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waxy appearance, sometimes having a beautiful satiny 
or even pearly gloss, and showing occasionally some facets 
of small crystals. It seems to lead us through the mineral 
aggregation to the growth of plants, and hints to us their 
connexion, which is, however, more conspicuously shown 
in the next plate. I have called this chimerical, because 
we never see two specimens alike, and it seldom happens 
but that they convey, in the smaller or larger masses, an 
idea of something monstrous, not unlike some of the 
strange Imaginary figures of the Chinese. 
