NOTABLE PHENOMENA. 107 
having split it vertically in the form of plates, I found that the 
trama, when bruised, threw out a light equal to that of their 
fructiferous surfaces, and there is really only the superior 
surface of the pileus, or its cuticle, which I have never seen 
luminous. 
“ As I have said, the Agaric of the olive-tree, which is itself 
very yellow, reflects a strong brilliant light, and remains 
endowed with this remarkable faculty whilst it grows, or, at 
least, while it appears to preserve an active life, and remains 
fresh. The phosphorescence is at first, and more ordinarily, re- 
cognizable at the surface of the hymenium. I have seen a great 
number of young fungi which were very phosphorescent in the 
gills, but not in any other part. In another case, and amongst 
more aged fungi, the hymenium of which had ceased to give 
light, the stipe, on the contrary, threw out a brilliant glare. 
Habitually, the phosphorescence is distributed in an unequal 
manner upon the stipe, and the same upon the gills. Although 
the stipe is luminous at its surface, it is not always necessarily 
so in its interior substance, if one bruises it, but this substance 
frequently becomes phosphorescent after contact with the air. 
Thus, I had irregularly split and slit a large stipe in its length, 
and I found the whole flesh obscure, whilst on the exterior were 
some luminous places. I roughly joined the lacerated parts, 
and the following evening, on observing them anew, I found 
them all flashing a bright light. At another time, I had with 
a scalpel split vertically many fungi in order to hasten their 
dessication ; the evening of the same day, the surface of all these 
cuts was phosphorescent, but in many of these pieces of fungi 
the luminosity was limited to the cut surface which remained 
exposed to the air; the flesh beneath was unchanged. 
“JT have seen a stipe opened and lacerated irregularly, the 
whole of the flesh of which remained phosphorescent during 
three consecutive evenings, but the brightness diminished in 
intensity from the exterior to the interior, so that on the third 
day it did not issue from the inner part of the stipe. The 
phosphorescence of the gills is in no way modified at first by 
immersing the fungus in water; when they have been immersed 
