Serpentinite of the Lizard. 289 



not only in ophite, but in chondroditic, malacolitic, and other 

 rocks in different regions of the globe (United States, Norway, 

 and Ceylon). 



Occasionally the saponite assumes an oolitic structure, pre- 

 senting spherical grains which closely resemble the ova of a 

 fish. Fig. 14 represents a cluster of them, nestling as it were 

 in a recess, as if they had been purposely or instinctively placed 

 there, and had afterwards got covered up with a calcareous de- 

 posit. Many of the grains are in contact ; others are isolatedly 

 imbedded in the transparent calcite remaining undissolved 

 after partial decalcification. 



The saponite in the mass also presents appearances as if it 

 contained organisms, entire and in fragments, distinguished by 

 their comparative opacity in some cases and translucency in 

 others, as in fig. 15. These are vermicular bodies — straight, 

 curving, or tortuous — resembling wormcasts and shell-bear- 

 ing annelids : one of the latter, represented by the circular 

 body in the corner of the Plate, appears like a transverse sec- 

 tion of a shell tube, having its interior filled with infiltrated 

 matter. Examined by themselves these bodies are extremely 

 puzzling as to their origin, and it must be admitted that they 

 have much the appearance of the kind of organisms they 

 resemble ; but examined in connexion with the various forms 

 assumed by serpentine or its varieties, their purely mineral 

 origin becomes obvious. The group of pieces of serpentine 

 shown in fig. 16 includes a great diversity of forms, such as it 

 is conceivable would give rise to simulations of the kind ; while 

 the sinuous bands, some translucent and others opaque (fig. 4), 

 would yield an abundant family of tortuous annelid-like bodies. 

 But if the foregoing configurations bear a striking resem- 

 blance to organics tructures and organisms, what may we not 

 say of those next to be described ? 



Imbedded in the saponite there are occasionally irregularly 

 shaped aggregations of two kinds of bodies, which for the pre- 

 sent may be conveniently termed ovoids and spheres. The 

 ovoids, besides forming good-sized complex aggregations, occur 

 often sparsely aggregated, and even sometimes isolated. They 

 consist, partly or wholly, of slender attenuated diverging rods 

 with a more or less definite form, being in many instances 

 marked out by white opaque bounding planes which enclose a 

 dark amorphous translucent interior. A transverse section of 

 the ovoids, by cutting the rods across, presents a singularly 

 reticulated appearance under a magnifying power of 37 dia- 

 meters. When the rods are large the reticulations are deci- 

 dedly angular ; small rods give rise to a circular reticulation 

 (fig. 17). The ovoids consequently appear as if their compo- 

 Phil. Mag. S. 5. Yol. 1. No. 4. April 1876. X 



