FAIRY RINGS. 
243 
In the garden of Gilbert White, in the valley at 
Selbourne, was one of these rings, which had occupied 
the same spot for six successive years, and perhaps 
longer; but for that period it had been annually 
observed, hovering over the green sod on which the old 
man's feet had often trod, like a fairy oblation to the 
departed naturalist. Perhaps the circumstance of the 
fungi being destroyed before they attain perfection, as 
would naturally be the case on a lawn, may sufficiently 
account for the ring above mentioned remaining of the 
same diameter for several seasons. When they occur on 
hill sides, the lower part of the circle is usually open, 
and sometimes it happens that, owing to the new crop 
of fungi which sometimes springs up in the centre, a 
second ring of very rank grass appears within the larger 
one, and forms in this way a very beautiful object. Such 
rings as these we have often found on the grassy 
embankment of the Birmingham Railway, near to the 
London end of the Primrose Hill tunnel. In 1846, we 
found a fine ring at Wanstead, in which the common 
toadstool had taken up its abode, and flourished to the 
entire exclusion of every other fungus. Only a few 
weeks since, we found several flourishing rings on 
Hampstead Heath, which were crowded with the finest 
of champignons; a vast number of these we gathered, 
and had the pleasure of making intimate acquaintance 
with their excellence in the soup which appeared on the 
table next day. In rich meadows, the interior of the 
ring—at least, as far as our own observations go—is 
usually bare and brown, without trace of fungi of any 
kind, while the grass surrounding it is of a very rich and 
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