STRANGE FINDS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18267, 29 December 1924, Page 13

STRANGE FINDS.

* PRECIOUS STONES IN PLANTS AND TREES. One of, the last places in the world in •which one would expect to find precious stones would be in the stems of plants. Yet, now and again, says the "Scientific American," substances which closely resemble opals and pearls are discovered in certain plants. The giant tropical bamboos grow in large dumps to the height of one hundred feet. In the young stages of growth the hollow stems of the bamboos arc filled witli a jelly-like substance. As time goes 011 this dries up and an interesting mineral deposit known as tabashcer is formed. Some of this plays a part in making the bamboo stems stiff and strong, but, now and again, there is an excess of the mineral which settles in more or less rounded lumps at the joints of the stem. These are pale blue or white in colour, and, on being heated, become brightly phosphorescent. There is a close chemical connexion between the lumps of tabasheer in the bamboo and an opal, and the general colour and the. manner of light reflection are much the same. Stones are, now and again, met with when sawing up trunks of teak, rosewood, and certain other trees. These masses are embedded towards the centre of the stem, and it has sometimes been thought that they got into their position when the tree was young, and, as time went on, have become enclosed by the growing wood. Of course such things do happen in the life of frees, for not only stones but pieces of iron and other metals have been found. The stones under consideration, howVvcr, arc produced by the tree itself, and arc closely similar in their formation to pearls. These vegetable pearls arc almost entirely carbonitc of lime.