to be described, we have only 

 to notice a practice sometimes adopted of growing the mushroom, in imi- 

 tation of nature, in grass-lawns and pastures. The attempt will not succeed 

 in every soil and situation, but it has done so in a great many instances. 

 Take mushroom spawn — the mode of procm-ing which has been already 

 given (1113) — and in the beginning of July inoculate a lawn or pasture 

 with it by simply raising one piece of turf, three inches thick, with the 

 spade, in every square yard, inserting a small fragment of spawn beneath it, 

 and pressing it firmly down again with the back of the spade or the foot. 

 Tliis will not interfere with the mowing of the lawn, and in all probability a 

 crop will be produced during the latter end of August and the beguming of 

 September; and mushrooms will appear of themselves in the same ground 

 for a number of years afterwards. jMushroora spawn has also been planted 

 among potatoes and other crops in the open garden, and has produced mush- 

 rooms, but no mode yet discovered is so certain as those in which artificial 

 heat and a bed of stable-dung is employed (G. M., vol. ix., p. 223). The 

 mushroom, when cultivated in houses, is liable to the attacks of various 

 insects, slugs, and worms, all of which may be collected by baits, or devoured 

 by a toad or two kept on purpose. 



1578. The truffle, Tuber cibarium Sibth., is a gasteromycetaceous fungus, 

 a native of Britain, and growitig naturally some inches below the surface. 

 It is very common in the downs of "NT^'iltshire, Hampsliire, and Kent, 

 where dogs are trained to scent it out, and where also it is sought out and 

 devoured by pigs ; — which on the Continent are used to discover the localities 

 of this fungus, as dogs are in England. It is sent to the Loudon market 

 from different parts of England in a green state, and imported from the 

 Continent sliced and dried ; the most celebrated truffles are those from the 

 oak forests of Perigord. Various attempts have been made, both in Britain 

 and on the Continent, to cultivate the truffle, but hitherto without success 

 {G. M. I., VIII., andXUl.); but it would appear that Dr. Klotzsch, 

 of Berlin, has ascertained that the best course is to take truffles which are no 

 longer good for the table, bemg over-ripe, and nearly in a state of decompo- 

 sition, diffusing a disagreeable odour ; to break them into pieces, and place 

 them two inches or three inches deep in the earth, in rather raised flat 

 places, under copse or underwood, protected from the north and east winds. 

 Truffles in the state in which they are eaten are never ripe, and therefore 

 unfit for propagation. — (^Gard. Chron. 1842, p. 287.) 



1579. The morel, Morche'lla esculenta Pers., belongs to the same division 

 of fungi as the ti-uffie. It is a native of Britain in wet banks, in woods, and 

 in moist pastures, and is in perfection in May and June. When gathered 

 dry it will keep several months. It is used for the same purpose as the 

 truffle, but like it has not as yet been subjected to cultivation. 



1580. Suhstitutea for these fungi may be found in a number of species of 

 the same genera, more especially of Agaricus, but as a great number of 

 fungi are considered poisonous, it would be dangerous for any one to collect 

 tliem for edible purposes from mere description without figures. We refer 

 therefore to Suwerby's English Fungi, in which coloured plates are given of 



