82 Scientific Intelligence. 



feet. The diamond fairly ploughed the wheel, practically ruining 

 it, so that it required planing before it could be further used. 

 No polish was produced, however, sufficient to give the brill- 

 iancy necessary in any diamond gem. 



17. A transparent crystal of Microliter by W. E. Hidden. 

 (Communicated.) — The crystal here described was found three 

 years ago in the mica mine near Amelia Court House, Amelia 

 county, Virginia, (see this Journal xxii, 82, and xxv, 335. This 

 crystal weighed 0*877 gram and showed the planes 0, 3-3, i and 

 1 about equally developed. It differed from others found at the 

 locality in its hyacinth-red color, in its perfect transparency and 

 high specific gravity, viz: 6*13. Dunnington obtained for the 

 Amelia microlite 5 - 66, Shepard for that of Chesterfield 5 - 56, and 

 Nordenskjold for Uto crystals 5 25. The high specific gravity of 

 the crystal now described suggests that it may consist more 

 largely of calcium tantalate and less of the columbate than the 

 others that have been examined. The perfect transparency and 

 freedom from flaws prompted me to send this specimen to the 

 lapidary. The result was a gem which had all the brilliancy 

 and beauty of a fine hyacinth, or of an essonite garnet. 



I might also add that the cabinet of Mr. C. S. Bement of Phila- 

 delphia contains some py rope-colored microlites from the same 

 locality of nearly one centimeter diameter, embedded in smoky 

 quartz; they are transparent in part and have highly polished 

 planes. They were at first, not unnaturally, mistaken for garnets 

 by the finders. 



18. Emeralds from North Carolina. — Mr. J. A. D. Stephenson 

 of Statesville, N. C, in a recent letter to the editors, calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that the occurrence of emeralds in Alexander 

 county, announced as a new discovery on page 250 of volume xxix 

 of this Journal (March, 1885), was the same as that which had 

 been already described on page 153 of volume xxvii (February, 

 1884). 



19. Uranium minerals in the Black Hills — Mr. L. W. Stillwell 

 mentions the finding of pitchblende and uranium mica (probably 

 autunite), the latter as a thin incrustation, on Bald Mountain in 

 the Black Hills, Dakota. 



III. Botany and Zoology. 



1. The Woods of the United States, with an account of their 

 Structure, Qualities, and Uses • by C. S. Sargent. New York, 

 D. Appleton & Co. 1885. pp. 283, 8vo. — A handy volume, 

 prepared especially as a guide to the magnificent Jesup collec- 

 tion of wood in the American Museum of Natural History at 

 New York. The matter is condensed from the author's volume 

 on the forest wealth of the United States, forming the ninth vol- 

 ume of the Tenth U. S. Census, which was noticed in our March 

 number. This compact and cheap volume should be useful far 

 beyond its immediate design, ^. g. 



