ESCULENT MUSHROOMS. 
469 
bloom, and get as great a diversity of colours 
as he can find ; and these plants may fill up a 
clump, or be planted between all the other 
flowers in the border, or be grown in pots or 
ornamental vases, with other perennials ; in 
all and every situation and position they are 
useful and gay, and lasting. They cut as well 
from one place as another for exhibiting, and 
grow stronger and better in the open ground 
to cut from than in pots. In Dutch gar- 
dens, when there is a geometrical figure, the 
colours should be alike in each bed, and 
according to the beds the colour should be 
uniform. If there be six beds of a form, 
which is very common, three alternate should 
be one colour, and three other alternate should 
be another colour ; and if any other beds are 
to be verbenas, let them form as great a con- 
trast as possible ; and if eight beds of a sort 
occur, let the alternate ones just the same be 
of one. colour, and the others of another. 
But in all geometrical gardens there are mul- 
tiples of the number next the centre ; if there 
are six in the centre circle, there are gene- 
rally twenty-four in the whole. The larger 
ones, nearer the outer circle, maybe anything, 
but verbenas are the best things for the centre 
ones, and scarlet and white give the greatest 
contrast. 
Very few of our nurseries have these beauti- 
ful plants in collections ; the most successful 
raiser and grower is, perhaps, Smith, of the 
Hornsey Road, who took six or seven prizes at 
the Metropolitan Society's autumn exhibitions. 
At this nursery all that are worth growing, or 
that are put forth as promising, are grown in 
collections, and a considerable number of seed- 
lings are flowered every year. It is needless 
to say that many bad ones are let out for one 
good one, and Mr. Smith's collection of all 
that were advertized by others as first-rate 
sorts is worth inspecting, if it were only to 
enable a collector to congratulate himself on 
his escape from the same infliction. Perhaps 
out of two or three score of verbenas strongly 
recommended by dealers, you may find, if 
lucky, three or four good enough to retain and 
propagate, and the rest not worth keeping. 
This is the nurseryman's drawback in all 
branches of his trade — he must buy everything 
for fear of missing a good one, and he finds 
himself with twenty worthless for one that he 
can recommend as good. The greatest fault 
in the verbena is the narrow segment and deep 
notch ; the improvement, therefore, to look for 
is in the widening of the segments, and the 
shallowing or the disappearance of the notch. 
This is not to be accomplished all at once, but 
many beautiful varieties, with very much 
widened lobes, have driven the narrow lobes 
from the field, and they will very likely, ere 
long, arrive at something approaching the 
circle, and entirely lose the notch. Many 
of the flowers are thick, and therefore last a 
considerable time in bloom ; besides which, 
the plant naturally continues growing and 
blooming for months. This is promoted by 
cutting off the decayed flowers if seed is not 
wanted, for nothing weakens a plant more, or 
hastens its decay sooner, than allowing it to 
seed. The only employment we ever care to see 
a lady engaged in, as a garden job, is cutting 
off the decaying blooms from plants when 
seed is not required, for the growth of every 
thing is greatly retarded by the swelling of 
the seed-pods or fruit, and it is a job by no 
means too masculine ; we should be sorry to 
see a female at the unfeminine labour of dig- 
ging, even with the kind of spade recom- 
mended by Mrs. Loudon, and should strongly 
suspect that any female who followed the 
directions, had been brought up in a market- 
garden, and in her time had hoed onions at a 
shilling a day ; but there is nothing unfe- 
minine or indelicate in cutting off the decaying 
flowers, that the health and flowering beauties 
of a plant might be prolonged. 
ESCULENT MUSHROOMS. 
It is a curious fact that although a consider- 
able number of species of fungi are freely 
eaten in Italy, our common mushroom, the 
Agaricus campestris, is there interdicted, and 
any specimens of it brought to the fungus 
market at Rome are sent under escort, and 
thrown into the Tiber. 
This Agaric is almost the only kind of 
fungus which is commonly used in this coun- 
try, notwithstanding that other kinds abound, 
which are decidedly wholesome, although they 
are — chiefly through ignorance — suffered to 
perish, or are regarded as so many nuisances. 
Both Russia and Italy are famous for the 
number of their esculent funguses, and for 
the quantity of them which are used as food 
both in a fresh and dried state. In both 
these countries a considerable proportion of 
the food of the poor is thus derived ; and a 
large annual amount is realized from their 
public sale. No good reason exists why this 
source of food should not be turned to ac- 
count in our own country ; in fact in times 
of scarcity, the use of fungi in this way 
would be a source of public benefit, and the 
neglect of them can therefore be only looked 
upon as a public loss. 
It may be proper to state, that all fungi 
should be used with great caution, for even 
some of the wholesome kinds acquire delete- 
rious properties when grown under peculiar 
circumstances. Some kinds are naturally very 
virulent. The edible species should be well 
masticated, as this greatly lessens the effect 
