THE WORKS OF MARCGRAV AND PISO. 273 
teresting matter our space compels us to omit, with exception of the 
following observations on the phosphorescence of the tribe.) 
Phosphorescence must be accounted as one of the most remarkable 
phenomena in this whole order. It has been placed beyond doubt, 
that luminosity, so far from being dependent on a commencing de- 
composition, is connected rather with energy of vitality, although it 
does not cease immediately on the individual perishing, but continues 
for some days after that event; and that the luminous Ayarici produce 
_ the phenomenon in every part of their structure*. A similarly lumi- 
nous Agaricus occurs in Brazil, namely, 4. (Omphalia) Gardneri, Berk., 
growing on decaying sheaths and petioles of the Pindova Palm (4tżalea 
humilis, Mart.), and thence called Flor de Coco by the inhabitants ; 
found at Natividad, in the province of Piauhy, in the month of De- 
cember. In the dark it emits from its surface a greenish phosphores- 
cence, resembling that of the molluscous Pyrosoma allanticumT. It 
is of an orange-yellow colour, like the luminous 4. (Crepidotus) olearius 
of the Olive, in Southern Europe. A third phosphorescent kind is 4. 
noctilucens, Léveillé (Gaudichaud, Voy. de la Bonite, vol. ii. p. 167), 
from Manila, which is of a white colour. The Fungus igneus of Rum- 
phius (Herb. Amboin. lib. xi. p. 130, an Agaricus, or rather, pro- 
bably, a Cantharellus) has its pileus grey above and black-grey be- 
neathf. Lastly, two phosphorescent species are reported to occur 
on the Swan River, in New Holland§. Tt is known that in Germany, 
it is not that sort of Fungi, but Rhizomorpha fragilis in its twofold 
forms (R. subcorticalis and subterranea), and Helotium eruginosum (Bys- 
sus phosphorea, Linn.), which possess any phosphorescence. 
The genus Hypochnus (Fries, Syst. Orb. veg. i. p. 304), which is 
referred to the Hypomycete by that author (Syst. Mye. iii. p. 289), - 
does not belong to the Order. Hypochnus rubro-cinetus (Ehrenb. 
Hor. phys. Berol. p. 84. t. 17. f. 3; Montagne in Ramon de la Sagra 
Cuba Cryptog. p. 369) is Spiloma roseum, Raddi (Memorie della Soc. - 
Italiana in Modena, xviii. p. 343. t. 2), yielding the substance of 
* Compare Schmitz in Linnea, xvii. (1843), p. 457,00 the structure, growth, 
and some peculiar vital appearances of Rhizomorpha fragilis, Roth ; also Tulasne in 
Annales des Sc. Nat. i. D 938 (1848), on the phosphoresence of Agaricus olea- 
T a f Bras. p. 846. - Lond. 1846 
Gardner's Travels in the Inter. of p. 346. k i 
i s enid adhibent nocte, manu eum tenentes, ut subsequentes detegant ante- 
cedentes per hune fi | ne aberrent."— Rumph., l. c. 
§ Drummond in Hooker’s Lond. Journ. of Bot. p. 216. 1842. a 
VOL. V. 
