BY D. McALPINE. 703 



denser growth, so that the circles or segments of circles were 

 readily seen at a distance. Since, however, the bowling-greens 

 exhibited the most marked effects of the fungus within a limited 

 area, I will confine myself to a description of them. 



In a plan accompanying a preliminary report* on the subject, 

 drawn to scale by an officer of the Public Works Department, 

 one of the bowling-greens is shown with nine rings more or less 

 distinct, within an area of about one-quarter of an acre. They 

 varied in size from 8-24 feet in diameter; sometimes they were 

 solitary, at other times they formed a chain of three, or one 

 might be within another. They were visible to the ordinary 

 observer at a glance, because the circle was comparatively bare 

 of grass, and in some instances so bare as to be more like a foot- 

 path than anything else. 



Rings are sometimes divided into two classes — -one with a ring- 

 only, and the other with dead grass in the centre; but here they 

 were all distinct rings with the exception of one, in which there 

 seemed to be the blending of two segments of different circles, 

 forming a pear-shaped outline, with a smaller complete circle in 

 the centre of the larger segment. 



In this particular green, the caretaker had observed the rings 

 some nine years ago when they were very small, and he was 

 surprised to find them growing bigger every year. It was 

 suggestive that wherever these rings appeared the self-same 

 fungus was found, even at such distances as the lawn at Fleming- 

 ton and the Caulfield Racecourse. Where growing normally 

 there were no bare patches, but in the bowling-green this was a 

 characteristic feature, which may be explained from the different 

 conditions prevailing there. The regular watering of the green 

 encouraged the growth of the fungi, but the constant rolling- 

 flattened them out whenever they appeared at the surface, so 

 that only small and distorted specimens could be obtained. The 



* Department of Agriculture, Victoria— Report by Mr. D. McAlpine, 

 Government Vegetable Pathologist, on Fairy-Rings, and the Fairy-Ring 

 Puff-Ball (Melbourne, 14th May, 1898). 



