94 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The light emitted by flowering plants is not, however, limited 

 to the flowers themselves. Gardner records the phosphorescence 

 of the sap of a Brazilian plant, Euphorbia 2}hosphorea ; and in a 

 certain palm the rupture of the spathe or shield covering the 

 flowers is accompanied by a noise and spark. 



Perhaps the cases of vegetable phosphorescence best known to 

 us are those shown by certain luminous fungi. Some of these — 

 Rhizomorphse — light up coal mines, and, in England, they 

 occasionally show a light bright enough to read by. The best 

 cases seem to be in the mines of Hesse, in North Germany, 

 where fungi light up the air galleries, giving a beautiful moonlight 

 effect. In Italy a mushroom, Agaricus olearius, grows at the 

 foot of olive trees, and at night glows with a soft blue light. 



In Australia these luminous fungi are well represented. In a 

 paper read at Linnean Society N.S.W., in 1 901, Mr. McAlpine(25) 

 said that of twenty-one species of these determined with certainty 

 up to that date, no less than five are confined to Australia, and 

 fifteen known here. These are described by Dr. Cooke as 

 shining with a pale greenish phosphorescent glow, and in all 

 cases nearly the same story is told— that the light is strong 

 enough for the hands on a watch to be seen. Drummond 

 records some luminous fungi at Perth in 1842, where one species 

 grew on a Banksia tree near the jetty, and another was seen 

 inland growing tier upon tier up the trunk of a dead gum tree, 

 glowing so brightly that he thought at first the tree had been set 

 on fire by lightning. 



Round the neighbourhood of Melbourne, especially on the 

 coast about Frankston and Mornington, one species, Fleurotus 

 candescens, is very common. It grows on the trunks of the tea- 

 tree, or on the ground near its roots, and is seen especially about 

 April and May. One specimen examined by Mr. McAlpine 

 retained its phosphorescence for at least a week after being taken 

 from the tree. In this case the luminosity is confined to the 

 gills on the under surface of the fructification. Also a slight 

 luminous patch is present at the base of the stem, but the light 

 from this quickly disappears. Mr. A. J. Campbell found that 

 the fungus distinctly fogged an ordinary photographic plate 

 which had been exposed to its light for an hour. 



I have not yet mentioned the lowest forms of plant life which 

 have been found to possess phosphorescent properties. These 

 are bacteria. Among all light-producing organisms our know- 

 ledge is now most exact in the case of these minute plants. 

 Their simple unicellular structure can, thanks to modern 

 microscopes, be studied with great exactness, and the circum- 

 stances under which the light production occurs noted. 



When putrefying substances, such as wood, are luminous, as is 

 sometimes the case, the light is caused by countless numbers of 



