March 13, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
441 
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 
All gardeners will agree that whilst choice flowers 
are the “Beauties” of our gardens, Toadstools are the 
“Beasts.” It, however, often happens (as shown in 
the accompanying illustration) that the “ Beauty,” as 
in Madame Villeneuve’s fairy tale, is actually married 
to the “Beast.” The “ Beauty’s ” love, in the present 
garden instance, could never disenchant the offensive 
Toadstool and cause it to become a beautiful garden 
Cyclamen. 
It is a fact—not so well known as it should be 
amongst gardeners—that there are many of the larger 
steak, and gives an enticing flavour to stews. Many 
fungi only grow’ inside our dwelling-houses. 
Once, when on a visit to a famous nursery, we ob¬ 
served a profuse growth of some very large Agarics 
(Mushroom-like fungi) on tanner's hark in one of the 
Orchid-houses. This was Agaricus volvaeeus, and is 
well known to commonly grow in such material, where 
it proves an intolerable nuisance. Another fungus 
which also invades bark, and covers it with a filthy 
yellow slime, is JEthalium vaporarium. This pest is 
sometimes so common in Pine pits that no fruit 
can he grown. A bright yellow Agaric, sometimes very 
common in greenhouses and gardens, is A. cepsestipes. 
ever he goes. Like man himself, several fungi arc with 
him cosmopolitan. 
There is only one effectual mode of lessening the 
numbers of the “Beasts” amongst the “Beauties,” 
and that is to look after the former and give them the 
“ happy dispatch ” whenever seen. The needful pre¬ 
paration of the garden for flowering plants is also a 
preparation of the soil for certain noxious fungi. The 
state of things which suits the “ Beauty” exactly suits 
the garden “ Beast.” 
The edible Mushroom is, of course, a mere cultivated 
and aristocratic “ Beast,” which lives a pampered life 
on a prepared garden dunghill; it is, however, culti- 
Beautt and the Beast. 
From a water-colour drawing by Mr. Worthington G. Smith , F.L.S. 
fungi or Toadstools almost or entirely peculiar to 
gardens. These fungi do not grow in fields, woods, 
and waste places, but always in garden-beds, where 
(“Beasts ” as they are) they grow in close and intimate 
companionship with the gardener’s prized “ Beauties.” 
A large number of offensive fungi only grow in green¬ 
houses or stoves, and these parasites (for such many of 
them are) maybe classed with the poor but “distin¬ 
guished foreigners,” of which we have not a few of 
another class (not vegetable) amongst us. Some of the 
larger fungi, like certain flowering plants or w’eeds, 
always dog the footsteps of man and grow close to his 
house. One of these, Coprinus comatus, v’as happily 
termed by the late Dr. Bull, of Hereford, the “Agaric 
of civilisation,” because it is never seen far from human 
habitations. Happily, the latter plant may be looked 
upon as a “ useful ” friend, for it is one of the choice 
edible class. It makes a delicious adjunct to fried 
Peziza vesiculosa is extremely common in most gar¬ 
dens and on heaps of tan. The fungus shown in the 
illustration is Coprinus deliqueseens, so called because 
it dissolves into an inky fluid at the time of maturity. 
The Bird’s-nest fungus, Cyathus vernicosus, is also 
extremely common in gardens, especially in the paths, 
so is Agaricus durus ; but the publication of a long 
string of Latin names would be of little interest to 
the practical readers of Tile Gardening World. 
Suffice it to say that there is a very large number of the 
larger fungi only found in stoves, greenhouses, and 
open gardens ; some from the latter position, of course, 
may at times be found straying to cultivated fields and 
roadsides. It will never be possible to rid ourselves of 
the fungi which grow in and close to our habitations, 
for they are in a manner part of ourselves ; they cannot 
be destroyed whilst the human family lives. Like 
Nettles, they accompany man in his wanderings where- 
vated like a “Beauty.” If heaps of horse-dung are 
noticed in the fields in autumn, it will often be observed 
that they are covered with groups of drooping deli¬ 
quescent fungoid “Beasts.” Now it is by no means 
uncommon to see an army of these dissolving “ Beasts 
on Mushroom beds, where, owing to their large numbers, 
they are soon able to completely oust and exterminate 
the rightful aristocratic fungoid “Beauties,” the 
Mushrooms. 
The fungus “ Beasts” of our gardens are reproduced 
by spores—bodies answering the purpose of seeds— 
and these seeds or spores cannot effectually grow on 
hard and unprepared ground. Like many flower seeds, 
they require a certain amount of “coddling” and 
“nursing,” and this they get in the carefully prepared 
garden soil, and in the occasional protection of a cold 
frame and a few’ mats, as given by the gardener.— 
Worthington G. Smith, Dunstable. 
