Fungi: Their Nature and Uses Part 9

[i] Vittadini, C., "Funghi Mangerecci," p. 245; Roques, "Champ.

Comest." p. 86.

[j] Badham, Dr., "Esculent Funguses of Britain," 2nd ed. p. 110; Hussey, "Ill.u.s.t. Brit. Mycol." 1st ser. pl. 4; Barla, "Champ."

pl. 28, f. 7-15.

[k] Trattinnick, L., "Essbaren Schwamme," p. 98.

[l] Lenz, "Die Nutzlichen und Schadlichen Schwamme," p. 49.

[m] Badham, "Esculent Funguses of Great Britain," 2 ed. p. 91.

[n] Hussey, "Myc. Illus." ii. pl. 25; Paulet, "Champ." t. 170.

[o] Barla, J. B., "Champ. de la Nice," p. 71, pl. 35, f. 1-5.

[p] Hussey, "Ill.u.s.tr." ii. t. 17; Barla, "Champ. Nice," t. 32, f.

11-15.

[q] Hussey, "Ill.u.s.tr." i. t. 5; Krombholz, "Schwamme," t. 76.

[r] Badham's "Esculent Funguses," 1st ed. pp. 116 and 120.

[s] Catalogue of Plants of Carolina, U.S.

[t] Badham, Dr., "Esculent Funguses," 2nd ed. p. 128; Hussey, "Ill.u.s.trations," 1st ser. pl. 65; Berkeley, in "Gard. Chron."

(1861), p. 121; Bull, in "Trans. Woolhope Club" (1869).

[u] Barla, "Champ. Nice," p. 79, pl. 38, f. 5, 6.

[v] Roques, I. c. p. 48.

[w] Lenz, p. 93; Roques, I. c. p. 47, pl. 2, fig. 5.

[x] Lenz, H. O., "Die Nutzlichen und Schadlichen Schwamme," p. 93.

[y] Berkeley, M. J., in "Intellectual Observer," No. 25, pl. 1.

[z] Berkeley, M. J., "Outlines of British Fungology," p. 293.

[AA] Berkeley, M. J., "Introduction to Crypt. Bot." p. 347.

[AB] Cooke, M. C., "A Plain and Easy Guide," &c., p. 96.

[AC] Cooke, M. C., "On Kashmir Morels," in "Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin."

vol. x. p. 439, with figs.

[AD] Smith, "Journ. Bot." vol. ix. p. 214.

[AE] Cooke, "Handbook," fig. 322.

[AF] Cooke, "Handbook," fig. 324.

[AG] Vittadini, C., "Funghi Mangerecci," p. 117.

[AH] Greville, "Sc. Crypt. Fl." pl. 156.

[AI] Berkeley, in "Linn Trans." xix. p. 37; Cooke, in "Technologist"

(1864), p. 387.

[AJ] Berkeley, M. J., in "Linn. Trans." xix. p. 37.

[AK] Berkeley, M. J., in "Hooker, Flora Antarctica," p. 147; in "Hooker's Journ. Bot." (1848), 576, t. 20, 21.

[AL] Vittadini, C., "Monographia Tuberacearum" (1831), pp. 36, &c.

[AM] "Proceedings Agri. Hort. Soc. India" (Dec. 1871), p. lxxix.

[AN] _Ibid._ (June, 1872), p. xxiii.

[AO] Lindley, "Vegetable Kingdom," fig. xxiv.

[AP] Currey, F., in "Linn. Trans." vol. xxiii. p. 93.

[AQ] "Pharmacopoeia of India," p. 258.

[AR] "Gard. Chron." (1862), p. 21.

[AS] Barla, "Champ. de la Nice," p. 126, pl. 47, fig. 11.

[AT] Greville, "Scott. Crypt. Flora," pl. 241.

V.

NOTABLE PHENOMENA.

There are no phenomena a.s.sociated 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 phosph.o.r.ea_ to a species of _Corticium_ now known as _Corticium caeruleum_, on account of its phosph.o.r.escence under certain conditions.

The same species is the _Auricularia phosph.o.r.ea_ of Sowerby, but he makes no note of its phosph.o.r.escence. 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_, Lev., 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 caerulea_, D. C. _(Corticium caeruleum_, Fr.), Tulasne is of opinion that their phosph.o.r.escent properties are still problematical; at least no recent observation confirms them.

The phosph.o.r.escence of _A. olearius_, D. C., appears to have been first made known by De Candolle, but it seems that he was in error in stating that these phosph.o.r.escent properties manifest themselves only at the time of its decomposition. Fries, describing the _Cladosporium umbrinum_, which lives upon the Agaric of the olive-tree, expressed the opinion that the Agaric only owes its phosph.o.r.escence to the presence of the mould. This, however, Tulasne denies, for he writes, "I have had the opportunity of observing that the Agaric of the olive is really phosph.o.r.escent of itself, and that it is not indebted to any foreign production for the light it emits." Like Delile, he considers that the fungus is only phosph.o.r.escent up to the time when it ceases to grow; thus the light which it projects, one might say, is a manifestation of its vegetation.

"It is an important fact," writes Tulasne, "which I can confirm, and which it is important to insist upon, that the phosph.o.r.escence is not exclusively confined to the hymenial surface. Numerous observations made by me prove that the whole of the substance of the fungus partic.i.p.ates very frequently, if not always, in the faculty of shining in the dark. Among the first Agarics which I examined, I found many, the stipe of which shed here and there a light as brilliant as the hymenium, and led me to think that it was due to the spores which had fallen on the surface of the stipe. Therefore, being in the dark, I sc.r.a.ped with my scalpel the luminous parts of the stipe, but it did not sensibly diminish their brightness; then I split the stipe, bruised it, divided it into small fragments, and I found that the whole of this ma.s.s, even in its deepest parts, enjoyed, in a similar degree to its superficies, the property of light. I found, besides, a phosph.o.r.escence quite as brilliant in all the cap, for, having split it vertically in the form of plates, I found that the trama, when bruised, threw out a light equal to that of their fructiferous surfaces, and there is really only the superior surface of the pileus, or its cuticle, which I have never seen luminous.

"As I have said, the Agaric of the olive-tree, which is itself very yellow, reflects a strong brilliant light, and remains endowed with this remarkable faculty whilst it grows, or, at least, while it appears to preserve an active life, and remains fresh.

The phosph.o.r.escence is at first, and more ordinarily, recognizable at the surface of the hymenium. I have seen a great number of young fungi which were very phosph.o.r.escent in the gills, but not in any other part. In another case, and amongst more aged fungi, the hymenium of which had ceased to give light, the stipe, on the contrary, threw out a brilliant glare. Habitually, the phosph.o.r.escence is distributed in an unequal manner upon the stipe, and the same upon the gills. Although the stipe is luminous at its surface, it is not always necessarily so in its interior substance, if one bruises it, but this substance frequently becomes phosph.o.r.escent after contact with the air. Thus, I had irregularly split and slit a large stipe in its length, and I found the whole flesh obscure, whilst on the exterior were some luminous places. I roughly joined the lacerated parts, and the following evening, on observing them anew, I found them all flashing a bright light. At another time, I had with a scalpel split vertically many fungi in order to hasten their dessication; the evening of the same day, the surface of all these cuts was phosph.o.r.escent, but in many of these pieces of fungi the luminosity was limited to the cut surface which remained exposed to the air; the flesh beneath was unchanged.