NOTABLE PHENOMENA. Ill 



genus. Mr. "Worthington Smith Las recorded his experiences of 

 some specimens of the common Polyporus annosus which were 

 found on some timbers in the Cardiff' coal mines. He remarks 

 that the colliers are well acquainted with phosphorescent fungi, 

 and the men state that sufficient light is given " to see their 

 hands by." The specimens of Polyporus were so luminous 

 that they could be seen in the dark at a distance of twenty 

 yards. He observes farther, that he has met with specimens of 

 Polyporus sulfur eus which were phosphorescent. Some of the 

 fungi found in mines, which emit light familiar to the miners, 

 belong to the incomplete genus KhizomcrpJia^ of which Humboldt 

 amongst others gives a glowing account. Tulasne has also 

 investigated this phenomenon in connection with the common 

 Rhizomorpha subterranea, Pers. This species extends underneath 

 the soil in long strings, in the neighbourhood of old tree stumps, 

 those of the oak especially, which are becoming rotten, and 

 upon these it is fixed by one of its branches. These are cylin- 

 drical, very flexible, branching, and clothed with a hard bark, 

 encrusting and fragile, at first smooth and brown, becoming 

 later very rough and black. The interior tissue, at first whitish, 

 afterwards of a more or less deep brown colour, is formed of 

 extremely long parallel filaments from '0035 to '015 mm. in 

 diameter. 



On the evening of the day when I received the specimens,* 

 he writes, the temperature being about 22 Cent., all the young 

 branches brightened with an uniform phosphoric light the whole 

 of their length ; it was the same with the surface of some of the 

 older branches, the greater number of which were still brilliant in 

 some parts, and only on their surface. I split and lacerated many 

 of these twigs, but their internal substance remained dull. The 

 next evening, on the contrary, this substance, having been ex- 

 posed to contact with the air, exhibited at its surface the same 

 brightness as the bark of the branches. I made this observa- 

 tion upon the old stalks as well as upon the young ones. Pro- 

 longed friction of the luminous surfaces reduced the brightness 



* Tulasnc, "Sur la Phosphorescence," in "Ann. desSci. Nat." (1848), vol. ix. 

 p. 340, &c. 



