8 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



that is found to be a constituent of these fungi. A remarkable phenomenon 

 attending some fungi is the emission of a considerable degree of heat. The Bole- 

 tus geneus is declared by Dutrochet to evolve more heat than any other vegetable 

 known except the Aurum. But a still more remarkable phenomenon manifested 

 by fungi is the emission of light. Numerous fungi in different parts of the world 

 possess the property of luminosity, Agaricus olearius, growing on the olive trees 

 in the south of France possesses this quality in a high degree. Also A. gardneri, 

 a fungous parasitic on the Pintado palm of Brazil, is noted for its luminosity. 

 Luminous fungi are quite common in this country. We have often seen large 

 surfaces of decaying timber giving out a very brilliant phosphorescent light from 

 the numerous mycelia that had penetrated the pores of the wood. This lumin- 

 ous wood, under the name of " fox fire," is often exhibited by boys as a curiosity. 



The cause of this luminous property of fungi has been the subject of much 

 controversy, but as in the experiments of M. Tuslane the luminosity was extin- 

 guished in a non-respirable gas, and also in vacuo, it is quite probable that it is 

 the result of a slow combination of the oxygen of the air with some property pecu- 

 liar to the plant. 



Another notable phenomenon observed in some, especially in the spores, is 

 the motile power they possess. Some spores are furnished with cilia which, by 

 their contraction and expansion, enable the germ to move about like a thing of 

 life. Some of these, especially the Myxogastres, so nearly simulate the animal 

 amoebse in their motions that many naturalists have insisted on placing them in 

 the animal kingdom ; but this view is now generally abandoned and they are 

 accorded their proper place among vegetable organisms. Fungi differ exceed- 

 ingly in the odors they emit, some of them being very agreeable while others 

 send out a most intolerable stench. 



The writer well remembers, when a boy, of searching the woods for a cer- 

 tain species, probably a Polyporus, that grew on the decaying timber of the sugar 

 maple, acer saccharinum, and exhaled a very agreeable, musky flavor when not 

 inhaled too strong, for in that case it was too pungent to be pleasant. Of the 

 fruiting germs, their mode of production, fertilization, distribution, germination 

 and growth we might speak at length ; and here we might find one of the most 

 interesting fields for investigation in all the vegetable kingdom, but space forbids 

 our entering into this interesting part of the subject, and we must be content to 

 have taken this cursory glance at the part of the field noticed and with a faint 

 hope that at some future time we may be able to learn more of these objects, 

 among the most minute and wonderful of all the works of Nature. 



