134 LIVING LIGHTS. 



larly favorable for such displays, the gleams being described 

 as resembling moonbeams stealing through the gloomy 

 caverns. 



That this fungus is luminous when detached, is shown by 

 the following from M. Tulasue, in the " Annals of Natural 

 Science," 1848. "On the evening of the day I received 

 the specimens," he writes, "the temperature being about 

 22 C., 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 even- 

 ing, on the contrary, this substance, having been exposed to 

 contact with the air., exhibited at its surface the same bright- 

 ness as the bark of the branches. Prolonged friction of the 

 luminous surfaces reduced the brightness, and dried them to 

 a certain degree, but did not leave on the fingers any phos- 

 phorescent matter." And again, " By preserving these 

 Rhizomorphce in an adequate state of humidity, I have been 

 able for many evenings to renew the examination of their 

 phosphorescence ; the commencement of desiccation, long 

 before they really perish, deprives them of the faculty of 

 giving light." 



Rumphius, the celebrated botanist, was perhaps the first 

 European to discover the phosphorescence of fungi, observ- 

 ing it in a large specimen on the island of Amboirie, which 

 he named Fungus igneus, or fire-mushroom. In America 

 such exhibitions are rare. Mr. H. K. Morrell, editor of 

 "The Gardiner (Me.) Home Journal," informed me some 

 few years ago that he had observed the phosphorescence of 



