372 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



my-lantern owing to its luminescence. Its fruit-bodies (Fig. 165) 

 are large, caespitose, and saffron-yellow. MurriP remarks : " This 

 species is readily recognised by its large size and brilliant colouring. 

 It occurs throughout the eastern United States from midsummer 



Fig. 164. — A shadow-photograph of a Maple leaf, made with the light given off by 

 the gills of a fruit-body of Pleurotus japonicus. Exposure, 1 hour 50 minutes. 

 Photographed by S. Kawamura. Natural size. 



to autumn in large clusters about dying trunks and stumps of 

 deciduous trees. On dark nights, these clusters and also dead wood 

 containing the myceUum are usually conspicuously phosphorescent. 

 The plant is distinctly poisonous, showing a muscarin reaction 

 on the nerves of the heart, and producing nausea, vomiting, and 



1 W. A. Murril, " Illustrations of Fungi," Mycologia, vol. vii, 1915, pp. 115-116. 



