366 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



To distinguish them from one another we are obliged to make 

 use of a trinomial nomenclature. I therefore propose to call the 

 luminous North American form Panus stypticus physiological form 

 luminescens, and the non-luminous English form Panus stypticus 

 physiological form non-luminescens. In what follows, for the sake 

 of brevity, these names will be written Panus stypt. luminescens 

 and Panus stypt. 7ion-luminescens respectively. 



A Simple Mode of Demonstrating Bioluminescence with a Plant. 

 — Knowledge of the fact that freshly developed fruit-bodies of the 

 North American strains of Panus stypticus are luminescent can be 

 utilised in providing a means for demonstrating the luminescence of 

 a plant in the laboratory at any time desired and by the simplest 

 means. For this demonstration, it is only necessary to procure 

 some young fruit-bodies of Panus stypticus from Canada or the 

 United States in the autumn, to let them dry, to store them in a 

 bottle and, a few hours before the demonstration is to be made, to 

 revive them by wetting their upper surface with wet cotton wool. 

 Then, if the fruit-bodies so revived are placed in a dark room, their 

 luminescence becomes at once apparent. 



The Phenomenon of Bioluminescence with Special Reference to 

 Fungi. — In 1921, eleven years after making the first observations 

 already recorded, I resumed my study of the emission of light by 

 Panus stypt. Imninescens. 1 succeeded in making photographs with 

 the fungus light, discovered that the mycelium is luminous, and 

 elucidated the relations of the luminescence to oxygen, water, 

 temperature, etc. However, before communicating the results of 

 this new investigation in detail, I shall first treat of the general 

 phenomenon of bioluminescence with special reference to fungi. 



On p. 367 is a list of Hymenomycetes which are known to give 

 out light. 



The Table shows that, up to the present, light-producing fruit- 

 bodies have been found only in Clitocybe, Panus, and Pleurotus, 

 the first genus being represented by one luminous species, the 

 second by two, and the third by twelve.^ 



1 For references to the literature, vide W. Zopf, Die Pike, 1890, pp. 195-197 ; 

 H. Molisch, loc. cit., pp. 25^0; and S. Kawamura, "Studies on the Luminous 

 Fungus, Pleurotus japonicus sp. nov., Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, vol. xxxv, 1915. 



