FAIRY-RINGS. 



A glance at the older volumes of the Pliilosophical Transactions will show of how little value specu- 

 lations are^ which have not actual observations for their basis. To recapitulate the various fancies recorded 

 on the subject of " Fairy -rings," would be waste of time and paper; the fact that A. oreades appears shortly 

 after thunder-storms, gave rise to an opinion that the withered grass of its circles was lightning-blasted, 

 and in Captain Brown's notes to Wiiite's Selborne, he quotes Mr. Johnson of Wetherby, a correspondent of 

 the Philosophical Journal, to this effect : — " He attributes them to the droppings of starlings, which when 

 in large flights frequently ahght on the ground in circles, and sometimes are known to sit a considerable 

 time in these annular congregations ! " If philosophy had but condescended to use a spade, the truth 

 would then have been scented at least, for the earth beneath these bare rings is white with the spawn of the 

 Agaric causing them, and the peculiar smell either of A. oreades or A. Georgn is detected instantly : in fact, 

 it is many times more potent than that of the Fungus itself ; this is the case during the dormant season, when 

 no pileus has shown itself for months. Wishing to exterminate some disfiguring rings of A. Georgn from 

 the lawn, it was needful not only to remove the turf, but to take out more than a foot deep of the mouldy- 

 looking fimgoid soil, for to that extent it was found full of the threads of spawn; and the smeU was almost 

 intolerable to the workmen, for the idea that it is a perfume is Italian, and not easily acquired. A. oreades 

 appeared in its usual well-defined rings on the same lawn in June 1847 ; after that, great drought prevailed, 

 so that none recurred till September, when instead of occupnng the early rmgs the new crop came through 

 the turf beyond them at a distance of five or six inches from the former Kne, shewing that during the dry 

 weather the spawn had extended beneath ; but for this interregnum caused by the drought, we could not 

 easily have estimated the rate of increase ; in general, the diameter of the ring steals gently on with every 

 summer rain. The earth permeated ^^^th spawn is always dry even in very wet weather ; this may weaken 

 the grass immediately above it, preparing the way for the multitude of little conical heads to push through ; 

 and the weakening of the grass encourages the growth of moss, whence comes the name " Mousseron," well 

 befitting these children of downs and woodlands, but iU applied to the Muslu'oom of our dungy pastures. 

 The propensity to form rings is common to a great number of Funguses ; small puff-balls and large, the Bluet 

 and the veritable Mushroom, probably all that increase beneath the soil, affect a circular increase, because, 

 beginning with a single plant or small group, the spawn would extend equally around (under fair circum- 

 stances), and continuing to seek fresh nutriment would form a larger radius, instead of faUing back upon 

 the exhausted centre : so annually the new ring is of greater circumference than the old, and the gi-ass grows 

 more luxuriantly within it from having been checked for a season. Vittadini tliinks that A. oreades derives 

 nutriment parasitically from the grass roots, and thus kills them ; he believes the downy fibres by which, 

 matting among the herbage, they sustain themselves upright, abstract its juices; but many Agarics stay 

 themselves thus among dead leaves and pebbles from which they can draw notliiug towards their sustentation. 

 The grass is not really killed, it is deprived of nourishment for a time, the Agarics absorbing it all to 



