221 



tliere, and if tliis takes a circular form there is a ring marked in the gra.^H, or 

 the portion of one. 



In conclusion I wiU only remark upon the continuance of the rings and 

 their mode of increase. Kings occupied by Ariaricus Orcadcs seem more per- 

 manent than many others, and may be of considerable age, and in this case all 

 traces of the primary work of the Mole is lost, but he was not the less there 

 originaUy. For the most part, however, as Mr. Dovaston has remarked in 

 Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, the rings are not of very long continuance, 

 and I can testify to the evanescence of many that I have known and sought for 

 in after years in vain. In truth, Linnaeus correctly gave the name of Nomades, 

 or wanderers to the Fungi, and their sporales fly off to settle again miles from 

 their original location. The mycelinm, or the underground plant of Agarics, 

 maintains an existence beneath the soil as long as it can find a pabulum for its 

 supix)rt, and having exhausted this it dies out. However, as what one robber 

 may leave behind, another may come and think worth having, so a ring deserted 

 by one agaric that has flourished there may be occupied by another in suc- 

 cession, and this is frequently the case. This may account for Mrs. Key's 

 observation in the last volume of the Transactions of this Club (18C7), v,-ithout 

 necessarily supposing that two kinds of agarics are varieties of one species, be- 

 cause successively gi-owing in the same ring ; and, indeed, I have been informed 

 oiAgaricus campcstris taking possession of an old ring of Agaricus gamhosus, 

 without troubling itself to form a circle by means of centrifugal propulsion. 

 On this point I have received a note from my friend Professor Euckman, who 

 has made many experiments on edible Fungi, and on one occasion was almost 

 poisoned by eating too much of one particular kind. 



The Professor remarks that from a notice in Hardwicke's Science Gossip, 

 that a kdy (Mrs. Key) in the Transactions of the Woolhope Club, supposes 

 that because two kinds of Mushrooms have been observed by her in the same 

 ring, that they are therefore not specific, but varieties of each other. " Now I 

 have found," he continues, "in the same rings Agaricus gamhosus fii'st, at a 

 Later time Aoarlcus Oreades, and later stUl Agaricus personatus. However. I 

 always looked upon it as a fact that most of the Agarics grow in the same way 

 and require like concUtions, and so the difierent species come in theii- season." 



This opinion and observation places the growth of funguses pretty nearly 

 on a par with that of ordinary phanerogamic vegetation, where as we see on 

 rocks, waUs, and ruins, and any ground left waste, that some roving seeds find 

 out the vacant spots and colonize them accordingly for a time ; only that in the 

 case of fungi there must be some decaying substance for them to feed upon. 

 The mthering of the grass in a meadow where rings have been made by the bur- 

 rowing mole, invites the sporules of Agarics that are floating in the air to rest, 

 and these produce an underground mycelium, from whence the fleshy hymenium, 

 which is their fruit, is developed. This in its turn decays, and acts as a manure 

 to stimulate the grass to a greener and ranker growth. But the mycelium, liko 



