CEYPTOGAMIC 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 Linnaeus 

 has named Byssus phosphorea, placing it in the 

 genus Byssus, because this illustrious naturalist 

 was only acquainted with the filaments of the my- 

 celium, and not with the entire plant. 



Agardh, who also saw the mycelium only, 

 classed its filaments under the name of My cinema 



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 ccerulea (fig. 12), on account of the 

 fine blue colour observed upon the perfect 

 plant. 



