The Homes and Habits of Fungi 



the fallen leaves. On the outskirts of the wood, green and red 

 Russulas vie with the flowers in the brilliancy of their colouring. 

 Pink or violet Clavarias, dainty corals, border the wood path, and 

 golden Clavarias lighten up the sombre wood tints with their 

 yellow branches. In dry pastures and along wood roads, puff- 

 balls, large and small, send up their puffs of brown smoke, to the 

 delight of every passing child who strikes them with a wand. 

 On lawns and hillsides the Oreades cause fairy rings to grow. 

 The fairy rings are circles, or parts of circles, of impoverished grass 

 of a lighter colour and less luxuriant growth than that of the grass 

 immediately surrounding the circle. Before the existence of fairy 

 folk came to be doubted, it was firmly believed that these fairy 

 rings were the dancing grounds of the fairies. 



"The nimble elves 

 That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make 

 Whereof the ewe bites not ; whose pastime 'tis 

 To make these midnight mushrooms." 



Rev. Gerard Smith. 



The rings on the commons increase in size until sometimes 

 two or more rings intersect to form a labyrinth of green network. 

 Rings appear year after year in the same place, and then disap- 

 pear, to reappear after an interval of a few seasons. As long as 

 the fairies existed in the imaginations of the people, it was easy to 

 account for these strange happenings — the fairies danced in the 

 moonshine, and the grass was worn down under their feet. If 

 they were displeased and left the neighbourhood, the rings disap- 

 peared too. As this fancy was given up, other solutions of the 

 mystery were sought. Some believed that the ring was caused 

 by a thunder-bolt entering the ground at this spot, and still others 

 were confident that it was caused by moles. The true solution 

 is not hard to find, to one familiar with the habit of growth of the 

 fungus plant. One fungus plant growing alone upon the lawn 

 will soon exhaust the soil directly beneath it of all true fungus 

 food. Of all the spores which fall from the parent plant only 

 those will grow which fall without this impoverished spot, and 

 so a ring of toadstools is formed. Again, only those spores 

 which fall outside the ring will find good fungus food, and so 

 the ring widens always outward, forming a perfect circle, unless 

 something on one side or other interferes with its travels. The 



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