226 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, I860. 



mountain nymphs attendant upon Diana in her hunt- 

 ing excursions. Homer alludes to them in the part- 

 ing address of Andromache to Hector, wherein she 

 relates that Achilles, having slain her sire, relented, 



" And laid him decent on a funeral pile ; 

 Then raised a mountain where his hones were burn'd, 

 The mountain nymphs the rural tomb adorned." 



Ovid, in his metamorphosis of Action, describes 

 how Diana and her attendant nymphs, — 



" Panting with heat and breathless from the sport," 



retired to bathe at a fountain, and were discovered 

 by Actseon, who for his presumption was changed 

 to a stag, and worried by his own dogs. These 

 attendant nymphs of Diana were doubtless the 

 Oreades, — 



" Some loosed her sandals, some her veil untied ; 

 Each busy nymph her proper part undressed, 

 While Crocale, more handy than the rest, 

 Gathered her flowing hair, and in a noose 

 Bound it together, whilst her own hung loose ; 

 Five of the more ignoble sort, by turns, 

 Fetch up the water, and unlade the urns." 



The name of the attendant nymphs of the queen 

 of night is, therefore, not unfitly bestowed upon the 

 mushrooms associated in later times with the mid- 

 night revels of 



" The nimble elves 

 That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make 

 "Whereof the ewe bites not ; whose pastime 'tis 

 To make these midnight mushrooms." 



Whoever has had the good fortune to reside in 

 the country knows the Eairy-rings. These are 

 green circles of luxuriant grass on pasture lands, 

 sometimes of immense size, and to be seen from a 

 considerable distance. Homance ascribes their 

 origin to the dances of the fairies by moonlight, 

 science to a much more matter-of-fact cause. These 

 circles are the result of fungi, originating at first 

 from a single mushroom. This parent mushroom 

 exhausts the soil beneath it, and nearly destroys the 

 grass by the spawn or mycelium which insinuates 

 itself amongst their roots. When matured, the 

 spores of this mushroom are shed at an equal dis- 

 tance all around the plant, which latter dies, decays, 

 and manures the soil around it. The next season a 

 circle of fungi spring up about the spot occupied 

 by the mushroom of the preceding year, but all 

 within the circle is barren. These shed their spores 

 and decay as their parent had done, and thus year 

 by year the circle increases until rings are formed, 

 in some cases three feet, and at others thirty yards, 

 or more, in diameter. The turf cut from within the 

 ring exhibits a network of spawn interlaced amongst 

 the roots of the grass. Thus the fairy palace is de- 

 molished, and the fairy dancers dispersed by the 

 hard-hearted and unpoetical mycologist. Still we 



have the mushroom left, even although the fairies 

 are banished, and we must turn it to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



Fig. 213. Fairy-ring Champignon (Marasmius oreades). 



Has our reader never observed the mushroom 

 delineated in our figure (fig. 213) growing in clus- 

 ters, or in rings, or parts of rings, in pastures, and 

 by roadsides ? It is not at all uncommon in many 

 districts from May to November, and we have seen 

 it flourishing and decaying by basketsful in the 

 midst of a poor population that never tasted meat, 

 except an occasional slice of fat bacon, and yet no 

 one stoops to gather them. The cap or pileus is 

 from less than an inch to more than two inches in 

 diameter, at first more elevated towards the centre, 

 but afterwards becoming nearly flat on the top. 

 The colour of a buffy brown, which fades into that 

 of rich cream. The surface is dry, dull, and neither 

 viscid nor shining as in some other species. The 

 gills are paler than the pileus, with the slightest 

 tinge of straw colour, not close together as in the 

 common mushroom, but with a considerable dis- 

 tance between them. The spores when thrown 

 down upon paper are white. The stem is from one 

 to three inches in height, slender, seldom thicker 

 than a duck quill, tough, and with a whitish mealy 

 coat. In taste and odour, though strong, it is not 

 disagreeable. Wlien a section is cut through the 

 pileus and stem, the substance of the former, though 

 continuous with, is seen to be of a different nature 

 to the latter. The gills reach the stem without 

 being attached to it (fig. 214). Such is the Fairy- 

 ring champignon. 



These Fungi are the most delicate eating of any 

 of the edible species found in our islands, and are 

 consumed freely in many of the countries of conti- 

 nental Europe. To preserve them for winter use they 

 may be strung through the stem upon thin twine, and 

 hung up in a current of air till dry,* and affcrwards 

 packed in tin canisters. Or they may be pickled in 

 vinegar as button mushrooms are pickled. They form 



