THE FAIRY RING CHAMPIGNON. 79 



contact becomes obliterated ; and when this contact 

 occurs between the margin of several such rings, the 

 obliteration of the parts which meet leaves a variety 

 of segments "of circles upon the turf, which, pursuing 

 an independent course, and some increasing more 

 rapidly than others, present eventually an unaccount- 

 able irregularity, and, as it were, patchwork of greener 

 and paler, stronger and weaker, portions of turf. 

 When the turf is. cut through such a ring at two 

 contiguous points, so that a breadth is taken up from 

 the inner rank green, through the faded breadth, to 

 the outer ordinary state, the soil of the faded ring is 

 always found drier and of a paler colour than the 

 adjoining parts, and abundantly impregnated with 

 mycelium.' Indeed, a careful examination will show 

 that the faded and impoverished condition of the turf 

 of the outer ring is due to the close investment of the 

 roots by the mycelium of the fungi which occupy the 

 ring. The dimensions of the rings vary from 3 feet 

 to 300 feet in diameter; they are at times very 

 irregular in form, an accident arising either from the 

 nature of the soil, and the obstacles which they meet 

 with in their circumferential expansion, or from more 

 than one ring coalescing, and producing an outline of 

 undulating curves." 



But what of the cause and origin of these rings ? 

 Some curious theories have from time to time been 

 advanced, and subsided into oblivion. Amongst the 

 least probable is one which attributed the agency to 



