42 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTrRIST. 



of circles. Fij^. 1 992 tfi ves a ^ood idea of its 

 appearance on the lawn. In the early days 

 of superstition it was thout;ht that the rin^s 

 marked the place of fairy dances, or bolts of 

 lightning-, etc. It is now known tlial the 

 ring is due to the outward growth o\ the 

 mycelium. Starting with a single fungus 

 whose development in the soil takes from it 

 the constituents necessary to its growth. 

 This exhausted condition of soil necessitates 



the college lawn about twenty years ago, 

 and its manifest rings presented a rather 

 unsightly appearance, and special efforts 

 were put forth to stamp it out. Of late 

 years we hail it with delight and proceed to 

 fill our baskets with wholesome and nutri- 

 tious mushrooms. The following descrip- 

 tion of this fungus is given by Dr. Peck : 

 " Pilens fleshy, tough, glabrous, convex or 

 nearly plane, often somewhat umbonate, 



Fig. 1992. Marasmius Oreades. 

 ( U . S. Department of Agriculture. ) 



the outward spread of the mycelium, and so 

 it extends from year to year, growing always 

 on the outside and dying on the inside, 

 thereby indefinitely increasing the diameter 

 of the ring. Should any cause intervene to 

 stop the growth of the mycelium in any 

 direction, a broken ring or an arc of a circle 

 would be formed. Strange to say the grass 

 surrounding the ring is always deeper in 

 color and more luxuriant in growth than 

 the rest of the grass on the lawn. 



This mushroom made its appearance on 



reddish or tawny red, becoming paler with 

 age or in drying; lamellae broad, distant, 

 rounded behind or free, whitish or yellowish ; 

 stem slender, tough, solid, coated with a 

 close, dense villosity, whitish ; spores nearly 

 elliptical white .0003 to .000035 inches long." 

 The cap is from one to two inches in diam- 

 eter and the stem from one to two and a 

 half inches in length and about a quarter of 

 an inch in thickness. 



Fig. 1993 shows a couple of young speci- 

 mens. In these the mound or umbo, at the 



