448. Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus, L. ; English B ,zany, t. 843.) is a common annual weed in our gardens. There is a prickly and a smooth variety. The latter is in some countries boiled and eaten as greens ; hence the Linnean trivial name oleraceus. The tender shoots boiled in the manner of spinach are very good, superior perhaps to any greens not in common use.
449. Dandelion (Leontodon taraxacum, L.; English Bo tany, t. 510 ) is a well known perennial, generally despised as a troublesome weed : yet the leaves, in early spring, when they are just unfolding, afford a very good ingredient in salads. The French sometimes eat the young roots, and the etiolated leaves, with thin slices of bread and butter. Blanched dandelion loses its disagreeable flavour, and con siderably resembles endive in taste.
450. Bladder Campion, or Spatling Poppy (Silent infiata, Hort. Kew. ; English Botany, t. 164. ; Cucubalus behen, L.) is a hardy perennial, growing naturally by the sides of our corn-fields and pastures. Its young tender shoots, when about two inches long, are excellent when boiled, having something of the flavour of peas. The plant sends forth a great number of sprouts, and when these are nipped off they are succeeded by fresh ones.
451. The Hop (Hunzulus Lufiulus, L.; Eng. Bot. t. 427.) is well known as cultivated for the sake of its flowers for preserving beer ; but for use as a kitchen-herb it is lit tle regarded. The young shoots, however, which, early. in the spring, rise abundantly from old stocks, are not much inferior to asparagus. They are sometimes, but not often, sent to market, and sold by the name of hop-tojis.
For further particulars regarding esculent plants which have fallen into neglect, the reader may be referred to the " Flora Dixtetica" of Bryant.
Fungous Plants.
OF the tribe of Fungi several esculent species occur in this country, belonging to the genera Agaricus, Tuber, and Phallus. Only one is cultivated, the Common Mush room,..4garicus campestris of Linnteus, .4.edulis of I3tilliard and others.
.Common Mushroom.
452. This is well known. It is most readily distinguish ed, when of middle size, by its fine pink or Ilesh-coloured gills, and pleasant smell : in a more advanced stage the gills become of a chocolate colour, and it is then more apt to be confounded with other kinds, of dubious quality ; but the species which most nearly resembles it, is slimy to the touch, and destitute of the fine odour, having rather a disa greeable smell : further, the noxious kind grows in woods or on the margins of woods, while the true mushroom springs up chiefly in open pastures, and should be gathered only in such places.
The uses of the mushroom are familiar ; it is eaten fresh, either stewed or broiled ; and preserved, either as a pickle, or in powder. The sauce commonly called ketchup (sup posed from the Japanesekit-jap) is, or ought to be, made from its juice, with salt and spices. Wild mushrooms from old pastures are generally considered as more delicate in fla vour and more tender in flesh, than those raised in artificial beds. But the young or button mushrooms of the cultivated sort are firmer and better for pickling ; and in using culti vated mushrooms, there is evidently much less risk of dele terious kinds being employed.
Mushrooms are most speedily and certainly propagated, by placing the germinating seeds,—or rather the white fibrous radicles, which produce tubercles in the manner of potatoes, called the spawn,—in a situation proper for the developement of the plants. Without at all abetting the doctrine of equivocal generation, we may assert our power to produce this spawn at pleasure. Some long stable dung, which has not lain in a heap, or undergone any degree of fermentation, is mixed with strong earth, and put under cover from rain: the more the air is excluded, the sooner does the spawn appear : a layer of old thatch, or any kind of litter that has lain long abroad, and so is not apt to fer ment, is proper for excluding the air. In about two months the white threads of the spawn will be found penetrating the dung and earth. When spawn is once procured, it may be extended or propagated, as spawn, without pro ducing mushrooms. A mode of doing this, practised by Mr John Hay, may here be mentioned. A quantity of cow droppings is to be gathered from the pastures ; some rotten wood, or spray from the bottom of a hedge, is to be collected, with a little strong loam. These are mixed, and formed into a moist ductile sort of mortar or paste, of such consistence, that it can be cut into pieces like bricks. When these are so far dried that they can conveniently be lifted, a row is laid in some dry place, under cover, per haps in a shade at the back of a hot-house ; a little spawn is placed upon the layer ; then another layer of the spawn bricks, and so on. In a few weeks the whole mass is pe netrated by the spawn. The spawn bricks may then be laid aside for use ; they will keep many months; and the drier they are kept, the more certainly do they afford a crop of mushrooms, when placed in favourable circumstances for doing so.