“Gard. Chron.” (1862), p. 21.
Barla, “Champ. de la Nice,” p. 126, pl. 47, fig. 11.
Greville, “Scott. Crypt. Flora,” pl. 241.
V.
NOTABLE PHENOMENA.
There are no phenomena associated with fungi that are of greater interest than those which relate to luminosity. The fact that fungi under some conditions are luminous has long been known, since schoolboys in our juvenile days were in the habit of secreting fragments of rotten wood penetrated by mycelium, in order to exhibit their luminous properties in the dark, and thus astonish their more ignorant or incredulous fellows Rumphius noted its appearance in Amboyna, and Fries, in his Observations, gives the name of Thelephora phosphorea to a species of Corticium now known as Corticium cæruleum, on account of its phosphorescence under certain conditions. The same species is the Auricularia phosphorea of Sowerby, but he makes no note of its phosphorescence. Luminosity in fungi “has been observed in various parts of the world, and where the species has been fully developed it has been generally a species of Agaricus which has yielded the phenomenon.”[A] One of the best-known species is the Agaricus olearius of the South of Europe, which was examined by Tulasne with especial view to its luminosity.[B] In his introductory remarks, he says that four species only of Agaricus that are luminous appear at present to be known. One of them, A. olearius, D. C., is indigenous to Central Europe; another, A. igneus, Rumph., comes from Amboyna; the third, A. noctileucus, Lév., has been discovered at Manilla by Gaudichaud, in 1836; the last, A. Gardneri, Berk., is produced in the Brazilian province of Goyaz, upon dead leaves. As to the Dematium violaceum, Pers., the Himantia candida, Pers., cited once by Link, and the Thelephora cærulea, D. C. (Corticium cæruleum, Fr.), Tulasne is of opinion that their phosphorescent properties are still problematical; at least no recent observation confirms them.