BY D. McALPINE. 549 



ings of a Naturalist," says: — "There is a species of the genus 

 Agaricus which has been observed to be vividly luminous. It is 

 very common in the Australian woods in the vicinity of Sydney 

 about the localities of the South Head Road and among the 

 scrubs and forests on the approach to the headlands of Botany 

 Bay, and emits a light sufficiently powerful to enable the time on 

 a watch to be seen by it. 



" I have frequently gathered this fungus, and on placing it in 

 a dark room found that it has retained the luminous power for 

 two successive nights; the phosphorescence becoming fainter on 

 the second, disappears entirely by the third night. The whole of 

 the plant shines with a pale, livid and greenish phosphorescent 

 glow." 



The naturalist Drummond has likewise vividly described the 

 phenomenon in "Hooker's Journal of Botany" for 1842 and 1843, 

 in letters written from Swan River, West Australia. He says: — 

 " Two species of Agaricus grow parasitic on the stumps of trees 

 and possess nothing remarkable in appearance by day, but by 

 night they emit a most curious light, such as I never saw described 

 in any book. The first species in which I observed this property 

 was about two inches across and growing in clusters on the stump 

 of a Banksia tree near the jetty at Perth, W.A. When this- 

 fungus was laid on a newspaper, it emitted by night a phospho- 

 rescent light, enabling us to read the words round it, and it con- 

 tinued to do so for several nights with gradually decreasing 

 intensity as the plant dried up." The other species was remark- 

 ably large, measuring 16 inches in diameter, and weighing about 

 five pounds. The specimen was hung up to dry in the sitting- 

 room, and in passing through the apartment in the dark it was 

 found to glow. "No light," he says, "is so white as this, at least 

 none that I have ever seen. The luminous property continued, 

 though gradually diminishing, for four or five nights, when it 

 ceased on the plant becoming dry. We called some of the natives 

 and showed them this fungus when emitting light, and the poor 

 creatures cried out 'chinga,' their name for a spirit, and seemed 

 much afraid of it." 



