92 PLANT-LIFE 



Berkeley explains thus : " It is believed that these rings 

 originate from a single fungus, whose growth renders 

 the soil immediately beneath unfit for its reproduction. 

 The spawn, however, spreads all around, and in the 

 second year produces a crop whose spawn spreads 

 again, the soil behind forbidding its return in that 

 direction. Thus, the circle is continually increased, and 

 extends indefinitely till some cause intervenes to destroy 

 it. If the spawn did not spread on all sides at first, an 

 arc of a circle only is produced. The manure arising 

 from the dead fungi of the former years makes the 

 grass peculiarly vigorous round, so as to render the circle 

 visible even when there is no external appearance of 

 the fungus, and the contrast is often the stronger from 

 that behind being killed by the old spawn." Alas, for 

 the fairies who made these circles the scene of their 

 nocturnal revels, and, for sheer pastime, made the 

 mushrooms ! No longer need we, with palpitating 

 hearts, rush across the common after dark lest we be 

 caught in your toils and carried off to servitude in pixie- 

 land. No longer can we believe that the mushrooms 

 that are to-day, and were not yesterday, rapid as their 

 growth may be, are the clever products of your play. 

 Ruthless science has put you out of the reckoning and 

 given us plain, matter-of-fact accounts, which we, 

 however unwilling, must accept. Peter Pan's good 

 fairy almost expired because she had drunk a poisonous 

 draught. She was restored to active service by the 

 affirmative response to Peter's passionate appeal : " Do 

 you believe in fairies ?" But if the fairies are dismissed, 

 the wonder and mystery of life remain. Science may 

 explain the mechanism of a mushroom's growth, and 



