Cie Titik. Vids 
THE FOLK-LORE OF PLANTS, 
WHAT a wealth of legend and romance cling to our 
native flora! There is scarcely a well-known wild- 
ing which has not had something to do with the 
fairies—the dear wee folk who dwelt in flowers, and 
were always performing good deeds—who trooped 
out at night to dance in the beams of “the pale-faced 
moon,” led by Queen Mab, 
‘* In shape no bigger than an agate-stone 
On the forefinger of an alderman, 
Drawn with a team of little atomies.” 
That they did so dance to the music rung out by the 
delicate Hare-bells was a certainty, for could you not 
in the morning see the ring their tiny feet had marked 
upon the meadow? Such we believed, but matter- 
of-fact Science steps in and makes the following 
explanation, driving away all thoughts of fairies 
from our minds :—“A patch of spawn, according to 
the fashion of many Fungi, spreads centrifugally in 
every direction, and produces a crop at its outer 
edge. The soil in the inner part of the disc is ex- 
hausted, and the spawn there dies or becomes effete. 
The crop of fungi meanwhile perishes and supplies 
a rich manure to the grass, which is in consequence 
