NOTABLE PHENOMENA. 113 



luminous property resides ; this matter, which is said to be 

 mucilaginous in the luminous wood, appears to be in the 

 BhizomorpJia only a kind of chemical combination between the 

 membrane and some gummy substance which they contain. 

 Notwithstanding this opinion, I am assured that all external 

 mucous matter was completely absent from the Agaricus olearius, 

 and I neither discovered it upon the branches of Rhizomorpha 

 subterranea nor upon the dead leaves which I have seen phos- 

 phorescent ; in all these objects the luminous surfaces were 

 nothing else than their proper tissue. 



It may be remarked here that the so-called species of Rhizo- 

 morpha are imperfect fungi, being entirely devoid of fructifica- 

 tion, consisting in fact only of a vegetative system a sort of 

 compact mycelium (probably of species of Xylaria) with some 

 affinity to Sclerotium. 



Recently an extraordinary instance of luminosity was recorded 

 as occurring in our own country.* " A quantity of wood had 

 been purchased in a neighbouring parish, which was dragged up 

 a very steep hill to its destination. Amongst them was a log of 

 larch or spruce, it is not quite certain which, 24 feet long and a 

 foot in diameter. Some young friends happened to pass up the 

 hill at night, and were surprised to find the road scattered with 

 luminous patches, which, when more closely examined, proved to 

 be portions of bark or little fragments of wood. Following the 

 track, they came to a blaze of white light which was perfectly 

 surprising. On examination, it appeared that the whole of the 

 inside of the bark of the log was covered with a white byssoid 

 mycelium of a peculiarly strong smell, but unfortunately in such 

 a state that the perfect form could not be ascertained. This was 

 luminous, but the light was by no means so bright as in those 

 parts of the wood where the spawn had penetrated more deeply, 

 and where it was so intense that the roughest treatment scarcely 

 seemed to 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, 

 *Eev. M. J. Berkeley, in " Gardeners Chronicle" for 1872, p. 1258. 



