202 



of the circles as not necessarily connected with these plants, and this leads 

 us to the inquiry, 



HOW ARE FAIKT RINGS FORMED? 



Now it appears to us that anything which may tend to kill a given area of 

 grass may be the beginning of a Fairy ring. 



Some years since wc were asked to examine a meadow in which the grass 

 was said to be killed in circular patches, as we were told "the rooks had 

 taken a fancy to it and were eating it all out." On going to the field we 

 observed several areas of variable size in which the top3 of the grass were 

 turned upside down, as if for the purpose of being dried. On removing some 

 of these and turning away the soil, we were not at all surprised to see 

 hundreds of the larvoe of the Cock-chaffer ( Melolontha vulgaris). These the 

 rooks were doing all they could to exterminate. After this a friend at a dis- 

 tance who was suffer ing from a like attack in his meadow was desirous of keeping 

 the rooks from being disturbed. But our object in this description is not to 

 defend the rook, but to point out the origin of Fairy-rings. Immediately, then, 

 after the destruction of these discoid patches of herbage, the herbage all round 

 the outer margin of the denuded space assumed a ring-like belt of a more 

 rohust grass th:m that of the rest of the field, and for the same reason that at the 

 present moment a row of barley next to our farm path is taller and stronger 

 than the row next to it, the fact being that in both cases the roots have no 

 growth on ono side to interfere wich their full development. In our own meadow 

 we have at the present time some denuded patches of grass caused by the 

 leaving of separate lots of hay on the ground. This killed the herbage beneath, 

 and now the ring of stiong and taller grass, mostly of Lolium perenne, is fully 

 established. 



Now the very vigour of growth of the rings of grass so established causes 

 a secondary or outer ring, because this very plethora of an inner ring aids in the 

 pauperism of the grasses next to them, and as starved grasses soon decay 

 and die, we have in this secondary ring the very conditions necessary to the 

 growih of fungi. Suppose fungi to have so started their decay from the very 

 chemical elements they contain, necessitates a vigorous growth of grass on their 

 ■ite, and besides the ground having rested for a season from growing grass, 

 would grow it all the more vigorously the next, with the same result to the 

 grass beyond, and thus it is that these processes, continuing a ring gets larger. 



That rich grass is at once formed where the Ag. gambosus is left, 

 we have Mr. Way's testimony as well as our own observations in proof. He 

 says : — "An experiment was made of spreading some fungi on the grass of the 

 pasture when the rings occur ; the letters in the form of which the fungi 

 were arranged were clearly visible a month afterwards. We have tried the like 

 experiments with the same effects. It would seem, then, that these curious 

 circles may be caused by anything that may tend to destroy a disc of gra«s, 

 but their occupancy by fungi is dependant on after circumstances. If so occupied 



