. St. Nicholas [serial] . fore a bee-hive. The fumes made the bees drowsy, andthe honey could be removed without uses of this fungus are admirably picturedin the following lines: We 11 make a feast in our mossy dell,Of infant puff-ball and rare morel,And many a favored guest shall supOn lily dew from a silver cup. The aged puff-balls shall help us to cheatThe dainty bees of their luscious meat,While others shall burn to give us lightAnd scare from our dell the dreary night. The Siberian convicts procure a poisonousfungus, the fly-agaric, roll pieces of it intosmall balls, and sw
. St. Nicholas [serial] . fore a bee-hive. The fumes made the bees drowsy, andthe honey could be removed without uses of this fungus are admirably picturedin the following lines: We 11 make a feast in our mossy dell,Of infant puff-ball and rare morel,And many a favored guest shall supOn lily dew from a silver cup. The aged puff-balls shall help us to cheatThe dainty bees of their luscious meat,While others shall burn to give us lightAnd scare from our dell the dreary night. The Siberian convicts procure a poisonousfungus, the fly-agaric, roll pieces of it intosmall balls, and swallow it. It produces aremarkable effect. At first the victim laughs,sings, dances, and if a straw is placed in hispath he jumps several feet in trying to stepover it. A man traveling in Australia founda large mushroom of this genus weighing fivepounds. He took it to the house where he wasstopping, and hung it up to dry in the sitting-room. Entering after dark, he was amazed tosee a beautiful soft light emanating from the. - THE PUFF-BALL. fungus. He called in the natives to examine it,and at the first glance they cried out in greatfear that it was a spirit. It continued to giveout light for many nights, gradually decreasinguntil it was wholly dry. Dr. Gardner, while walking through thestreets of a Brazilian town, saw some boysplaying with a luminous object, which he atfirst thought was a large firefly; but he foundon inspection it was a brilliant mushroom(Agaric) which now bears his name. It gaveout a bright light of a greenish hue, and wascalled by the natives flor de coco, as it grewon a species of palm. The young plants emita brilliant light, and the older ones a palegreenish light. Many kinds of fungi are phos-phorescent. Humboldt describes some exqui-sitely beautiful ones he saw in the mines. The i895-l MUSHROOMS, LICHENS, AND MOULDS. 645
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