330 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



considerable interest and speculation — the plantlike structures some- 

 times seen in the interiors of these intriguing objects. This study is 

 based on the large Hess collection of specimens and sections received 

 by the U. S. National Museum in 1955. 



THE FRANK L. HESS COLLECTION 



On his many pleasant visits to my office, the late Frank L. Hess, 

 formerly of the U. S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Mines, was 

 enthusiastic in discussing the so-called "mosses," "algae," and other 

 phenomena seen in sections of some thunder-eggs (pi. 3, fig. 1 ; pi. 4, 

 figs. 1-4 ; pi. 5, figs. 1-4 ; pi. 6, figs. 1-4) . He was particularly attracted 

 by those from the Priday (now Fulton) ranch near Antelope, Oreg., 

 because they are unusually well formed and are well known as col- 

 lector's items among lapidarists. Along with others (Benn, 1955, 

 p. 8) , he maintained that the slender filaments, threads, strands, moss- 

 like dendrites, fringes, plumes, sheets, ribbons, and branched tubules, 

 found in an infinite variety of form and color in the opal, agate, and 

 chalcedony of these sections, represent species of algae. Strangely, 

 neither he nor anyone else, so far as I know, made the equally possible 

 suggestion that they might be the hyphae and mycelia of fungi. His 

 interest in the algal hypothesis was so devoted that, in an effort to 

 establish its truth or falsity, he spent innumerable hours in his home 

 laboratory cutting and polishing hundreds of sections from specimens 

 he himself had collected or had received from friends, among whom 

 the chief contributors were C. H. Robinson, Sr., Puyallup, Wash., 

 French Morgan, Washington, D. C, Aaron Waters, then at Stanford, 

 Calif., and John L. James, Tonopah, Nev. These sections, according 

 to his and Mrs. Hess's wishes, have now passed through my hands for 

 study. Mr. Hess left no manuscript but many uncoordinated and 

 sometimes fanciful notes bearing on this material. For example, his 

 notations include brief comparisons with living algae, names for "new 

 species," and two frequently recurring adjectives he used to indicate 

 the light requirements of the two large groups of "algae" he recog- 

 nized: photophile (light-loving) and scotophile (darkness-loving). 



Although I repeatedly and firmly stated to him my disbelief in the 

 algal nature of the lifelike filaments and hinted that other observers 

 (Dake et al., 1938, p. 196; Renton, 1951, p. 176) concurred in my view, 

 Hess continued to seek confirmation of his opinion and thought he 

 had found that support in the replies he received from students of 

 living algae to whom he sent sections for examination. Here, for 

 the sake of definiteness, it is necessary to remark that the Hess material 

 is clearly of two distinct kinds : sections of spherulites derived from 

 volcanic rocks, and sections of authentic algal nodules, without fila- 

 ments, derived from sedimentary rocks. His reluctance or inability 



