18T6.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



277 



I returned to Tokio on the 26th of October, 

 leaving the plants in charge of the Japanese offi- 

 cers who accompanied me. The plants have 

 now reached Tokio. The living ones are planted 

 in the gardens at Aoyama, and the dried col- 

 lection is undergoing classification. 



RING FORMING FUNGUS. 



BY J. STAUFFER, LANCASTER, PA. 



C. B. Grubb, Esq., residing on Lime street, in 

 the city of Lancaster, inclosing an entire block, 

 between Lime and Shippen streets, called my 

 attention on the 23d of June, 1876, to a remark- 

 able feature in his fine grass plot in the rear of 

 his mansion. This was a well marked ring from 

 six to ten inches wide, as if drawn by a radius 

 of five feet from a common centre. The blades 

 of grass within the ring seemed fresher and more 

 luxuriant than those on the outside of the ring. 

 On inspection the ring itself was found to be the 

 result of an incrustration on the slender blades 

 of grass chiefly from their centre to the tips ; 

 under the lens they seemed like a conglomera- 

 tion of globular, ovoid or kidney-shaped bodies, 

 of a purplish-gray color, slightly roughened, ser- 

 rile ; some were ruijtured at the apex, and re- 

 vealed minute bodies like sporules. As a whole, 

 they appeared much like the sori or fruit dots on 

 fern leaves — the sporangia, the membrane like 

 an indusium — evidently, however, a parasitic 

 fungus, analagous to the puff-balls. The diversi- 

 fied modifications of this parasite completely 

 baffles my endeavors to reconcile it with fungo- 

 ids — known in the production of what are known 

 as " Fairy Rings." Allow me to quote from a 

 dictionary of science, literature and art (Brande 

 and Cox) on this subject : — " The green circles or 

 parts of circles sometimes seen in pastures. 

 They are produced by a certain fungi, chiefly 

 species of Agaricus, in this way : a patch of spawn 

 spreads in every direction, and produces at its 

 edge a crop of its particular fungus ; the spawn 

 exhausts the inner portion of soil, so that the 

 spawn there dies, but the crop of fungi mean- 

 while perishes, and supplies a rich manure to 

 the grass, which in consequence becomes of a vivid 

 green. The spawn progresses outwards, and the 

 process of exhaustion and renewal goes on, so 

 that the ring increases in diameter year after 

 year, till it is sometimes several yards across." 



Agaricus oreades, gamboms and arvensis, are 

 some of the principal species which give rise to 



these mysterious looking rings. I have met with 

 rings formed in the soil in manner here referred 

 to. But the term Agaricus is very vague. The 

 A. gambosus is now the ITricholoma of Fries. A- 

 oreades to ^,Galarhmus. These are all stiped and 

 regular mushroom-like fimgi. Another authority 

 states th^t the Lycoperdon bovista is known to 

 cause such a ring. The L. pratense is a smaller 

 species, it is said. These are roundish tuber-like 

 plants when ripe, exploding and emitting the 

 sporules in the form of smoke, whence country 

 people call the species puff-balls. The genus 

 Leangium are small, wart-like plants resembling 

 a minute Lycoperdon. The L. Trevelyani are scat- 

 tered, of a pale brown, and found on the leaves of 

 mosses. Sporangium sessile, peridium splitting 

 into many regular reflexed segments ; columella 

 very minute ; sporules pedicellate. This latter ac- 

 cords more closely than any other of this exten- 

 sive class or tribe of fungi. 



Fungi are divided. 1st — into two great sections 

 those that have simply the terminal joint or 

 joints of the component threads or cells, altered 

 in form from those which precede them, and at 

 length falling off and reproducing the plant, in 

 which case they are called spores. In the other 

 they are formed from the contents of certain 

 sacs or asci, and are usually definite in num- 

 ber, in which case they are called sporidia. 

 Both spores and sporidia may be multicellular, and 

 in germination give rise to as many threads of 

 spawn as there are cells. They are again ranged 

 in six principal divisions, variously regarded as 

 natural orders or tribes, namely:— Hymenomycetes, 

 of which mushrooms and sap-balls are well known 

 examples ; Gasteromycetes, represented by the puff- 

 balls ; Coniomycetes, of which the rust and bunt 

 of corn afford ready instances ; Hyphomycetes, to 

 which belong the naked-seeded moulds; Ascomy- 

 cetes, of which morels and insect Sphaciox are ex- 

 amples ; and Physomycetes represents the common 

 bread mould. 



It seems desirable to become better acquainted 

 with those causes of blight, mildew, rust and 

 brand, and those that induce the dry rot, &c. 



Berkeley's Introduction to Cryptogamic Bot- 

 any and outlines of British Fungology, is an 

 excellent work, but we need an American work 

 as well— but alas ! we find nothing systematic, 

 that I know of. 



My co-worker. Prof. S. S. Rathvon, of this city, 

 found a fungus which in one night grew around 

 the stem of a geranium [Pelargonum] about two 

 inches from the ground; externally, mealy of a 



