26 THE PLANT WORLD. 



PLANT JUICES AND THEIR COMMERCIAL VALUES. 

 My Mrs. Caroline A. Chekvky. 



I ( '(Hit I n III (I . ] 



Anilhi' is \\\v uiK-iciit product of many oenerations of conifers, 

 now extinct. It is found in ;illiivi;il soils, and on the seashores, 

 especially between Meniel and Dantzic, and under the Baltic Sea. 

 Alono: the Prussian seacoast, there are amber mines, the deposit restini>- 

 upon Cretaceous rocks, consisting chieHy of their debris, forming with 

 it "blue earth". The buried trees form strata 4(i to 50 feet thick, and 

 are ])ermeated w ith the fossilized liuui. which reaches away in h)n2:. 

 irregular arms. Lum[)s of amber are also found untlerneath, mixed 

 with pyrites and iron. In these mines there seems to be an inexhaus- 

 tible sui)ply of the precious gum, the yield in a single year being 

 from 350,000 to 400,000 lbs., five times that thrown up by the sea. 

 One tirm puts out, of the crude material, Sft6,OOO,00o worth annually, 

 and pays 1,000,000 marks to the Prussian government for the 

 privilege of mining amber. It is worth from if>2 to i{^50 a ))ound. 

 Along the Baltic coast, after heavy storms, it is thrown up in large 

 (juantities on the beach, and once persons who picked it up were pun- 

 ishable Avith death. Now the coast is carefully patrolled, and few 

 trespassers find their way thither. Amber fishers break the ice in 

 winter, and dive for the })recious substance, disentangling it from 

 masses of seaweed; or they fish up the seaweed with long spears. 

 Extinct species of insects and well preserved flowers and leaves are 

 often found as fossils in the gum. A beautifully clear and transparent 

 amber is found along the coast of Sicily and the Adriatic, and has been 

 found inland as far as Basle. In America, loosely imbedded in the 

 soil, or in marl or lignite, at St, Martha's Vineyard, in New Jersey and 

 Maryland, a little fine, clear amber has been discovered. ISIost of the 

 Baltic amber is sold in Vienna, wdiere it is cut and carved. After the 

 first cutting, the chips and small pieces are put together, melted and 

 recut, producing what is known as amberoid. This process is repeated 

 four or five times, each remelting and cutting making the grade lower, 

 the last cuttings being used in varnish. Large quantities of amber are 

 also taken to Turkey, where it is much })rized by the Mohammedans 

 for pipe mouth pieces. They think amber is proof against infection, 

 an important consideration, where the friendly pipe is passed from 

 mouth to mouth. Many mothers are not above the superstition that a 



