NOTABLE PHENOMENA. 107 



having split it vertically in the form of plates, I found that the 

 trama, when bruised, threw out a light equal to that of their 

 fructiferous surfaces, and there is really only the superior 

 surface of the pileus, or its cuticle, which I have never seen 

 luminous. 



" As I have said, the Agaric of the olive-tree, which is itself 

 very yellow, reflects a strong brilliant light, and remains 

 endowed with this remarkable faculty whilst it grows, or, at 

 least, while it appears to preserve an active life, and remains 

 fresh. The phosphorescence is at first, and more ordinarily, re- 

 cognizable at the surface of the hymenium. I have seen a great 

 number of young fungi which were very phosphorescent in the 

 gills, but not in any other part. In another case, and amongst 

 more aged fungi, the hymenium of which had ceased to give 

 light, the stipe, on the contrary, threw out a brilliant glare. 

 Habitually, the phosphorescence is distributed in an unequal 

 manner upon the stipe, and the same upon the gills. Although 

 the stipe is luminous at its surface, it is not always necessarily 

 so in its interior substance, if one bruises it, but this substance 

 frequently becomes phosphorescent after contact with the air. 

 Thus, I had irregularly split and slit a large stipe in its length, 

 and I found the whole flesh obscure, whilst on the exterior were 

 some luminous places. I roughly joined the lacerated parts, 

 and the following evening, on observing them anew, I found 

 them all flashing a bright light. At another time, I had with 

 a scalpel split vertically many fungi in order to hasten their 

 dessicatiou ; the evening of the same day, the surface of all these 

 cuts was phosphorescent, but in many of these pieces of fungi 

 the luminosity was limited to the cut surface which remained 

 exposed to the air ; the flesh beneath was unchanged. 



" I have seen a stipe opened and lacerated irregularly, the 

 whole of the flesh of which remained phosphorescent during 

 three consecutive evenings, but the brightness diminished in 

 intensity from the exterior to the interior, so that on the third 

 day it did not issue from the inner part of the stipe. The 

 phosphorescence of the gills is in no way modified at first by 

 immersing the fungus in water ; when they have been immersed 



