THE WH1TE-SP0RED AGARICS 



137 



The gills are broad and wide apart, creamy or yellowish, rounded at the stem 

 end, unequal in length. 



The stem is solid, equal, tough, fibrous, naked and smooth at base, every- 

 where with a downy surface. The spores are white, 8x5. 



To my mind there is no more appetizing mushroom than the "Fairy Ring" 

 mushroom. Figure 101 will give an accurate notion of the plant and Figure 102 

 will show how they grow in the grass. It is found in all parts of Ohio. Every 

 old pasture field or lawn will be full of these rings. The plant is small but its 

 plentifulness will make up for its size. 



There are many conjectures why this and 1 many other mushrooms grow in 

 a circle. The explanation is quite obvious. The ring is started by a clump or 



Figure 102. Marasmius oreades. Showing a fairy ring. 



an individual mushroom. The ground where the mushroom grew is rendered 

 unfit for mushrooms again, the spores fall upon the ground and the mycelium 

 spreads out from this point, consequently each year the ring is growing larger. 

 Sometimes they appear only in a crescent form. One can tell, by looking over 

 a lawn or pasture, where the rings are, because, from the decay of the mushroom, 

 the grass is greener and more vigorous there. 



Long ago, in England and Ireland, before the peasantry had begun to ques- 

 tion the reality of the existence of the fairy folk and their beneficent, interference 

 in the affairs of life, these emerald-hued rings were firmly believed to be due to 

 the fairy footsteps which nightly pressed their chosen haunts, and to mark the 



