JOURNAL OF THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TOKYO IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY. 

 VOL. XXXV., ARTICLE 3. 



Studies on the Luminous Fungus, 



Pleurotus japonicus sp. nov. 



By 

 Seiichi Kawamura, RigakusM. 



With 3 Plates. 



I. Introduction. 



In many parts of the upland regions of Japan there occurs in 

 the autumn a luminous and very poisonous species of Hy- 

 menomycetes fungi, growing on dead trunks of the beech and 

 commonly known under the name of " Tsukiyo-také," i.e., the 

 " moon-night mushroom." It is a species apparently new to science, 

 belonging as it does to the old genus Pleurotus, and shall be called 

 by me Pleurotus japonicus. Although many unfortunate cases of 

 poisoning by the fungus have been reported, yet it has hitherto 

 attracted the attention of but a very few scientists. 



In 1889, Inoko 15 published the result of his toxicological ex- 

 amination of the fungus in question. He proposed to call it 

 Pleurotus noctilucens, without, however, giving a systematic descrip- 

 tion of the species. Moreover, that specific name is preoccupied, 



1) Inoko, Y., Toxikologisches ueber einen japanischen Giftschwamm (Mitteilung der Med. 

 Facultät der Kaiserlich-Japanischen Universität, Tokyo, Vol. I, 1889, No. 3, p. 210.) 



