RING-LIKE ARRANGEMENT. 793 



Of course good rings are only produced by the plants named if the foremost buds 

 produced by the subterranean internodes, i.e. those which form the terminations of 

 the radiating stock or rhizome, undergo further development, while the intervening 

 ones perish. This may not be the case under certain conditions, particularly if the 

 growth of the terminal buds is retarded or stopped. For this reason fairy rings are 

 formed much less frequently on stony, uneven ground than on flat homogeneous soils; 

 and the best lands for this kind of fairy rings are pastures stretching over a moun- 

 tain plateau, or the even floor of a valley. 



If specimens of the plants here described are planted on smooth ground, in good 

 soil in a garden, in places where there is no obstacle to their spreading, they will 

 form the rings and wreaths in question within a few years. But in spite of this, 

 very few people are ever able to witness this interesting spectacle in gardens, because 

 gardeners will not leave the rings alone, regarding the bare patch in the centre as 

 unsightly and that the existence of a ring is a slur upon their craftsmanship. I 

 remember noticing this many years ago in the Botanic Gardens at Innsbruck. The 

 perennial plants were cultivated in certain beds close together, and to each species 

 was allotted a limited amount of space. When the spring came round the gardener 

 dug up the periphery of the circle, and planted it in the centre, to catch the escaping 

 plants, as he put it. In the spots where Mentha alpigena had stood the previous 

 year only a few withered stumps were to be seen, and not a single living shoot could 

 be found. But shoots with their tops above the ground could be seen in a circle in 

 the neighbouring beds, and also in the paths between the beds all round the space 

 set apart for this species of Mint. These shoots were ruthlessly dug up and planted 

 again in the forsaken spot. Every year or every second year this capturing of the 

 fugitives was repeated, not only in the case of the Mint, but in many other instances, 

 as, for example, Achillea asplenifolia and A. tomentosa, Betonica grandifiora, and 

 Lysimachia thyrsiflora. 



Amongst aerial-sprouting plants which form rings and wreaths may be numbered 

 the majority of Moulds, Lichens, and Mosses. The Mould, Penicillium glaucv/m, 

 which settles on the fruit rind of oranges, apples, and pears, at first makes its 

 appearance as a mere point, but later as a circular spot, and finally as a distinct ring 

 surrounding a brown and rotten centre. 



The most striking of the ring-forming Lichens are those which stand out from their 

 substratum on account of their colour. Most noticeable in this respect are the white 

 Parmelia conspersa, which contrasts with the dark slate rock, and the saffron-yellow 

 species Amphiloma callopisma and Oasparrinia elegans. The gelatinous Lichens, 

 dark olive-green normally, but black when dried, especially Collema muUifidum 

 and G. pulposum, often form such regular wreaths on a light background of lime- 

 stone that they look as if they had been drawn with compasses, and the tiny 

 yellowish-red Physcia cirrochroa has a particularly elegant appearance when it 

 has radiated out from the hundreds of spots where it established itself on the flat 

 surfaces of a steep calcareous rock. One might almost think that the small orange 

 wreaths had been painted in with a brush. They also remind one of the fleecy 



