9 
president’s address. 
fatal to persons in Norfolk and Suffolk several times during the 
past few years. A case occurred in 1865, near Ipswich, in which 
a woman cooked it in mistake for the common Mushroom, and 
partook of it with her two children. They all became ill ; the 
children died in forty hours ; the woman, however, recovered 
sufficiently to give her evidence at the coroner’s inquest, but she 
relapsed and died on the fifth day. Another case happened in 
Lynn, in 1879, by which a boy lost his life ; and in the autumn 
of 1894 a child died from the same cause at Bawsey. It is in all 
probability this species which is answerable for the death of two 
persons at Yarmouth in 1892. Agaricus phalloides sometimes 
bears a certain resemblance to the true Mushroom. It is whitish, 
and about the same size and form, but its gills are permanently 
white ; its stem is hollow, its top shining, but the most distinctive 
mark about it is the bulbous base to the stem. This bulb is sur- 
mounted by the remains of the volva, so that the stem appears to 
spring from the interior of the “poison cup,” so called by a recent 
American writer. 
Later in the year, Mr. Long, of Wells, brought before the Society 
an instance of that very interesting phenomenon, luminosity of decay- 
ing wood. In this instance it was the trunk of a Silver Poplar, which 
had been dead for six or seven years. The luminosity was confined 
to the central portion, or hard wood, and it was much more bright 
on the first evening it was observed than on the following, from 
which period it gradually diminished, until its final disappearance 
took place. It was most marked at the lower part of the trunk, 
and upon the larger roots. Luminosity has been observed with 
the mycelia of various fungi, especially of the Hymenomycetes and 
Pyrenomycetes. Subsequently, Mr. Long sent me a specimen of an 
Agaric which he found upon this trunk. It was dried up, but had 
all the appearance of a somewhat abnormal specimen of Agaricus 
ostreatus, in which the top of the pileus was covered by a develop- 
ment of sterigmata, an abnormality not very uncommon with this 
species. Future observations are desirable in order that this point 
may be settled, as the phenomenon is one which is not very 
frequently observed. 
