Warning!  Rock Pox   Very Contagious To Both Sexes.  Symptoms: Continual complaint as to need for fresh air, sunshine, and relaxation. Patient has blank expression, sometimes inattentive to rest of family. Has no taste for work of any kind. Frequent checking of dealers' catalogs, and lapidary and mineral shops longer than usual. Secret phone calls to rock pals. Mumbles to self. Lies to rival collectors. Only one cure. Treatment: Medication is useless. Disease not fatal. Victim should go hunting as often as possible at beach, mountain, or desert hunting grounds, and make frequent visits to his lapidary dealer.

Petrified Wood Petrified wood is a type of fossil in which the tissues of a dead plant are replaced with minerals most often a silicate such as quartz. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood or woody materials suddenly become buried under sediment. Mineral-rich water flowing through the sediment deposits minerals in the plant's cells and as the plant's lignin and decays away, a stone cast is left in its place. Minerals such as manganese, iron, and copper in the water/mud during the petrifaction process give petrified wood a variety of color ranges. Quartz crystals are colorless, but when iron is added to the process the crystals become stained with a yellow or red tint Petrified wood can be extremely detailed, often reflecting the internal structures of the plant from which they form, such as tree rings and vascular tissues. Tree-ring dating is the method of scientific dating based on the analysis. Petrified wood has a Mohs hardness level of 7, the same as quartz. A famous petrified wood site is Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona having the world's largest collection of petrified coniferous trees in the U.S. Wood from the area (though not from the park) is a prized commercial item, particularly cut and polished samples.   Petrified Palm Wood Petrified palm wood officially became the Texas state stone on March 26, 1969, after measures passed both the House and Senate.  The official state stone of Texas and the official state fossil of Louisiana. It is actually a fossil, petrified "palm" wood assigned to the botanical form genus Palmoxylon. Palmoxylon is the genus designated for petrified trunks of palm. Fossils found near fossil palm wood include corals, sponges, and mollusks. This is because the palms grew along prehistoric beaches. For millions of years, the shoreline has been moving farther south. This means that the structure of the wood resembles that of modern palms, although it may or may not be closely related to them. This wood is the petrified remains of trees that grew on the Gulf Coastal Plain during the Oligocene Epoch, 23 - 34 million years ago. At that time the shore of the Gulf of Mexico was further north than it is now, which explains why the wood is usually found in the more northern areas of the state. These deposits also extend into Louisiana and Mississippi. The petrified wood formed when a tree died and was buried by sediments. Minerals in the groundwater permeated the wood, replacing the original organic matter and turning the wood to stone. The main mineral is silica, but trace elements in the silica impart a variety of colors to the petrified wood. Petrified Palm wood is a group of fossil woods that contain prominent rod-like structures within the regular grain of the silicified wood. Depending upon the angle at which they are cut by fracture, these rod-like structures show up as spots, tapering rods, or continuous lines. The rod-like structures are sclerenchyma bundles that comprise part of the woody tissues that gave the wood its vertical strength. Petrified palm wood is a favorite of rock collectors because it is replaced by silica and exhibits well-defined rod-like structures and variety of colors. As a result, it exhibits a wide range of colors and designs when cut that can be incorporated into jewelry and other ornamental items. Because it is composed of silica, it is hard enough to polish and withstand the wear and tear of normal use. Glossary   Agate  - chalcedony with colored bands or fortifications.   Agatize  - to turn to agate.   Amber - fossilized tree resin.   Chalcedonize – to turn to chalcedony.   Chalcedony - silicon dioxide, often without patterns or inclusions: a form of cryptocrystalline quartz.   Jasper – opaque cryptocrystalline quartz.   Permineralize – the process whereby soluble minerals enter the cells and fill the space between cells, resulting in a hardened mineral, which contains and supports original tissues.   Petrify – to permineralize or to replace the normal cells of organic mater with silica or other mineral deposit.   Quartz – a crystalline form of silica.   Silica – silicon dioxide: occurring as crystalline, cryptocrystalline, microcryptocrystalline, and impure forms