194 



NOTES ON FAIRY RINGS. 

 BY J AS. BUCKMAN, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c, &c. 



PABT L— DIFFERENT THBORIKS OF FAIRT RIHG8. 



There are few people bo incurious as not to have had their attention 

 arrested by the peculiar green and brown circles in meadows to which the 

 name "Fairy Kings" has been given. The name itself indeed suggesting a degree 

 of popular mystery and superstition connected with them. 



We purpose in this article to make the attempt to unravel some of the 

 mysteries which the ring3 encircle, while we review the subject of the origin and 

 formation of Fairy Rings. 



"When the new grass of the meadow is beginning its spring growth 

 we are made aware of the presence of more or less perfectly formed circles, 

 sometimes occupying the undulating slopes of the hill pasture, at others here 

 and there dotting the richer lowlands. These vary in size from a few inches 

 to many feet in diameter. Often the circles are most complete and regularly 

 formed, but very many of them are only arcuate, while others appears as though 

 they had been formed of two intersecting circles, which by their union make a 

 double bow. 



If we examine them carefully at this time we find that they are composed 

 of two circles, one within the other, or rather each is composed of two bands, 

 an outer one of more or less brown herbage and bare soil, and an inner one 

 of fresh green grass growing much more luxuriantly than the next grass of the 

 meadow. In one of our own meadows we have this day examined perfect or 

 imperfect circles te the number of fifty in a space of five acres ; of these the 

 smallest was 3ft. and the largest 24ft. in diameter. Many of these circles consist 

 of a green ring only, but in an orchard at the bottom of this meadow are two most 

 perfectly formed circles, one of 15 the other of 24 feet in diameter, in which 

 the brown outer band is very conspicuous ; and on yesterday, digging up some 

 of the soil, we found it impregnated with the mycelium or spawn of a fungus, 

 emitting an agreeable fungoid odour, and next month we shall hope to gather a 

 geod harvest of the "May Mushroom" Agaricus Oambosus from the larger circle, 

 while in the summer the brown ring of the smaller circle will be occupied by the 

 Champignon Agaricus oreades. There are other rings on the form occupied in 

 their turn with Agaricus arvensis, our larger catsup mushroom — The Ag. personatus 

 — "Blewits" and other "fairy ring" species. Sometimes the same ring. will 

 produce most, if not all, of these species at different times. 



We have here then to consider the important fact which has been 



