FAIRY RINGS. 



and allow such weights, and for his 

 duty can only take his reasonable and just 

 fees. / 



Generally, all regular sales of things 

 usually sold there shall be good, not only 

 between the parties, but also binding on 

 all those that have any right or property 

 therein. 



FAIRY rings. The circles of dark- 

 green grass, frequently observed 'in old 

 pastures, have long been known under 

 the name of fairy rings, and have gene- 

 rally been supposed to be occasioned, in 

 some way or other, by electricity. Dr. 

 Wollaston has, in a late volume of the 

 " Transactions of the Royal Society," 

 given a new and very ingenious theory, 

 of which we shall present our readers 

 with a brief account, premising that Mr. 

 Davy, in the course of his lectures at the 

 Royal Institution, had occasion to refer 

 to the subject, and seemed to coincide in 

 opinion with Dr. Wollaston. That which 

 first attracted his notice was the position 

 of certain fungi, which are always found 

 growing upon these circles, if examined 

 in a proper season. The position of these 

 fungi led him to imagine, that the pro- 

 gressive increase from a central point 

 was the probable mode of formation of 

 the ring : hence he conjectured that the 

 soil, which had once contributed to the 

 support of the fungi, might be so exhaust- 

 ed of some peculiar pabulum necessary 

 for their production, as to be rendered 

 incapable of producing a second crop. 

 The second year's crop would, if this the- 

 ory be just, appear in a small ring sur- 

 rounding the original centre of vegeta- 

 tion, and at every succeeding year the 

 defect of nutriment on one side would 

 necessarily cause the new roots to extend 

 themselves solely in the opposite direc- 

 tion, and would occasion the circle of 

 fungi continually to proceed, by an annual 

 enlargement, from the centre outwards. 

 An appearance of luxuriance of the grass 

 would follow as a natural consequence, as 

 the soil of an interior circle would always 

 be enriched by the decayed roots of fungi 

 of the year's growth. This theory is sup- 

 ported by some observations of Dr. With- 

 ering ; and Dr. Wollaston says, by way 

 of confirmation, that whenever two ad- 

 jacent circles are found to interfere, they 

 not only do not cross each other, but both 

 circles are invariably obliterated between 

 the points of contact ; the exhaustion oc- 

 casioned by each obstructs the progress 

 of the other, and both are starved. Phil. 

 Trans. 180r, Part. II. 



Though it cannot be doubted that most 

 fairy rings, if not all of them, have consi- 

 derable relation to the running of a fun- 

 gus, there, nevertheless, seems reason 

 to conclude that electricity may likewise 

 be concerned in their production. The 

 electrical effect may relate to fairy rings 

 of a different kind from those occasioned 

 by the fungus, or it may have been ante- 

 cedent to the production of the vegetable. 

 It is a familiar effect in our experiments, 

 that the spark proceeding from a posi- 

 tive conductor breaks or radiates at about 

 one-third of its course, and strikes the 

 receiving conductor by a central spark 

 surrounded by other smaller ones. The 

 concentric rings produced upon polished 

 metallic surfaces by the strong explosion 

 of a battery, as first observed by Priest- 

 ley, appears to be a fact of the same 

 kind ; and the forked radiations of light- 

 ning are well known. The editor of this 

 work related in the Phil, Journal, Vol. I. 

 4to. some events which happened in Ken- 

 sington Gardens in June, 1751, when a 

 very powerful thunder storm passed over 

 the western extremity of London. The 

 explosions were very marked and dis- 

 tinct, and in many instances forked at 

 the lower end, but never at the top ; 

 from which it seems proper to conclude, 

 that the general mass of clouds, or, 

 at least, that extremity which passed 

 over London, was in the state called po- 

 sitive. 



Five days afterwards, upon visiting 

 Kensington Gardens, it was observed, 

 that every part of that extensive piece of 

 ground shewed marks of the agency of 

 the lightning, chiefly by discolouration of 

 the grass in zigzag streaks, some of which 

 were fifty or sixty yards in length. In- 

 stances of this superficial course of the 

 lightning along the ground, before it 

 enters the earth, are sufficiently frequent, 

 But the circumstances applicable to our 

 present subject is, that five trees, out of 

 a grove consisting of seven, had been 

 struck by the lightning. Two of them, 

 which stood on the outside to the. west- 

 ward, had holes torn in the ground close 

 to the trunk ; and round one of these 

 trees was a space of six feet in diameter, 

 in which the grass was very much scorch- 

 ed. Another tree on the west was sur- 

 rounded by a faint ring of burnt or faded 

 grass, which seemed to be occasioned 

 by some earlier stroke, as the vegetation 

 had began. to shoot up again. Another 

 tree, standing on the outside to the south, 

 was surronnded by a ring of twelve, feet 



