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CHAPTER XI.

CULTIVATION OF FUNGI.

Were Fungi objects of more general interest, there is littledoubt that in skilful hands a great many species would admitof cultivation. At present, however, except under the care ofa few inquirers into their mode of growth and fructification,attempts have been made to propagate a very few kinds only.

The three to which attention has been directed most are theTruffle* (Plate 23, fig. 2), Boletus edulis (Plate 15, fig. 6),and the common Mushroom (Plate 10, fig. 2). A good dealhas been written respecting the cultivation of Truffles, andone person even professed that he should soon have Trufflespawn for sale; but the treatises which have appeared havebeen, for the most part, mere catchpenny productions, whilethe experiments instituted have been generally ill-directed.In one case which promised a good deal, and of which I wasinvited to witness the result, it was found on inquiry that ex-periments had been made with the refuse Truffles of one ofthe Italian shops in London, which had been artificially dried,and which had therefore for the most part lost their powersof vegetation. But even in this case there were signs of the

* These attempts have been confined principally t-o Tuber melanosporum ,(estivum t and perhaps mesenterieum.