140 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
supports may be well concealed by painting 
them black, and not having them too thick 
and clumsy. W. H. 
BARBACENIA SQUAMATA, OF HOOKER. 
SCALY-STALKED BARBACENIA. 
A singular and rather pretty dwarf stove- 
plant, with long narrow leaves, and bright 
orange or scarlet flowers. The leaves are five 
or six inches long, and somewhat resemble 
those of a miniature Yucca ; and the flower 
scapes rise solitary from among the terminal 
leaves. It was imported from the Organ 
mountains of Brazil, by Messrs. Yeitch, of 
Exeter. A stove temperature is necessary 
for it, with a somewhat drier atmosphere than 
is often kept in these structures ; it will also 
require a well-drained open soil, and to be 
rather limited in the supply of water at the 
roots. 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Edible Fungi of Australia. — 
Whatever is employed as an article of food 
by any portion of the human race, becomes at 
once invested with an interest which no other 
consideration can attach to it. Viewed in 
this light, the lower orders of plants, and 
Fungi especially, become highly interesting. 
Here, in this favoured land, we cannot indeed 
estimate duly the feelings which they excite in 
the inhabitants of less favoured countries. 
" Few orders of plants," writes Mr. Drum- 
mond, "appear to contribute more to the 
support of animal life than the Fungi in 
Western Australia. Many species, particu- 
larly of the genus Boletus, are used as food by 
the natives, and directly supply no inconsider- 
able portion of their support for several months 
in the year. I have often been surprised 
at the large number of Fungi that arc eaten by 
almost all the marsupial animals. Of many 
species, I am satisfied that scarce a hundredth 
part escapes them ; so assiduous are they in 
watching them, that of several sorts which 
are common in the ground, they rarely allow 
one to appear above the surface. They are 
directed to them apparently by smell, and the 
cracking of the ground over them ; and dig 
them up and devour them, leaving only some 
fragments to tell where they grew ; and 
several of our Fungi I only know from frag- 
ments seen of them in that way. 
" The most delicious of our Fungi, for the 
table, is a plant nearly allied to Boletus. The 
whole plant is white; the lower part is fari- 
naceous, like a meally potato ; the shape of 
the upper part is irregular, generally angular, 
uneven above. It is common in a particular 
sort of land, but it is so eagerly sought by the 
fungi vorous animals, that it was with great 
difficulty I could procure a few specimens. 
The only thing which generally remains to 
show where they have dug it up and eaten it, 
is a little of the white powdery part." 
We have taken the above account from the 
London Journal of Botany, an interesting 
periodical, conducted by Sir W. J. Hooker. 
Perhaps the use of Fungi, as an article of 
human food, is no where, among civilized 
nations, carried to the extent it is in Russia. 
Proper Soil for Dahlias. — Sandy loam, 
enriched with vegetable mould, such as an old 
pasture fresh turned up with the turfs in it, 
beats all the prepared earth or compost you 
can make for them. The decomposition of 
the turfs provides ample nourishment; blooms 
them clean ; and grows them healthy and 
strong. There is, however, some danger in 
fresh pastures, for there are too many bots, and 
grubs, and wire-worms ; so that the best way 
to prepare the place is to pare off the turfs 
and turn them over, for many of the enemies 
are destroyed by birds, and then care must be 
taken to pick out every thing of the kind as 
you dig up the soil, and the oftener it is dug 
over before the period of planting the better, 
both for the perfection of the soil, and the expul- 
sion of vermin. It is not at all necessary that 
the grass should be rotted, for the fresh earth 
will do all that is wanted the first season: 
when dung is used it should be in moderation. 
The passion for large growth is a silly one; 
the moderate sized, compact flowers, brought 
forward with as little artificial means as pos- 
sible, is the growth for us, for assuredly the 
Dahlia may be grown too large to be good ; 
and, indeed, the plant may be grown too hard 
to flower until a late period of the season, and 
thus all the benefit thrown away, because the 
flowers when they come are no longer avail- 
ble. G. 
