STUDIES ON THE LUMINOUS FUNGUS. 23 



fungus-light. After that I continued to stay in the room for about 

 ten minutes in order to thoroughly accustom my eyes to the 

 light in the darkness. Then, I caused a fresh specimen of the 

 fungus which has been in the day-light, to be quickly brought in. 

 The light of this new fungus I was able to see from the very 

 moment it was in the dark room. This seems to indicate that 

 the intrinsic luminosity of the fungus is independent of the pre- 

 sence or absence of the sun-light. 



VIII. Color of the Fungus-light. 



The light emitted by bacteria has been called by many 

 authors to be green, blue or yellow in color. Molisch i:> observed 

 that the light of the luminous mycelium cultured by him and of 

 Ar miliaria mellea Vahl., also contained shades of green, yellow and 

 blue. The light of certain luminous bacteria, which I have had 

 frequent occasion to observe in Japan, was likewise of a greenish 

 blue color. On the other hand, the light of Pleur otm japonicus 

 can scarcely be said to be of any particular color except whitish. 

 The appearance is somewhat like that of a white paper in the 

 moon light. 



The fungus light was called blue by many, probably, only in 

 iilusionary comparison with light of petroleum lamp. One morning, 

 early before dawn, I placed on the floor of my room several fungi, 

 side by side with their luminous side turned upward. Covering these 

 with a thin Japanese paper, I could at first dimly perceive their 

 light through the paper, but not later as the dawn advanced. At a 

 certain stage of the twilight, there was a period when the fungus- 

 light could scarcely be distinguished from the appearance of a 

 white paper placed near by. 



1) Molisch, H., I.e. p. 122, 1904. 



