I04 



Marvels of the Universe 



IBji A. E. Kni.iJil. 



LUMINOUS FUNGI. 



In some places travellers have recorded that these g ve out light sufficient to 



read a book by. 



LUMINOUS FUNGI 



One remembers that in the 

 stories of school-life of a 

 generation or so ago it was 

 one of the favourite " pro- 

 perties " of the writers to 

 tell how a soft new-comer 

 was terrified b}' an arrange- 

 ment of touchwood, which 

 glowed after dark with a 

 strange, mystic light, form- 

 ing a sentence of warning 

 or doom. The touchwood 

 consisted of rotten wood 

 whose softened tissues were 

 permeated by the delicate 

 threads of which the earlier 

 stages of the fungi consist. 

 In the case of some of 

 the large fungi that at- 

 tack timber, these delicate 

 threads develop into thick 

 interlacing cords that be- 

 come luminous in the dark ; 

 and in caves and mines 

 similar cords run down the 

 walls. But perhaps more 

 striking is this luminosity 

 when it is displaj^ed b)- the 

 mature fungus, the stage in 

 which we can recognize it 

 as a mushroom or a toad- 

 stool, whichever we may 

 choose to call it. Certain 



of the large, leathery fungi 

 that grow out from our trees are said to exhibit Tthis luminosity : but the majority of cases on 

 record relate to species that bear gills on the under-surface, like the common mushroom. One such 

 group of tree-growing mushrooms is known as Oyster-mushrooms from the shape of the cap, which 

 has a short stalk at one side instead of in the middle. 



As early as the year 1840, Mr. Gardner, travelling in Brazil, met with such a mushroom which 

 grew on decaying parts of a palm. In fact, he was led to discover it by finding the boj's of a village 

 playing after dark with this fungus. The plants attacked by the fungus gave out from every part 

 a bright phosphorescent light much like that produced by the South American fireflies. Dr. Colling- 

 wood has recorded similar experiences in Borneo, which are supported by the observations of Mr. 

 Hugh Low, who says that, when crossing the island by a road through the jungle, he saw the jungle 

 all in a blaze of light, by which he could see to read. Investigation showed him that the light was 

 produced by a mushroom. Then, soon after, Mr. Drummond reported a similar experience of fungi 

 growing from tree-stumps in Western Australia. He gathered a specimen and laid it upon a news- 



