364 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
True — we ne’er may be joined to that Hierarch band 
Who with foreheads unveiled, view her lustre divine ! 
But at least in the Porch we may rev’rentlv stand, 
And kindle our lamps at the tire on the shrine. 
True — the watcher must sleep, and the lamp must expire, 
And the fountains of life become frozen and chill, 
And the eye lose the lightning that filled it with tire, 
And each pulse of Emotion and Passion be still. 
True — of us and our acts may no record remain, 
Save a Memory treasured in bosoms that love us ; 
But, “ Peace to his ashes — he lived not in vain,” 
Shall be the fond requiem that’s uttered above us. 
And now let us pass from the consideration of science in its most prac- 
tical application, from cloth, silks, needles, and edibles, to its less utilitarian 
aspect. Let us quit the halls of the Northampton Mechanics’ Institute, 
with their display of the works of nature and art, and travelling for an 
hour or so along the Midland Railway, let us enter the green fields round 
about Burton-on-Trent, and there study — 
Fairy Rincs. 
In Burton there is an excellent institution called the “ Midland Scientific 
Association,” which reckons amongst its members a veteran botanist, the 
Rev. Gerard Smith. 
This gentleman has devoted much time to the investigation of the so- 
called “ Fairy Rings,” objects well-known to the child of the humblest 
cottager, but the nature of which has puzzled the ablest men of science. 
How is it that these grassy circles (which were in former times believed 
by the ignorant to have marked the footsteps of “ fairies in their nightly 
revels”) constantly increase in diameter without any visible cause? 
Are they really produced by 
“ The nimble elves 
That do by moonshine green-sour ringlets make, 
Whereof the ewe bites not ; whose pastime ’tis 
To make these midnight mushrooms?” 
Do these fairies, these creatures who still impart romance to the dreams 
of our childhood, really leave these verdant circles as fit emblems of their 
eternal youth? 
The reverend botanist thinks not ; so we will not only bow to his 
opinion, but we will also transcribe a few of his remarks on the subject. 
“ Fairy rings consist, generally speaking, of circles or parts of circles 
of grass, of a darker colour and more luxuriant growth than the surround- 
ing herbage, the outer edge of the circle being well defined, while the 
colour and stature of the grass diminish and fade so gradually inwards 
that it is difficult to determine the exact limit of the ring towards the 
centre. Very commonly there is to be observed an outer and contiguous 
ring, much narrower than the inner, and of which the grass is either short 
and weak, or faded and brown, remarkably contrasting with the vivid green 
of the inner ring. On this brown ring, or just upon its margin, fungi 
