PHOSPHORESCENCE OF PLANTS.
Mr. Hunt recounts these striking instances. The leaves of the œnothera macrocarpa are said to exhibit phosphoric light when the air is highly charged with electricity. The agarics of the olive-grounds of Montpelier too have been observed to be luminous at night; but they are said to exhibit no light, even in darkness, during the day. The subterranean passages of the coal-mines near Dresden are illuminated by the phosphorescent light of the rhizomorpha phosphoreus, a peculiar fungus. On the leaves of the Pindoba palm grows a species of agaric which is exceedingly luminous at night; and many varieties of the lichens, creeping along the roofs of caverns, lend to them an air of enchantment by the soft and clear light which they diffuse. In a small cave near Penryn, a luminous moss is abundant; it is also found in the mines of Hesse. According to Heinzmann, the rhizomorpha subterranea and aidulæ are also phosphorescent.—See Poetry of Science.