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Show LIGHT FROM PLANTS. ONCE BELIEVED TO BE PURE FANCY, BUT NOW KNOWN AS REAL. Trees and Bushes Which Produce Wonderful Won-derful Luminous EfTccts Some Experiences Experi-ences of Naturalists In Different Parte of the World. One of the early naturalists, Mine. Merian, I think, describes an extraordinary extraor-dinary spectacle which she observed in Asia. Her party was moving through a forest at night when without warning warn-ing a largo light appeared. At first dim, it increased in size, growing larger and larger until finally a tree was outlined in a soft- pulsating light. The natives were demoralized and refused re-fused to approach it, saying it was the sacred tree of fire. But the naturalist had little faith in troes of fire and investigated in-vestigated it, finding that the light was due to certain insects, which, by the way, has never been observed sinca That a tree or plant could give light was deemed a figure of the imagination, yet today it is known that light giving plants are not uncommon and among the most striking and remarkable of nafr. oral phenomena. Once in returning from a day's hunt through a deep forest in the heart of the Adirondack region I stumbled against a dead limb of a tree, when to my amazement I was at once surrounded by a silvery light that flew In all directions, like darts and arrows of fire, each piece burning where it lay. This was an unusually brilliant display of the best known of luminous plants, the "fox fire," or "witches' glow" of childhood days. To the layman it is often mysterious, as investigation shows nothing but the ' decayed wood, and sometimes a soft, pulpy mass. The botanist will soon point out the light giver in the mycelium myce-lium of some fungus that has permeated the old branch and fairly taken possession posses-sion of it, converting it into a glorious spectacle when disturbed. The vividness vivid-ness of the light may be estimated when it is known that print can often be read by it, and the light of some has boon known to penetrate through several thicknesses of paper. Singula? to say, the smallest plant la often the means of producing the greatest luminous effects. This is the diatom, which the naturalists of the Challenger found floating in the ocean in vast numbers, num-bers, and as the nucleus of the diatom ia often brilliuntly phosphorescent some of the most remarkable displays of light observed by the naturalists were occasioned occa-sioned by these little plants. But what shall we say to a sight observed by a Norwegian bark in the bay of Funchal? The waters here are fairly alive with i these little luminous nlants the venr round, and on the occasion referred to a waterspout forinod among them. During Dur-ing the day it would have attractod lit tie attention, as the phenomenon is a common one, but the crew of the ship were suddenly confronted at night by a literal pillar of fire or light that extended extend-ed upward to a distance seemingly of 1,000 feet and moved along with a decided de-cided bend. It emitted a pale yellow light that stood out in strong relief against the black night, a weird and formidable spectacle, rushing on before the wind. An English naturalist, wishing to astonish as-tonish 6ome natives In a wild part of Asia In which ho was traveling and impress them with his supernatural powers, seoured a certain vine known as Euphorbia phosphorea, and rubbing it upon a big rock caused the latter to gleam with flame and present bo remarkable re-markable a spectacle that the natives ran, believing that he had set the rock afire by simply touching it. The naturalist natu-ralist was aware that the milky juice of this plant, that resembled the dandelion, dandeli-on, was brilliantly phosphorescent. In the Harz mountains there has been for ages a cave known as the haunted cavern. An Englishman, traveling in the vioinity and hearing of it, determined deter-mined to investigate the mystery. After a long climb he reached the cave. No sooner did complete darkness set in than the phantom of the cave appeared a remarkable semblance to a human form, with arms outspread, outlined against the gloom. Making his way to the figure fig-ure that had alarmed so many wayfarers, wayfar-ers, he found that it was a plant that grew upon the walk It was the well known phosphorescent fungus, Rhizo-mospha Rhizo-mospha subterranea, frequently found in caves and familiar to miners. Its light is often so vivid that people have read by it. These curious lights are not found in the tropics alone. Some years ago Mr. Morrell, editor of the Gardiner (Me.) Journal, wrote me that he had observed a brilliant steady light in his garden at times, totally unaccounted for by mo-ohanical mo-ohanical contrivance, and which, upon investigation, proved to be the phosphorescent phos-phorescent light emitted by the young of the plant Tianus stydticus. Perhaps the most startling exhibition was observed several years ago by an English traveler in Borneo. Belated, he was overtaken by night, and there being be-ing no moon he was fearful of losing his way, when, as the darkness came on, singular lights appeared here and there in the bushes and by the roadside. Some were yellow; others burned, or seemed to, with a bright greenish hue. As it grew darker the blaze of light increased, in-creased, and finally the traveler was amazed to find that he was passing through lines of luminous bush whioh emitted light so brilliant that he could read by it. Pittsburg Dispatch. |