ARMILLARIA MELLEA 



87 



intensity that the light from them can be seen at a distance of many 

 yards. In the summer of 1917, I made a visit to Victoria Beach on 

 the shore of Lake Winnipeg. On the day of my arrival, a dead 

 tree was cut down in front of the bungalow where I was staying. 

 The following night 

 was a dark one and, 

 on looking out from 

 the verandah, I at 

 once perceived a num- 

 ber of glowing chips of 

 wood some ten yards 

 distant. The light 

 emitted was like that 

 of feeble electric light. 

 On picking up the chips, 

 I found that the glow 

 from them was just 

 sufficient to enable me 

 to read the time by my 

 watch. The phosphor- 

 escence continued for 

 three nights, after 

 which it became too 

 weak to be observed. 

 The wood presented 

 all the appearance of 

 wood undergoing de- 

 struction by Armillaria 

 mellea, and later in the 

 season the fruit-bodies 



of the fungus were found in the neighbourhood, so that the identi- 

 fication of the mycelium was sufficiently established. The phosphor- 

 escence was so strong that it could be seen in the gloaming while 

 a considerable amount of daylight still lingered from the afterglow 

 of sunset. One of my friends collected the chips and laid them 

 out on the ground so that the glow from them gave the impression 

 of an immense, hollow-eyed, grinning skull which was intended to 



Fig. 38. — Armillaria mellea, a cluster of fruit-bodies 

 growing from the bark and wood of the trunk 

 of Pyrus Aucuparia, in the autumn of 1902. 

 The tree in 1921 was still flourishing. The 

 parasite produced no more fruit-bodies after 

 1903. Photographed in Sutton Park, War- 

 wickshire, by J. E. Titley. Much reduced. 



