1S70. ] 
MUSHEOOM-CULTUKE. 
177 
It is a very local plant, and altliougli abounding in certain places, more 
especially in some parts of Kent, it is not so frequently met witli as many other 
natives. It has been observed in a small streamlet which flows hard by the 
ruined walls of Merton Abbey, where King John is said to have slept the night 
before he signed the Magna Charta at Eunnymede. The same streamlet, after 
passing under a rude arch, runs along the side of what was formerly the garden 
of the immortal Nelson, the hero of the Nile—where, it will be remembered, a 
certain war-vessel yclept the L’Orient ” came to grief, and sundry similar craft 
composing a certain fleet, were put to confusion in such sort, that the few which 
kept afloat at the close of the engagement turned their sterns to the land of the 
Pyramids, and made sail with all convenient speed for the coasts of Gaul. 
The Water Soldier, Stratiotes aloides, in some respects resembles the Frog- 
bit, while in others it is very dissimilar. The flowers are of the same shape, 
though somewhat larger, and of a purer white. The leaves are about 18 in. 
long, tapering to a point, of a glossy, transparent green, thickly set with 
large teeth along the edges, and more like those of a Pandanus or the crown of a 
Pine-apple, than those of an Aloe. It does not coil itself for the winter like the 
Frog-bit, but remains quiet at the bottom of the water. It rises again about 
July, when the flowers stand up boldly above the surface, and as they generally 
appear in considerable numbers, they do resemble to some extent the white 
cockades of a company of the old English Volunteers, which in days gone by 
might have been seen mustering in strong force on many a village green; hence 
the name. Water Soldier,—though, happily for the volunteer, the diving part of 
the business, practised by the plant once a year, did not form part of his discipline. 
It is rather a dangerous plant to introduce into ponds, large or small, unless 
partly destroyed every season, as it increases so rapidly by suckers, that a few 
plants will fill up a large space almost as quickly as the Anacliaris Alsinastnimj 
or American Water-weed. It requires no planting, but merely throwing into the 
water. In tanks or very small ponds it is easily kept in subjection. As in the 
case of the Frog-bit, only one species is known.—AV. Buckley, Tooting. 
MUSHROOM-CULTUPvE. 
TTENTION has of late been specially directed to the cultivation of these 
sapid esculents, by the publication of Mr. Eobinson’s observations on the 
methods adopted in France, and by the issue of some practical brochures, 
Y explanatory of the mode of procedure usually followed in this country. 
In a recent publication,^ from which the annexed woodcuts arc borrowed, Mr. 
Eobinson has collected the substance of his former writings, and has added a 
considerable mass of information from other sources, so as to produce a kind of 
handbook of Mushrooms for mushroom-growers, the scope and object of which is 
* Mushroom-Culture: its Extension and Improvement. By W. Eobinson, K.L.S., author of “The Parks, 
Promenades, and Gardens of Paris,” &c. With numerous Illustrations. 
