FAIRY RINGS. 115 



A question of considerable interest arises as to why these growths 

 of herbage should take a circular form, and maintain, as they do^ 

 such an uniformity of arrangement and development ? This question 

 will be best answered by a consideration of the detailed structure of 

 a fairy ring, and of the nature of the plants which compose it. A 

 circle which has attained some six or eight feet diameter, will be 

 found to contain a considerable variety of the mushroom plants, and 

 several distinct kinds of green herbage. In the centre will be found 

 scattered several of the common edible fungi, and sometimes a few of 

 the rarer species. The most frequent are the Agaricus campestris, or 

 common mushroom ; Agaricus oreades ; A. pratensisj and A. musca- 

 rius, or fly agaric, and the champignon. The curious heart-shaped 

 and stemless Ltjcoptrdon proteus may also occasionally be found ; but 

 the plants most common are the champignons and Agaricus pratensis, 

 both of which we have ourselves found in plenty on the rings at 

 Cheshunt, the champignons being of an excellent quality. In the 

 interior of the ring, forming the first portion of the ring from the 

 centre, we find sweet-scented vernal grass {Anthozanthum odoratum) ; 

 next that, a broad ring of rank meadow grass ; and beyond that, a 

 circle composed of various meadow plants, as glaucous heath grass, 

 common thyme, mouse-ear hawkweed, with occasional sprinklings of 

 Agaricus virosics and Lycoperdon proteus. Of A. oreades, AYithuring 

 says, — " I am satisfied that the bare and brown, or highly clothed 

 and verdant circles in pasture fields, called fairy rings, are caused by 

 the growth of this agaric. We have many of them in Edgbaston 

 Park : the largest, which is eighteen feet in diameter, and about as 

 many inches broad in the periphery, where the agarics grow, has 

 existed for some years. 



If we suppose then that some few specimens of mushroom spring 

 up, — as they do usually in the droppings of cattle, — and after attaining 

 their full growth scatter their spawn around them, we shall obtain 

 immediately a miniature picture of a fairy ring. The fungi which 

 first took possession of the soil Lave used up all its phosphorus and 

 potash, and have charged the nould with excretions injurious to 

 themselves. Hence, the crop of fungi which spring from their seeds 

 or spawn, will form a circle all round the spot which was occupied by 

 their predecessors. The centre, deserted by the mushroom, will be 

 taken possession of by grasses, which, rooting in a soil prepared for 

 them, find additional nutriment in the phosphoric acid and po:ash 



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