!% PHOSPHORESCENT ELINGI. 



stone fell. Then I strolled to the port and engaged a 

 boatman to row me out some distance into the open sea. 

 At each stroke of the oar the water was lighted up; it 

 llowed off the oars like liquid metal and washed round the 

 bow like a cascade of fire. It was a wonderful sight. I had 

 not seen the sea shine so beautifully for many a long 

 year. I once saw it even more beautiful — in the Gulf 

 of Smyrna. Then the crests of the waves were like fier\- 

 shea^'es, and the ship sailed through a sea of flame. 



On land also there are organisms which shine in the 

 dark; but their number is small compared to that of the 

 luminous inhabitants of the sea. The mA'cclium of certain 

 fungi, which live on rotten wood, give out a phosphores- 

 cent light in the dark, and then the deca\-ing wood itself 

 appears to shine. Many a superstitious wanderer has 

 been terrified on a dark night by the uncanny appearance 

 of a half-fallen tree trunk shining m^•sterioush■. This 

 phosphorescence is most common in the height of 

 summer and in the autumn after continued rain, and in 

 sultrv weather. The light is white and dull like that of 

 phosphorus in a darkened room. Root stumps, which have 

 remained so long in the soil of a forest that they are 

 beginning to deca}', are generally permeated by the 

 luminous m\-celium of a fungus. A small piece dug up 

 and laid in damp moss at home will begin to shine in 

 the dark after a little while. This will probabh- be the 

 luminous mycelium of the Plalimash i; Ai^'aricus inellciis), 

 a fungus commonly parasitic on wood. One of the 

 prettiest of these natural illuminations in our regions takes 

 place at the summer solstice when, late in the evening. 



