368 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



(P. caudicinus), Trametes pini, Corticium coerulemn, and Collybia 

 longipes} 



Probably the fruit-bodies of Partus incandescens and possibly 

 the germinating sclerotia of Collybia tuberosa and C. cirrhata re- 

 semble the fruit-bodies of Panus siypt. luminescens in drying 

 without loss of vitality and in exhibiting luminescence after revival. 



The intensity of the light emitted by the fruit-bodies of certain 

 Hymenomycetes is truly remarkable, and it may perhaps be best 

 indicated by the following description of the luminescence of Panus 

 incandescens as given by Lauterer.^ This author says : "Specifi- 

 cally Australian is the large, white, splendidly luminous, lamellate 

 fungus Panus incandescens, which commonly occurs throughout the 

 whole of east Australia in clusters about the trunks of trees. 

 During the day it is in no way striking, for it much resembles the 

 larger white Agaricus species which grow in Germany. But when 

 one goes into the bush at night and the fungus pours forth its 

 emerald-green light — a light in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 which one can read quite well — this delightful fairylike apparition 

 wins our interest at once." 



Gardener and Gunning were able to read by the light emitted 

 from the fruit-bodies of the AustraHan and Tasmanian fungus, 

 Pleurofus phosphoreus ; ^ and Pfeffer * has recorded that on dark 

 nights he was able to perceive the glow from a strongly luminous 

 fruit-body of the southern European Pleurotus olearius at a distance 

 of one thousand paces.^ 



findings, with a view to deciding once and for all whether or not Smith was in error 

 in making his report. 



^ I have failed to detect any luminescence in the fruit-bodies of Collybia radicata, 

 Panus torulosus, and Pleurotus ostreatus. 



2 J. Lauterer, Australien und Tasmanien, Freiburg i. Br., 1900, p. 212. I have 

 translated the passage from the German as quoted by Molisch {loc. cit., pp. 28-29). 



3 Vide W. Zopf, Die Pilze, Breslau, 1890, p. 197. 



^ W. rfeffer, Pflanzenphysiologie, Aufi. I, 1888, Bd. ii, p. 419. 



^ Luminous Fungi occurring in woods sometimes cause fear and, in the minds 

 of the ignorant and superstitious, have even formed a basis for ghost stories. Of 

 this I myself had evidence in Manitoba. In Western Australia James Drummond 

 once found a very large luminous fungus which was 16 inches in diameter and hung 

 it up in a sitting room. Then he relates : " We called some of the natives and showed 

 them the fungus when emitting light, and the poor creatures called out ' chinga,' 

 their name for a spirit and seemed much afraid of it " (Cooke and Berkeley, Fungi, 

 their Nature, Influence, and Use, London, ed. Ill, 1882, p. 110). 



