484 History of Luminescence 



Luminous Mushrooms and Rhizomorphs 



The existence in wood of a luminous mycelium, and the relation 

 of the mycelium to the fruiting body, the mushroom, was not sus- 

 pected by Albrecht, von Meidinger, or others. Although Aristotle 

 and Pliny both wrote of luminous mushrooms and a few systematic 

 botanists had described luminous fungi from various parts of the 

 world, much more attention was paid to luminous wood, regarded 

 as a natural phosphor, than to the mushroom which would have 

 given the clue to the origin of the light of wood. The relationship 

 was only established in the first half of the nineteenth century, 

 although the great French chemist, de Fourcroy, did state in 1801 

 that wood on becoming luminous developed an odor of mushrooms. 



One of the early records of limiinous fungi is due to Georg 

 Everard Rumph (1637-1706) , for many years the Dutch physician, 

 merchant and consul at Amboina in Indonesia. In his " Herbarium 

 Amboiense," which appeared in 1750, Rumph described Fungus 

 igneus, with a bluish light like centipedes, and said that natives 

 carry the fimgus in their hands for a lantern to keep from wandering 

 off a path at night.^- 



In Europe, Giovanni Antonio Battara included the common lumi- 

 nous agaric of olive trees (Agaricus or Pleurotus olearius) in his 

 Fungorum Agri Arimensis Historia (Faventiae, 1755) under the 

 name of Polymyces phosphoreus. An excellent figure is included on 

 plate XIV. This was undoubtedly the mushroom mentioned by 

 Pliny as luminous. 



The Species Plantarum (Holmiae, 1753) of Linnaeus contains no 

 mention of luminosity among fungi, although Byssus phosphorea, 

 one of the rhizomorphs of Armillaria mellea, is listed under Crypto- 

 gamia algae rather than Cryptogamia fungi, and the habitat given as 

 Europe, in rotten wood. Byssus had been previously mentioned in 

 the thesis, Noctiluca Marina, by C. F. Adler (1752) , sponsored by 

 Linnaeus himself. Adler had referred to luminous wood contain- 

 ing Byssus violaceous and Linnaeus changed the name in Species 

 Plantarum. 



Rhizomorphs, variously known as Rhizomorpha fragilis, R. sub- 

 terranea, and R. subcorticalis were considered for many years to be 

 a special fungus. One variety was figured on plate 100 of James 

 Sowerby's (1757-1822) Colored Figures of English Fungi (1, Lon- 

 don, 1797) and called " Clavaria phosphorea," with " Rhizo- 



^" Dr. Yata Haneda has informed me that even today natives of Micronesia use 

 luminous fungi as head ornaments for dances, or smear them on their faces to 

 frighten people. Often they are regarded as bad omens and destroyed. 



