RHIZO-MOKPIIA. 21 



rescent in the dark, and give the natural arches 

 of certain mines the appearance of enchanted 

 vaults teeming with indescribable splendour. 

 These luminous fungi chiefly belong to the kind 

 called rhizo-morpha, so named because they as- 

 sume the appearance of masses of roots. They 

 abound in cellars and other places under- 

 ground. Rhizo-morpha is the matter of fungi 

 developed in an anomalous condition. A cu- 

 rious example was lately placed in the author's 

 hands by professor Henslow. It had grown 

 on the woollen garments of a body, found in 

 a coffin hermetically sealed in a deep vault of 

 Roman construction. Sometimes it has been 

 said that the hair has grown under such cir- 

 cumstances, but in all probability this appear- 

 ance was merely the similar development of a 

 species of rhizo-morpha ; and, in fact, the one 

 alluded to might have easily been so mistaken. 



The parts of the globe in which fungi grow 

 ought not to pass unnoticed; for where the 

 range of the thermometer is about the same, 

 and climates are analogous, there is such an 

 identity between the fungi, that it would be 

 almost possible to draw iso-fungal lines on a 

 map of the earth. 



Many more observations are yet required on 



