1862.] FAIRY RINGS. 237 



This Agaric prefers a stiff soil, a southern aspect, and a genial 

 season, to produce an ample quantity of pilei. 



Four rings caused by this Agaric I have been observing for 

 some years ; one, which is a much younger ring than the last- 

 mentioned, produces pilei regularly, and is about eighteen or 

 twenty feet in diameter. The situation is on a declivity, and has 

 a south aspect. 



The summer of 1859 was comparatively a tropical one, a tem- 

 perature which seems to be suitable for this Agaric. It was so 

 stocked with pilei in every part that they crushed and killed each 

 other, being confined to space, that is to the green ring, which is 

 not more than at most six or eight inches wide. 



Some of the pilei I measured were eighteen inches in dia- 

 meter, a splendid spectacle for a mycologist. The annual pro- 

 gress of the mucediuous filaments entangle the roots of the Grass 

 and destroy them by the strong effluvia ; for they have a strong 

 scent, which they communicate to the soil, and is much like 

 that of the pilei, but stronger. When the filaments converge 

 and proceed to their extremity, they enlarge and there fertilize 

 the soil, and produce the green ring from which the pilei spring. 



Those myceline filaments never retrogress, nor have I ever 

 seen a piletis spring up at the last season's terminus but only 

 once, and that only a single one. 



The Agarics have a fertilizing quality, from the quantity of 

 ammonia they absorb from the atmosphere; for where these 

 Agarics grow the herbage flourishes. A. gig aniens in decay 

 does not destroy the Grass ; for when it decayed in the remark- 

 able ring in 1859 it piesented a most disgusting mass of matter. 



This Agaric is undoubtedly poisonous, for I have frequently 

 tasted it. At first it has an insipid mawkish taste, followed by 

 a hot burning sensation in the mouth and fauces. 



In 18G0 I did not observe this ring, but in 1861 I examined 

 it, but it contained, clustered together, only three pilei. This 

 shows how much the Fungi depend on meteorological influences 

 — warmth and moisture. 



The Agarics are, most of them, a rather disagreeable unsightly 

 tribe of plants, shunned by every living thing except slugs, 

 beetles, and a few flies. Few, if any of them, can be eaten with 

 impunity, and all may as well be left alone. By man's industry 

 and skill, both in the animal and vegetable world are ample 



