Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/377

Rh quartz, and calcite, which add their brilliancy to the endless variety of color.

Beautiful as the wood is to the naked eye, a microscope is needed to reveal its true beauty. Not only does the glass enhance the colors, but it also renders visible the structure, which has been perfectly preserved even to the forms of the minute cells, and is more beautiful now than before the transformation.

Dr. P. H. Dudley, of New York, microscopically examined some sections of this wood, and finds that part of it at least belongs to the genus Araucaria. He says that the Araucaria excelsa, the Norfolk Island pine of the South Pacific Ocean, grows to a height of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. In radical longitudinal section, the lenticular markings on the wood-cells near each end are in double rows and contiguous, the markings of one row alternating with those of the other, giving the appearance of the beautiful hexagonal markings of this genus. In central portions of the cells sometimes only one row of markings is seen, and some cells show only one row. Medullary rays were indistinct.

Other portions resembled our red cedar (Juniperus Virginianus) when grown in the extreme South. The cell-structure of some indicates a growth in a mild and uniform climate, the annular rings being marked only by one, two, three, or more, slightly smaller hexagonal or rounded cells, not tabular, as is usually the case. The cell-walls were nearly uniform in thickness. All the specimens examined showed that the wood originally was undergoing decay before being filled with the various media which afterward solidified. On some of the specimens traces of fungi (mycelium), causing decay, were discovered. The beauty of the wood is largely due to the destructive influence of fungi.

Agate-cutting has been carried on as an industry for over three hundred years, in the Oberstein district, in Germany, but little attention has been paid heretofore to the cutting of large masses, because few agates are found over a foot in diameter, and the banding is not such as to offer much inducement. But in the future this material will doubtless be in great demand for interior house-decoration, where it can be advantageously used as inlays in wood or stone; for paneling and wainscoting walls; for tiling; and, if desired, for entire floors. Whole table-tops could be made of the largest size from a single section of one of these giant trees, and the design would be Nature's own incomparable handiwork. For mosaic-work it would also find a ready use, since the infinite diversity of color would afford an ample field for the imagination of the skillful artisans employed at this industry.

The rich, warm, blending colors, and the remarkable polish that this material is susceptible of, are the main features that will always give it a high place among minerals of its class. In fact, it is a question