1 re Fairij Rings. 



jealous King Oberon, his crown and dignity : confining my- 

 self to the two prevailing opinions of their canse ; the first 

 whereof I think I shall confute, and estabHsh the second. 

 Let the incredulous in philosophy continue their superstition ; 

 this is a harmless one : for though the fairies have long ago 

 left off dropping testers in our shoes, they do not pick our 

 pockets. 



It is asserted that these rings are occasioned by centrifugal 

 fungi, which the ground is only capable of producing once ; 

 and these, dropping their seeds outwards, extend the rings, 

 "like circles on the water." Fungi I conceive to be the 

 effect, and not the cause, of these^ rings : and ground pro- 

 ducing fungi once, is not incapable of reproductiveness, as 

 the possessors of old mushroom-beds well know ; for simply 

 by watering, they will reproduce exuberantly, without fresh 

 spawn, for many years. Besides, we find all these fungi 

 without rings, plentifully ; but very rarely without some 

 visible (and never perhaps without some latent) excitement; 

 such as dung, combustion, decomposing wood, or weeds ; 

 indeed, the seeds of fungi are so absolutely impalpable, that I 

 have sometimes thought they are taken up with the juices 

 into the capillary tubes of all vegetables, and so appear, when 

 decomposition affords them a pabulum and excitement, on 

 rotten wood and leaves : and this seed is produced in such 

 excessive quantities, thrown off so freely, and borne about so 

 easily, that perhaps there is hardly a particle of matter whose 

 surface is not imbued therewith ; and had these seeds the 

 power of germinating by mere wetness alone, without some 

 other exciting cause, all surface would be crowded with them, 

 and pasturage impeded. Now, were these rings caused by 

 the falling of the seeds centrifugally, they would enlarge, 

 which they do not, but after a year or two, utterly disappear ; 

 though plenty of the seed may be seen to load the grass all 

 around. I have brought large patches of these rings into 

 other fields, but never found them enlarge ; and the turf I 

 have taken back to replace in the rings has never partaken of 

 their nature. Why, too, should the grass be more rank in 

 the rings ? one would conclude the seeds of fungi would make 

 it less so. Now, the exciting cause that occasions these 

 fungi, and deeper verdure to come up in circles, the true, 

 the nimble fairies — 



That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make. 

 Whereof the ewe not bites ; whose pastime is 

 To make these midnight mushrooms" — 



