44G 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March. U, 1891. 
The Amateurs’ Garden. 
SEASONABLE WORK in the GARDEN. 
Gloxinias.—Early batches of seedlings should he 
seen to as soon as they become fit to handle, otherwise 
they will get drawn and spoiled in the early stages of 
their development. Erick them off singly into pots or 
pans, replacing them in the same house on a shelf near 
the glass. 
Achimenes.—The short, tuber-like rhizomes of 
Achimenes may be removed from the soil in which 
they have been kept since the plants were dried off 
last autumn. Place them in pans amongst soil con¬ 
sisting in great part of decayed leaves, with a smaller 
quantity of loam, peat, and sand. Cover them, not 
v.ery deeply, and place them in a warm pit or propa¬ 
gating house to start them. They may afterwards be 
removed into pots or baskets, allowing a greater 
distance between each plant. 
Palms.—If these have not yet been potted by 
this, no further time should be lost in having it done 
before fresh growth commences. The compost may 
consist of good fibrous loam and peat in equal parts, 
with some ground bones and sand to keep the whole 
porous. With a rich compost of this nature, the plants 
can be kept in a healthy state for some years, even in 
comparatively small pots. Over-potting should always 
be avoided. 
Chinese Primulas.—Seeds should now be sown 
if a batch of plants is wanted for autumn flowering. 
Pot off the plants singly in small pots, keeping them 
near the glass in the pit where they have been raised 
until the weather becomes sufficiently warm for them 
to be placed in a cold frame, and later on into one with 
a north aspect. Of course, if a heated frame is at 
command, they may be taken there as soon as they 
have become re-established in the fresh soil. 
Vines.—With the great improvement in the 
light, the early Vines wiil now gain strength and 
make up for the delay caused in their early stages 
by the severe cold and latterly by the prevailing fogs. 
Piaise the night temperature to 68°, increasing it to 80° 
early in the day. Commence to give air when the 
temperature rises to 75°, and increase it as the heat 
becomes greater. Close the house early in the after¬ 
noon. Muscat of Alexandria started about the middle 
of last month may now receive a rise of temperature, 
say 70° at night, rising ten degrees by day. 
Potatos,—The ground is now in excellent condition 
owing to the long-continued dry weather, and the 
planting and sowing of various crops may be proceeded 
with in real earnest. Early kinds of Potatos, but par¬ 
ticularly the different kidneys, should be planted 
without delay, as other kinds of work will come 
crowding on presently. 
Cauliflower.—The planting out of stock wintered 
in cold frames should be accomplished presently, pro¬ 
vided the plants have been well hardened off. Allow 
about 30 ins. each way between the plants, and choose 
a sheltered position well exposed to light, and rich soil 
for them. Guard them in the early stages from slugs 
if the weather becomes moist and warm. 
Brussels Sprouts. — Early sown (that is, under 
glass) plants of these should be transplanted from the 
seed bed before they get crowded. This will encourage 
a good development of roots and also prevent the 
stems from getting drawn and leggy. The frames in 
which Cauliflower has been kept in winter will be 
suitable for them. 
Fruit Garden.—All pruning and nailing should 
by this time be completed ; and digging, if not in the 
same forward state, should be hurried on without 
further delay. Freshly planted trees should be staked 
and mulched at once. Before the digging i3 done, 
however, all trees that were badly affected with 
American blight last year should be gone over and 
brushed with paraffin where there is any evidence of 
the enemy to be seen. 
Celery.—Sow seeds for the main crop, and prick off 
the seedlings into boxes as soon as they are fit to 
handle. The boxes may be placed in a vinery at work, 
where the heat and moisture will encourage growth. 
Tomatos.—Pot on plants that are intended for 
indoor work, and keep them as near the glass as 
possible, so that they may ge.t a maximum of light 
and be kept dwarf and sturdy. Even those that are 
intended for planting out in a house must be attended 
to much in the same way. 
Eupatoriums.—The later kinds will soon com¬ 
mence to show flower, reminding us that the time is 
now come to take cuttings for next year’s work. 
Healthy young cuttings should be used, and if they 
cannot be had from young plants coming into flower, a 
plant or two may be sacrificed, according to the 
quantity of cuttings required, by cutting them down to 
encourage fresh growth. 
Anthuriums.—Potting may now be accomplished 
where the operation is required. Use a compost con¬ 
sisting of good fibrous loam, peat, and sphagnum, 
broken potsherds, and charcoal, if possible. The object 
should be to mike the compost of an open and porous 
character to encourage the growth of the fleshy, half- 
aerial roots. Division of the plants may also be effected 
at this season. 
Fig'S.—The fruit on the earliest trees in pots will 
now have completed its first swelling. A sufficiency of 
moisture and not too high a temperature must be 
given, otherwise the trees will be liable to drop their 
fruit at this critical period. Should the weather con¬ 
tinue mild, the temperature maybe kept between 60° 
and 65° ; but should cold nights prevail, it would be 
advisable to lower the heat a little. To compensate 
for this, close the house early in the afternoon, allowing 
the temperature to rise considerably with sun heat. 
-- 
MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS. 
At a recent meeting of the Ealing Microscopical and 
Natural History Society, Dr. M. C. Cooke, the eminent 
mycologist, delivered an address or “gossip ” on Mush¬ 
rooms and Toadstools, in which he combated the 
popular prejudice that any fungus which was not in 
the form of the ordinary Mushroom was unfit to eat, 
and was to be considered as a Toadstool, and therefore 
poisonous. We had, he said, some 1,400 species of the 
British Agaricini, or those species of fungi which had 
a stem and a cap, and underneath them, gills. He had 
himself eaten some sixty of those species, and was yet 
alive. 
It was made a great objection to fungus-eating that 
there were so many Toadstools that were so dangerous, 
that the consumption of even an atom of them would 
prove fatal, but scientific investigation convinced one 
that there was enormous exaggeration in the popular 
belief as to the great proportion of noxious fungi. But 
of the 1,400 species of Agaricini which were to be 
found in this country, not more than thirty were scien¬ 
tifically and absolutely known to be poisonous, whilst 
we were at the same time known to have 134 edible 
species. The remaining British species were accounted 
for by ten of them being too tough for food, and 580 
too minute for that purpose ; while 130 had only been 
found in this country once, or at most two or three 
times, and the character of the residue of 500 species 
had not been determined. It was evident, said Dr. 
Cooke, from the investigations and calculations, he had 
made that fungus-eating was not so liable to produce 
injury as one would suppose. 
By means of an illustration on the black-board, the 
.structure of the ordinary form of Mushroom was de¬ 
scribed, and Dr. Cooke pointed out that it was very 
important in the study and use of Mushrooms to ascer¬ 
tain the colour of the spores which were thrown down 
from the gills in the various species. There were four 
typical colours of the spores that were produced upon 
the gills of the different kinds of fungi. Some were 
persistently white, and the gills, if not entirely white, 
were just spotted with a rust colour. Another class 
had the spores of a rosy pink or salmon colour; another 
had the spores of a rust colour, as nearly the colour of 
iron as possible ; a fourth variety had the spores of a 
dark purple-brown or black. Almost all the varieties 
possessing white spores were innocuous, whilst all those 
which were salmon-coloured or pink were poisonous, 
or liable to disagree with the stomach, and were to be 
rejected. He never ate the last named kinds himself 
unless he knew their history. 
One of the popular errors associated with Mushrooms 
was that they grew up in a night ; however rapid they 
might be in their growth—and they were undoubtedly 
naturally rapid—he did not think that many of them 
grew up in a night. It was, as a matter of fact, accord¬ 
ing to his own experience, two or three days, and in 
some varieties a week before Mushrooms arrived at a 
state of maturity and perfection after their appearance 
above ground. Another popular fallacy was that 
Mushrooms must be picked before the sun rose, because 
they melted away as soon as the sun’s rays fell upon 
them ! That idea might be beneficial as a stimulant 
to get boys out of bed early to go an^ gather Mush¬ 
rooms, but it was not a true idea nevertheless. 
The majority of the Mushrooms he had noticed 
displayed in the greengrocers’ shops in London were 
not the Agaricus campestris, the true Mushroom, 
which was culled in parks and grassy places, but a 
larger, coarser, and stronger-flavoured species, known 
in the country as the horse Mushroom, and found 
growing under trees or in swamps or damp places. 
This form was seldom used by country people except 
for ketchup, for which purpose its strong coarse flavour 
made it peculiarly adapted. The smaller kinds—the 
true Mushroom—formed a very delicious morsel of food. 
It had at the first decidedly pink gills, which afterwards 
became brown ; whereas the gills of the horse Mush¬ 
room were never pink, but were a pallid w T hite when 
young, growing purple when old. 
It was a false idea for people to hold that in eating 
fuDgi they were always going to eat something the 
flavour of which resembled that of the Mushroom. 
Every distinct species of fungus had a peculiar flavour 
of its own ; in fungus-eating you obtained flavours that 
you never before knew existed. For instance, the 
Great Puff-ball Mushrooms, sliced and fried, had a 
flavour which could be rightly compared to nothing 
else ; the nearest approach he had experienced to it 
was a very nice omelette which he had had served to 
him on the Continent. If persons left the ordinary 
Mushroom and went in for the Chantarelle and other 
kinds of fungi, they in most cases encountered a new 
dish, and a new sensation. There was no other method 
of becoming properly acquainted with fuDgi—of dis¬ 
tinguishing them one from another—than having them 
pointed out as they were growing in their natural state, 
by some one who knew them. Books on the subject 
were very well, but they did not give the student that 
amount of confidence in his discernment between the 
different species which a personal comparison of the 
fungi themselves conferred. 
- .— 
SUCCESSIONAL CROPPING IN 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN.* 
This, I think, is the most important feature in con¬ 
nection with the working of the vegetable garden, and 
one which requires a great amount of forethought. 
Although it is a difficult matter in a cold and wet 
season to keep up a good succession, yet if success is to 
be achieved the gardener must never let favourable 
opportunities slip by for getting in seeds or doing any 
other necessary work. It is also most essential that he 
should get thoroughly acquainted with the nature of 
the soil he has to work, for it is well known that while 
a certain variety of vegetable will succeed and do well 
in one district, at another place not far distant it may 
prove almost a failure. This remark also applies to 
the time of sowing and planting, but by carefully 
studying his own particular climate and soil the careful 
gardener will in many cases avoid serious loss and dis¬ 
appointment. 
The vegetable which requires most attention, so far 
as keeping up succession is concerned, is, in my opinion, 
the Pea. Many gardeners, with a view to obtaining an 
early supply, sow their first crop under glass and in 
various ways—such as in pots, on strips of turf, 
and tiles. The sowing is made about the end of 
December and placed in a gentle heat till the seedlings 
have formed into green foliage, when they should be 
gradually hardened off; but if never placed in heat at 
all, and grown with all the light and air possible, they 
will generally succeed better when planted out than 
those which have had the assistance of artificial heat. 
Whichever method of forcing is, however, indulged in, 
they should be thoroughly hardened off before planting 
out. 
For the first or early crop sown outdoors, the seed 
should be sown about the end of January or the begin¬ 
ning of February, according to the state of the soil ; but 
should it be wet, there would be nothing lost were the 
seed to remain in the packets till the first favourable 
opportunity. The sowings for the main crop should be 
made in March, April, and May, at intervals, which 
must be determined by the demand and the climate. 
It is a general rule to sow for succession when the pre¬ 
vious crop appears above the ground, but in a good 
many cases this will form too close a succession, and I 
think it is a good plan to sow at an interval of three 
weeks. 
It is generally supposed that it takes thirteen weeks 
from the time of sowing till you can gather the crop. 
For a late crop, I would not advise sowing later than 
the middle of June, and it must be an early variety, as 
when sown much later they generally get nipped by 
* A paper read at the Caversliani Park Gardeners’ Improve 
mint Association. 
