. Phosphorescence; or, The emission of light by minerals, plants, and animals. liant in oxygen gas thanin the air, and that it is extinguished in thosegases which are non-respirable; whilst others, onthe contrary, have asserted that though hydrogengas, hydrochloric acid, and nitric oxide, seem toput out the light of many phosphorescent fungi,this light is not extinguished in pure observations require, therefore, to be re-peated with care. Phosphorescence appears to have been first ob-served in large fungi at Amboine, by the botanistRumphius, who saw light emitted from a speciesh
. Phosphorescence; or, The emission of light by minerals, plants, and animals. liant in oxygen gas thanin the air, and that it is extinguished in thosegases which are non-respirable; whilst others, onthe contrary, have asserted that though hydrogengas, hydrochloric acid, and nitric oxide, seem toput out the light of many phosphorescent fungi,this light is not extinguished in pure observations require, therefore, to be re-peated with care. Phosphorescence appears to have been first ob-served in large fungi at Amboine, by the botanistRumphius, who saw light emitted from a specieshe has designated Fungus igneus, or fire-mush-room. It was afterwards seen in the Brazils byanother botanist, Gardner, upon an agaric, whichgrows on the dead leaves of the Pindoba palm,and which has been named Agaricus Gardneri. 92 PHOSPRORESCENCi: IN Mr. Gardner found these pliospliorescent fungi inBrazil, but it appears that a very large specieswhich possesses similar light-emitting properties_,is found in the Swan River colony. A red mushroom, Agaricus olearius (fig. 11),. FiL. 11. which grows at the foot of the olive-tree, in Italy,throws out during the night a blue light, which itspreads silently around. This remarkable fungushas been studied by M. Delille and M. to the first-named naturalist, whenthis agaric is still young, it is phosphorescent formany successive nights, even when it is detachedfrom the tree, at the foot of which it is generallyto be found. It begins to shine a little beforenightfall, continues luminous during the night, CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 93 and ceases to sliine as soon as the sun same author says that he never saw theAgaricus olearius shine during the daytime^ how-ever dark the room in which it was kept; and wemight remark upon this that fungi only vegetateat night. But M. Fabre has^ more recently, ob-served that the phosphorescence of this agaric isnot intermittent, as M. Delille supposes, and thatit shines during the day as
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