LUMINOSITY OF FUNGI 173 



check it. If any attempt was made to rub off the luminous 

 matter it only shone the more brightly, and when wrapped 

 up in five folds of paper the light penetrated through all 

 the folds on either side as brightly as if the specimen was 

 exposed. When, again, the specimens were placed in the 

 pocket, the pocket when opened was a mass of light. The 

 luminosity had now been going on for three days. 



Phosphorescent mycelium and fungi are not uncommon 

 on woodwork in mines. 



Gardner describes how, in a town in Brazil during one 

 dark night, he observed some boys amusing themselves 

 with some luminous objects, which he supposed to be a 

 kind of large fire-fly, but which on examination proved to 

 be a beautifully phosphorescent Agaric, which he was told 

 grew abundantly in the neighbourhood on the decaying 

 fronds of a palm. The whole plant gives out at night a 

 bright light, having a pale-greenish hue. 



A satisfactory explanation as to the causes promoting 

 luminosity is not as yet forthcoming. It is considered by 

 Fabre as an expression of the respiration of the cells. In 

 all phosphorescent species of Agarics the phenomenon is 

 most pronounced in those portions where growth is most 

 vigorous, as the margin of the pileus, gills, apex of stem, 

 etc., whereas mature spores are not phosphorescent. The 

 emission of light depends on a specific property of the 

 protoplasm, and is not simply due to oxidation. 



Berkeley, Gard. Chron., 1872, p. 1258. 

 Gardner, in Hook, Journ. Bot., 2, p. 426 (1840). 

 Fabre, Compt. Rend,, 41, p. 1 245, and in Flora, 1856, p. 220. 

 Phillips, Luminosity of Fungi, records of Woolhope 

 Club, 1881. 



