216 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
thrown up. The first specimen that I found of it was growing 
in siliceous sand, its form exactly globular, about an inch 
and a half in diameter, and covered, when dry, with a hard 
crust, resembling dark-coloured sand-paper. The fungus, 
itself, dries up, and occupies a very small space withinside 
these globes; they are sometimes sent home as curiosities 
from this country ; though few people know their real nature. 
Once, only, I gathered a smaller pear-shaped species, evi- 
dently of the same genus, and found on clay ground. We 
have a Fungus with the habit of Lycoperdon, but which bursts 
and discloses five or six red-coloured wrinkled bodies, re- 
sembling lobsters’ claws, set in a circle, and their points 
turned inwards ; they give out a sort of grey powder, pro- 
bably the seed. Another genus grows up like Lycoperdon, 
and when it bursts, it exhibits a regular network composed 
of hexagonal meshes about half an inch across ; these meshes 
are smeared with a fetid jelly, which is also seen lying in 
some quantity between the valves. 
* As respects Fungi, however, I would chiefly like to give 
you some account of two species of Agaricus, belonging to 
that division which has the stem at one side of the pileus. 
They grow parasitically on the stumps of trees, and possess 
nothing remarkable in their 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 was growing in 
clusters on the stump of a Banksia tree, near the jetty, at 
Perth, Western Australia. The stump was at the time sur- 
rounded with water when I happened to be passing on à 
dark night, and was much surprised to see what appeared to 
be a light in such a spot ; on examination, I found it to pro- 
ceed from this Fungus. It is six or seven years since this 
circumstance occurred. The late Dr. Collie, then our Colo- 
nial Surgeon, possessed a good collection of botanical books; 
which he and I jointly consulted, but without finding any 
thing which bore on the subject. When this fungus was lai 
on a newspaper, it emitted by night a phosphorescent light, 
