41)6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



general rule ; but, if so, it has never resulted in practical application. 

 It is commonly asserted that the spores of the Mushroom itself will not 

 germinate thoroughly until they have passed through the intestines of a 

 horse. The grounds for this assertion lie in the fact that only from 

 horsedung can fertile mycelium be obtained. Some years since an 

 American correspondent informed me that he had succeeded in feeding 

 certain insects on Agaric spores, and that these dead insects could be 

 utilised, and would by cultivation produce a crop of the original Agaric, 

 on the spores of which the insects had been fed. I was promised a con- 

 signment of these insects, in order to test the assertion, but they never 

 arrived, and I could hear no more of the experiments. 



Here, then, lies the difficulty, that with even the most approved and 

 satisfactory of the edible Fungi, there is no known and certain method 

 of cultivation, with the one familiar exception. If the mystery could be 

 solved how, and through what means, the uncultivated Agarics of our 

 woods and pastures reproduce themselves year by year, we might hope to 

 increase our list of edible Fungi amenable to cultivation. 



During a life of rather more than an average length I have eaten of 

 no less than eighty species of edible Fungi, and yet I am not addicted to 

 experiment, for all of these were taken upon the faith of someone who 

 had already made the experiment, my own share in the venture being 

 the accurate determination of the species consumed. And yet it is 

 probable that quite half of this number, if not more, were simply capable 

 of being eaten without personal injury, but with nothing better to recom- 

 mend them. I venture to think that the number of esculent species, 

 found wild in this country, which are really worth the trouble of collecting 

 and eating, are few in comparison with the number which may be eaten 

 without inconvenience, and therefore are classed as edible. And, even 

 with the best, so much depends upon the capacity of the cook that their 

 doom may be sealed in the kitchen. 



(1) Foremost in popularity and general utility stands 



The Cultivated Mushroom : Agaricus campestris, 



although I may possibly be one of the heretics who consider two or three 

 other species to be equal, if not superior. This species is known and 

 generally appreciated over a great part of the habitable world, though 

 often in its uncultivated form. We hear of it all over Europe, in Siberia, 

 Northern India, Ceylon, Mongolia, North and South America, South 

 Africa, Oceania, Australia, Tasmania : in fact, almost cosmopolitan, wher- 

 ever the climate will permit it to flourish. It is curious that amongst the 

 native tribes of North-Western India and on the slopes of the Himalayas 

 it is recognised as good for food, and is collected for that purpose. Many 

 species an; eaten in China, but whether this is one of them has not yet 

 been definitely ascertained, but it is extremely probable. 



(2) Whether the uncultivated form, which is met with in pastures, is 

 Buperior or inferior in flavour to the cultivated form, is matter of opinion. 

 Some myoophagista are so strongly in favour of the wild Mushroom that 

 they will not eat the latter if the former can be obtained. And here, 



