VEGETABLE LAMPS. 131 



as a pen, this latex may be employed as a luminous ink, 

 the characters appearing in the dark as letters of fire. One 

 of the most familiar exhibitions of vegetable luminosity is 

 seen in the " touchwood " or " fox-fire," which many a school- 

 boy has employed in the perpetuation of a practical joke. 

 It is found about old decayed trees, and is simply rotten 

 wood permeated by the mycelium of fungi, which is lumi- 

 nous in the dark. This simple luminant is often quite 

 sufficient to enable one to read large print, and is often 

 the cause of laughable episodes among camping-parties. A 

 friend of the writer, in building a camp-fire in the deep 

 woods, hauled an old log to the door of the tept, and there 

 broke it up, making a fire about which the men slept. In 

 the night, after the fire was extinguished, one of the party 

 awoke, and with a shout aroused the rest, who sprang to 

 their feet, believing that they were lying among coals; as 

 all about were masses of wood seemingly at a white heat, 

 but which investigation showed to be fox-fire. 



This luminous decayed wood often rolls out from trees 

 in the forests, to the astonishment or alarm of animals un- 

 familiar with fire. 



Perhaps the most remarkable exhibition of fox-fire is re- 

 corded by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who says, " A quantity 

 of wood had been purchased in a neighboring 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, twenty-four 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 



