70 A PLAIN AND EAST ACCOUNT 



ligence having offended the little people, they proceeded 

 to her room and debated together as to what punish- 

 ment they should inflict. This conversation the 

 unoffending one overheard, and it was to the effect 

 that her companion should have a lame leg for seven 

 years, and he ultimately cured by a herb growing 

 on Dartmoor, but with a name so long that the girl 

 could not remember it. In the morning the other 

 girl arose lame, and continued so to the end of the period 

 assigned ; when, one day, as she was picking a mush- 

 room, up started a strange-looking little boy, who 

 insisted upon striking her leg with a plant which he held 

 in his hand. This was the magical plant, with which he 

 continued striking her leg till she became perfectly 

 cured, and one of the best dancers in the country. 



Marasmius oreades is not the only fungus which has 

 this habit of growing in rings. One of our largest gill- 

 bearing fungi, as well as some others, indulge in this 

 eccentricity, probably, in times past to the great alarm 

 of the superstitious. 



Marasmius scorodonius is largely consumed in 

 Austria, Germany, and some other continental countries. 

 It is known under the name of Lauchschwamm and 

 Hagyma gomba ; but neither these nor its garlic odour 

 would commend it to our own countrymen. This little 

 species grows in dry pastures and on heaths. It has a 

 tough and crisped reddish pileus, a hollow smooth red- 

 dish-brown stem, and dirty-white gills. Although plenti- 

 ful in the countries already named, it is rare with us. 



Two or three other species might also be enumerated, 



