CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 95 
It is not exactly known to what species of fun- 
gus decayed wood owes its phosphoric light, but 
we can, with much probability, attribute it to the 
mycelium of a certain Thelephora which Linnzus 
has named Byssus phosphorea, placing it in the 
genus Byssus, because this illustrious naturalist 
was only acquainted with the filaments of the my- 
celinm, and not with the entire plant. 
Agardh, who also saw the mycelium only, 
classed its filaments under the name of Mycinema 
Fig. 12. 
phosphoreum, and other botanists have named 
them Conferva phosphorea and Auricularia phos- 
phorea. At the present day the fungus, of which 
these luminous filaments constitute a part—the 
mycelium—is known under the specific name of 
Thelephora cerulea (fig. 12), on account of the 
fine blue colour observed upon the perfect 
plant. 
