STALACTITES. 
351 
charged with a portion of carbonate of lime, which 
it deposits either on the bottom or the sides of the 
cavern, and which, when it is formed of small thin 
plates, and has the appearance of a vegetable, is 
called stalagmite. When the same concretion is 
found in a great mass firm enough to be cut and 
polished, it is called alabaster. It is evident that 
the composition of these different bodies is the 
same, and that they are distinguished only by form 
and situation. 
Before the nature of these sparry bodies was 
known, they were supposed by many to be petrified 
vegetables, and this supposition may readily be ex- 
cused when we consider the varied manner in 
which they are grouped in their native caverns, and 
attend to their internal structure. All stalactites 
have a sort of bark, which varies in thickness, and 
their interior presents an appearance of organization 
which resembles petrified wood. This resemblance 
is the more striking when the layers are of two dif- 
ferent colours. If we cut a stalactite lengthways, it 
displays the longitudinal fibres of wood ; if trans- 
versely, the concentric circles reminds us of the an- 
nual growth of vegetables ; while the tube in the 
middle, which is generally of a colour and substance 
rather different from the rest of the stalactite, repre- 
sents the pith of the tree. 
Pools-hole in Derbyshire is famous for producing 
stalactites; they are likewise formed in other large 
caverns in different parts of Europe, but no where, 
we believe, in such abundance, or in so beautiful a 
