372 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
‘ f And nightly meadow fairies, look you, sing, 
Like to the garter’s compass, in a ring ; 
The expression that it bears, green let it be, 
More fertile fresh than all the field to see.” 
Merry Wives of Windsor. 
But we must not follow the poets in this matter, but must 
deal with the facts as we find them. That rings do appear 
one year where they were not observed before, we have the 
testimony of our men confirming our own observations. 
We have also the examples of rings within view of our 
present study, which have not increased in size for the last 
seven years, as also of many which have never been tenanted 
by fungi. 
Still we have repeatedly seen that whatever tended to kill 
the grass might be followed by fungi of one sort or another ; 
thus, the spots where grass has been killed by cow-droppings, 
will often produce the common mushroom — places where the 
turf has been destroyed by dressings of salt, guano, super- 
phosphate, or any highly stimulating manure, will often be 
afterwards occupied by mushrooms, puff-balls, or others of 
the family, and that different species so commencing, may 
form rings on the centrifugal theory, we are not prepared to 
deny, though we confess to being in possession of but little 
evidence in support of the theory, and Mr. Lees, as well as 
previous writers, have confessed to no little difficulty in the 
matter. Indeed, Mr. Lees has started a notion altogether 
novel, which, as he looks upon the mole as the author of 
the so-called fairy rings, has been dignified as the moler 
theory, of which the description from the paper already cited, 
we now quote in his own words : — “Now, having paid close 
attention to these appearances for many years, and not 
merely looked to the fungus growing in the circle, but to the 
circle itself, this close observation tells me that, in a great 
majority of cases, the original disturbance of the soil in a 
circular or semicircular form, is due to that little mining 
animal, the mole ( Talpa Europaa). His gyrations close 
under the surface of the ground are very remarkable. In 
making his runs he disturbs the roots of the grass, and the 
grass itself withers and dies in the round that he has made. 
This offers a pabulum to the wandering sporules of fungi not 
to be neglected, and they seize upon these rounds accordingly, 
and once there, make an occupation of the ground for as 
long a time as favorable circumstances allow, and then fly 
off elsewhere. For an uncertain time their occupation in- 
creases the size of the ring, but they do not originally form 
it. The ring is increased, too, not by the sporules of the 
