February 21, 1896. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
167 
as the plants are commencing to make new growths. It is of compara¬ 
tively easy cultivation, and delights in a good loamy soil with a fair 
amount of root room, for if stinted in this respect the foliage is not so 
fine either in size or colour. 
CiSSUS DISCOLOR. 
In this we have one of the most showy and highly coloured foliage 
plants that can be found amongst our stove climbers. The bright velvety 
green foliage, spotted on the upper side with white, the under side being 
of a deep reddish purple, is very effective. It may be grown in a variety 
of ways, being equally at home either trained over a balloon or along 
the roof of the stove, but nowhere is it seen to better advantage than 
when trained over lofty roof girders, or arches, or up pillars in a warm 
conservatory, its long sprays of growth, when so employed, if allowed 
to hang in graceful festoons, presenting a pleasing and attractive 
appearance. 
The best means of propagation is by layering, which may easily be 
effected aa follows :—Prepare a sufficient number of small pots by 
filling them with a mixture of fibry peat and sharp sand. This being 
accomplished select a few of the strongest growths, and place every 
second or third joint on a pot, just covering it with soil and securing it 
with a small wooden or wire peg ; do not cut the joints in any way, but 
keep the plants, layers and soil, moist to encourage them to emit roots, 
when in about three weeks they may be severed from the parent plant 
and grown in the ordinary way. This plan far surpasses that of 
taking cuttings. If given a temperature of from 65° to 70° the colour 
will be much better and richer than when grown in a cooler house. 
C. discolor delights in light, rich open soil ; a mixture of good turfy peat, 
fibrous loam and leaf soil, together with a small amount of charcoal 
and silver sand, suiting them admirably. Great care should be taken 
to supply an adequate amount of drainage, for anything approaching 
stagnation about the roots is very detrimental to the well-being of this 
class of plants. When the plants are growing a little liquid manure 
will prove beneficial to them, but it must not be given too strong or it 
will do more harm than good.— Geo. Paerant, Ashly Lodge Gardens, 
Rughj. 
SPAWNING MUSHROOM BEDS. 
Under this heading, “ Mushroom ” (on page 102) has asked for 
information as to the temperatures found most suitable for this, one 
of the important points in the culture of Mushrooms. Perhaps a few 
words as to the method we follow may be acceptable to others 
as well as “ Mushroom,” though if any inexperienced readers would 
provide themselves with “Wright’s Mushrooms for the Million” there 
would be small necessity for anything I may be able to say on the 
subject. 
In the first place good spawn is absolutely indispensable. I believe 
in many instances failures have been attributed to carelessness or 
ignorance on the part of the cultivator which were really nothing more 
or less than the result of bad or feeble spawn. Now, as to the manure. 
Ours is saved in small quantities every day and spread about a foot in 
thickness in a large shed until it is thought enough has been obtained, 
but owing to being collected thus the usual practice of turning every 
other day is dispensed with, as it has been found that the spawn acts 
more quickly and the beds last longer under these circumstances ; if, 
however, the manure could be obtained fresh at one or two gatherings 
1 should certainly have it turned until quite sweet. All that is 
done, however, is to mix the later gathered droppings with those 
obtained earlier, and the whole is then turned once or twice before 
making up the bed. 
The form of the beds may be such as seem most convenient under 
differing means of shelter, if any. Ours are made flat one above the 
other on shelves in a house at this season. The beds are about a foot in 
thickness, beaten firm, bat not really hard. I believe it is quite possible 
to make Mushroom beds too hard. From what I have seen of spawn 
working in a loose dry heap of manure during the past summer, I have 
been led to the conclusion that failure may have occurred through 
making the beds just about as hard as a road. At the same time do not 
err in making them loose, let them be firm, but with an elastic firmness. 
In the matter of spawning let us take as an instance a bed spawned 
on the 5th January. This bed was made up in the ordinary way, 
and sticks were inserted by which to judge the temperature, which rose 
rather high for a few days. I do not know how high, as a thermometer 
is never used by me for this purpose. At the first opportunity after the 
heat was found to be declining the spawn was inserted in pieces from 
2 to 3 inches square, and about 9 inches apart all over the bed. In 
spawning a deeper or thicker bed, it would most likely be found wise to 
wait until the heat had declined to about 80°, but for shallow beds such 
as ours all the heat possible should be taken advantage of for “running” 
the spawn. In a fortnight after spawning the bed mentioned was full 
of white cloudy mycelium from end to end. The Mushrooms are now, 
February 4th, coming up in all directions, lifting the soil, and some of 
the earliest are almost ready for gathering. 
_ I forgot to say that soil is placed on the beds from 1 to 2 inches 
thick after the spawn is put in. Where turf can be spared for the 
purpose the idea of turfing Mushroom beds, as mentioned in the Journal 
some week or two back, appears to me well worth carrying out. Our 
soil has generally grown a crop of Cucumbers or Melons before being 
used for Mushrooms. 
My experience of peat moss litter for Mushrooms has been short, 
but certainly not sweet. A load of manure procured from a cab 
proprietor in the town near was found on arrival to consist of the 
litter. It is not too much to say that after being at considerable trouble 
to, as it was thought, get the manure sweet, it grew us the finest lot of 
an unknown fungus (unknown to me at any rate) that I have ever seen 
grow on a proposed Mushroom bed. 
It has been mentioned times enough perhaps that the manure from 
horses frequently under physic is of little or no value, that it is true I 
have proved to my own satisfaction a year or two ago. In a place 
where the horses were often the recipients of medicine in one form or 
other I tried to grow Mushrooms in every position I could think of. I 
should say that from all the beds made in the course of two years 
possibly half a dozen Mushrooms were procured.—J. W. K. 
Your correspondent “ Mushroom” (page 102) appears to have been 
unfortunate with his Mushroom beds. It is not unusual for a bed after 
being made up to reach 120°, and would afterwards do well if, aa was 
the case with the bed mentioned by “ Mushroom,” the material was in 
a suitable condition. My practice after having the manure carted to a 
spot near where the bed will be made up, is to have it carefully turned 
over, at the same time shaking out all long straw, retaining only the 
short litter and manure, which is left in a ridge and lightly covered 
until the trial peg feels uncomfortably warm to the hand ; it is then 
turned every second or third day until the rankness has left the manure^ 
which will be in a fortnight from the time it is first thrown in a ridge. 
For the summer supply they are grown on ridges 3 feet wide at the 
base, and 2^ feet high, length according to manure we have on hand. 
Trial sticks are placed at intervals the length of the bed, and examined 
daily. The heat will sometimes rise rapidly for a few days, and when 
it has reached its highest temperature and declined to about 95° it may 
be spawned. If a thermometer is used it should be plunged from 2 to 
3 inches near where the spawn will be placed. Each brick of 
spawn should be broken into eight or ten pieces and put in the bed 
8 inches or a foot apart, and 2 inches deep, when it must be covered 
with 2 inches of soil, good strong loam with the rough pieces riddled out 
will be most suitable. A light covering of litter is again thrown over 
the bed, this being added to from time to time if the temperature on the 
soil is likely to get below 80°, during the first month when the spawn 
will have permeated throughout the bed. I prefer covering the bed 
with soil at the time of spawning, to leaving it, as is sometimes done, 
until the mycelium is moving in the bed. 
A bed may be spawned at any temperature from 80° to 95° if the 
heat is on the decline, but if spawned at the higher temperature the 
Mushrooms will appear in a shorter period, or from six to eight weeks ; 
if at the lower, from eight to twelve weeks, except in the late autumn 
or winter, when they will not appear until the following spring. The 
finest Mushrooms are obtained from beds spawned at 80°, and they are 
produced over a longer time than if spawned at a higher temperature, 
not throwing so many at one time, which is sometimes an advantage 
where a continual supply is required, rather than a large number at a 
given time. 
A couple of spare beds are spawned during September, and we find 
them very useful in the following summer, as they are more to be 
depended on from May onwards than beds spawned in March or April, 
and Mushrooms are in greater demand with us in the summer than 
winter.—J. D. S. 
ORDERING SEEDS. 
Some years ago, when I was in the employ of one of our largest 
seed merchants, I remember the blessings that were called down on the 
head of many a British gardener because he allowed procrastination to 
overcome him, and refrained from ordering seeds during the prevalence 
of a somewhat severe frost. The seedsmen kicked their toes on the 
sacks, hammered their hands on the counters, and prayed for orders that 
they might have work and warmth. However, prayers availed but 
little, the orders did not come until the weather changed, then there 
was a rush, as everyone wanted them complied with at once. Still the 
seedsmen were not satisfied, and the prayer changed to one for fresh air 
and sleep. Midnight found them slaving, and at six o’clock in the 
morning they were at it again. They were weary and worn and sad, 
and the remarks on the gardeners were numerous, pointed, and 
moreover just. 
As was the case in my younger days, so it is now; and if it is possible 
for anyone to call attention to a class of men generally underpaid, and 
mostly overworked, in such manner as to improve their position in either 
respect, he certainly ought to do so. A few days ago I was in the seed 
department of a well-known and highly respected firm, and asked how 
orders were coming in. I was met with the expected reply, “Very 
slowly ; the gardeners will not send their orders until the frost gives 
way, and then we shall be worked to death.” I have been through the 
mill, and heartily sympathise with the numerous seedsmen who are so- 
situated at the present time. 
Why will not the gardener order his seeds early 1 No substantial 
reason can be adduced for what has become with many a mistaken 
practice which may tell against himself. “ There is frost in the air 
and snow on the ground, and I cannot sow my seeds if I procure them, 
so I may as well wait a while until the weather takes a change.” Pause 
and think of the possible consequences of “putting off till to-morrow.”^ 
Think of the men who have your order to execute. Bear in mind that 
they cannot have the inestimable benefits of fresh air such as you have to 
maintain the all-important health and strength. Remember the loss 
