38 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [nOV. 10^ 



may contain large numbers of micrococci, and that these may be 

 actually colored green — by a natural process of staining, appa- 

 rently unique in nature — by the green coloring matter diffused 

 from the fungus through the woody tissue. 



On the other hand, specimens of brightly phosphorescent de- 

 cayed wood, recently obtained in the Adirondacks, were found 

 to be uniformly uncolored. The cells were turgid with liquid, 

 apj^arently in unusual degree, and contained the mycelium of a 

 hymeno-mycetous fungus (as yet not identified), whose hymeuia 

 were scattered over the exterior surface of the decayed tree. 

 The phosphorescent agency, however, was found in vast num- 

 bers of a microbe of micrococcous form, mostly spherical, of 

 wide variation in size, from 0.2 to 3.0 microns or more in diame- 

 ter. These were scattered, or gathered in a variety of groups, 

 diijlococci, chains, bunches, etc., and even found sprouting out 

 into rods, some of which passed into short articulated hyphae, 

 like those constituting the mycelium above referred to. The 

 source of these micrococci was shown in larger oval sacs, 9 by 7 

 microns in length and breadth, apparently derived from the 

 mycelial threads, some being found still filled with the micro- 

 cocci of very small size. 



On squeezing the liquid out of the cells of the wood upon thin 

 glass covers, the latter were rendered phosphorescent. The or- 

 ganism refused to grow upon the ordinary culture media, though 

 the fragments of phosphorescent wood could be kept in full 

 yigor and brightness for two weeks in a moist chamber. The 

 film of micrococci upon the dried thin covers was readily stained 

 by campechian (Loffler's solution). 



The general literature on the phosphorescence of fungi and of 

 wood was discussed, from the papers of Dr. Eobert Boyle in the 

 year 1667, down to the more recent investigations of Ludwig, 

 Fischer, Arcangeli, Patouillard, etc. 



