are not tufted^ although grouped in close neighbourhood, two together, or at most three, springing from one 

 spot without the stems thence becoming confluent ; they push each other aside and are essentially separate 

 plants. Upon stumps we have never met with it ; in that situation the crowding of the stems into a 

 small and rigid space would occasion an analogous mode of growth, the spawn being circumscribed and 

 unable to spread. AU funguses increasing by spawn form rings when they are uninterrupted, probably in 

 part from the central exhaustion causing the young shoots seeking food to push into new soil. These rings 

 annually increase, and, in the case of most of the Ly coper don family, become very large. 



The Giant Puff-ball is of annular growth, so is the common Puff-ball or Devil's Snuff-box, and this 

 year (1848) we found on the same site of sandy peat wliich produces Lycoperdon pyriforme, an inunense 

 ring of L. saccatwn, the individual members of which were about a foot apart. It is not meant to imply 

 that funguses increasing by spawn are invariably found in rings, because it is self-evident every ring must 

 have had a solitary plant or small group as a nucleus, and after its increase has attained a circular develope- 

 ment, so many accidents may divert the tender filaments from their natural com-se ; we believe however that 

 if free from injury or obstacle, to form circles increasing outwardly is the natural tendency of spawn-propa- 

 gated funguses. Vittadini says, if small puff-balls be dug up they will be found connected by fragile threads 

 from which proceed minute embryo pufl's ; that these dehcate communications, which resemble the finest 

 cotton fibres should be destroyed, thereby impairing the form of the ring, is not wonderful : it is much more 

 wonderful that any escape in pastures and exposed situations. Every worm that pushes up, every insect 

 that buries itself, must destroy threads finer than the finest roots of phenogamous plants. Mr. Mole mines 

 underneath ; Mrs. Sow and her progeny root above, and the hoof of horse or ox crushes : only on lawns 

 can we watch the progressive increase of " Fairy-rings " tlu'ough several seasons, but alas ! so disgusting are 

 they to practical gardeners, that to eradicate the offenders is subject for a Society-of-Arts prize ! We assure 

 the Society no palliatives ^iU answer, radical measures alone succeed : dig out the soil two feet deep and a 

 foot outwardly beyond the circle of green, then fresh soil and turf must be substituted, guiltless of 

 Champignons. 



