STRANGE FINDS

Evening Star, Issue 18833, 6 January 1925, Page 5

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 sterns 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 clumps to the height of 100 ft. In the young stages of growth the hollow stems of the bamboos are filled with a jelly-like substance. As time goes on this dries up, and an interesting mineral deposit known as tabasheer 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 color, and, on being heated, become brightly phosphorescent. There is a close chemical connection between the lumps of tabasheer in the bamboo and an opal, and the general color 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 il 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 trees, for not only stones, but pieces of iron and other metals have been found. The stones under consideration, however, are produced by the tree itself, and are closely similar in their formation to pearls. These vegetable pearls are almost entirely carbonate of lime.