50 
France is noted for the beauty and variety of its marbles. 
Examples of many of the marbles used in the ornamentation of 
our houses and public buildings may be recognized in this 
case. 
The names upon the specimen labels are in large part de- 
scriptive — that is, made up of terms applicable to a class of 
marbles. Thus Rouge Antique is a red marble of the shade 
found in the Roman ruins. 
Griotte, the name of a variety of cherry, is applied to 
marbles having markings suggesting a mass of ripe red cher- 
ries. 
Jaspe refers to specimens of the color of Jasper. 
Breche, or breccia, is applied to those marbles which appear 
to be composed of angular fragments cemented together. 
Brocatelle is said to refer to a kind of cloth. Marbles hav- 
ing the appearance of any of the brocatelles shown here may 
with propriety be called brocatelle. 
Campan marbles are those showing a peculiar green net- 
work of veins. 
A Coquille marble is a shell marble. 
Other names are either simply descriptive, refer to locali- 
ties or have no especial significance. 
CASE 3.— Marbles, Italy. Among these are some used by 
the ancient Romans. 
CASE 4.— Marbles, Africa. Serpentines. Next to marble 
the green or red serpentines are perhaps the most generally 
used of ornamental stones. Especially noteworthy are the curi- 
ously mottled red and dark green serpentines from Lizard 
Point, Cornwall, and the dark colored variety from Saxony which 
is turned on a lathe to form various ornamental objects. 
CASE 5.— Verde antique, ophite. The green serpentines 
seen in this case are now commonly known as verde antique, 
although the name was formerly applied ^only to those of the 
shade of green possessed by the Greek specimen E 504. The 
ophite from New York is a granular mixture of calcite and 
serpentine. 
CASE 6. — Travertine {onyx marble. Mexican onyx.) and 
stalagmite marble. The clear translucent specimens represent 
the travertine as originally deposited. The opaque red-brown 
