Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1898 — Plants Which Give Light. [ARTICLE]

Plants Which Give Light.

There are a number of plants and flowers which give out a phosphorescent light in the dark. Linnaeus first noticed this phenomenon in the common nasturtium, whose flowers seemed to him to have a faint Iridescence at night Later observations by others showed that the light whs stronger after very sunny days. Among other plants which possess this singular property are the marsh lijy and the fraxlnella. The last named secretes a volatile oil which oozes out during hot weather, spreads ip a thin layer over the flowers, and forms a vapor which becomes luminous. in the darkness. In the coal mines near Dresden grows a species of fungus which “exhibits the appearance of luminous festoons of shifting colors.”—La Nature.