Journal of Proceedings. lxix
in illustration of which he has most kindly drawn and engraved the
two accompanying woodcuts :—
On Fairy Rings.
"Every person who has walked in the summer over grassy hills and
through fields and woods must have noticed fairy rings. Sometimes
they present themselves as circles and curves of bare ground, at other
times the barren circle of ground has a rim of luxuriant grass outside ;
in some instances this circle or curve of dark rank grass has a third
circle of Fungi beyond its outer line. In a perfect fairy circle we have,
then, starting from the centre, a ring of barren ground, a ring of rank
grass, and a ring of Fungi, In some instances a fairy circle of Fungi is
only to be seen. Circles, curves, and quadrangles of rank grass and
Fungi are sometimes seen that are not fairy rings, and it will, perhaps,
be better to mention and dismiss these spurious rings and other
geometrical forms at once. For instance, any one who has walked in
open places in plantations must have frequently observed a ring of
Fungi encircling a tree, at a line on the ground indicated by the spread
of the branches above. These growths are especially common in fir
plantations. Something drips from the tree, some resinous or other sub-
stance that favours the growth of certain Fungi, and they come up in an
irregular ring at the drip of the tree where this substance has fallen.
Such a ring is not a true fairy ring, and such a ring can never extend
itself beyond the drip of the tree. Similar spurious rings and some-
times quadrangles may at times be seen around old hay and corn stacks,
and even barns, at the place where moisture and decayed vegetable
material has dripped from the overhanging edge. Such lines of
rank grass and Fungi have nothing whatever to do with fairy rings.
Sometimes an old horse may be tethered to a stake, and as he walks
round and round his hoofs may wear away the grass and make a circle
of barren ground; but such a circle is not a fairy ring. In some places
where moles disturb the ground, such disturbed ground is found occasion-
ally to bear a crop of Fungi, but a crop of Fungi on a mole's run,
whether curved or not, is not a fairy ring. Fairy rings, then, are not
caused by hay-cocks, tethered animals, the drippings of trees and barns,
circular fertilising exhalations from the earth, or electricity. That they
are not caused by hay-cocks is proved by the frequency of true fairy rings
on lawns opposite to the drawing-room windows, where hay-cocks are not
allowed to ornament the scene. If one walks on the edges of the cliffs
on the South Coast numerous true fairy rings and semi-circles will be
seen, the centre frequently on the very verge of the cliff, and the semi-
circle inland. Such semi-circles prove that tethered animals do not
cause fairy rings, for no owner of an animal would be such a lunatic as
to drive a stake into the very edge of the chalk cliff, as at Beachy Head,
and there tie his animal to it. Besides some fairy rings are only six
inches across, and what quadruped or insect could be tethered to make
such a ring? That moles do not cause fairy rings is proved by the
presence of the ring where moles are unknown, and on expanses of rock
only covered by an inch or two of humus where moles cannot exist, and
never have existed. Circular exhalations from the earth where fairy
rings abound must, I think, be very rare, for I have seen thousands of
fairy rings, but I have never seen a circular terrestrial fertilising exhala-
tion ! Electricity is not a speciality of mine, but as I know fairy rings
to be invariably caused by something else it follows that they cannot be
caused by electricity. As for the rings being caused by the tripping feet