158 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



A FLUORESCENT COLOURING MATTER 

 FROM LEPTONIA INCANA GILL. 



By Harold Wager, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



During the summer of 19 17 I found a number of beautiful 

 specimens of Leptonia incana in a limestone pasture at Hawks- 

 wick, Skipton-in-Craven, about 800 ft. above sea level. The 

 Fungus commonl}' occurs amongst short grass in woods and 

 pastures and on lawns and downs. Mr. Carleton Rea informs 

 me that he has met with it most years during the months of 

 August and September, and that it has often been found at 

 the Fungus Forays of the British Mycological Society, and 

 Mr. A. E. Peck informs me that it has been recorded many times 

 in various parts of Yorkshire. The pileus is of a beautiful 

 bronze or olive green tint, yellowish bronze-green at the 

 periphery, darker green to bronze in the middle, and striated 

 from the disc to the periphery with dark yellowish green lines 

 on a light yellow ground. The flesh of the stem, pileus, and 

 trama of the gills is light yellow to yellowish-green in colour; 

 all parts of the flesh turn green when bruised, and, when 

 pressed between sheets of paper, the paper is stained greenish- 

 yellow. 



Fresh specimens of the Fungus placed in 95 per cent, alcohol 

 give a green solution which shows a brilliant green or green- 

 blue fluorescence. Fresh specimens in distilled water give an 

 opalescent yellow solution with a slight green fluorescence, 

 the colour of the Fungus becoming pale green-blue. If the 

 water is changed several times until no further colour comes 

 out, and the specimens are then drained and placed in absolute 

 alcohol, a blue-green colouring matter is extracted and the 

 solution shows a brilliant dark green-blue fluorescence. If the 

 Fungus is first dried and then placed in alcohol the colour does 

 not come out, but if soaked for a few seconds in water, and then 

 in alcohol, the colour comes out at once. On adding ether to 

 a watery alcoholic solution of the fresh Fungus a small quantity 

 of a yellow colouring matter comes out into the ether; this 

 shows no fluorescence, but the alcoholic green solution below 

 remains fluorescent. 



These experiments indicate that there are in this Fungus 

 at least two fluorescent colouring matters, yellow and blue. 



