agatel (agat)

phr. as adv. [ IMG:content-0381.png:[graphic] IMG:content-0382.png:[graphic][merged small][subsumed][subsumed] 1. A variety of quartz which is peculiar in consisting of bands or layers of various colors blended together. It is e entially a variegated chalcedony, but some of the bands may consist of other varieties of quartz, for the most part cryptocrystalline. The varied manner in which these materials are arranged causes the agate when polished to a ume characteristic differences of appearance, and thus certain varieties are distinguished, as ribbon-agate, fortification-agate, zone-agate, star-agate, mo -agate, clouded agate, etc. See also cut under concentric. Agate is found chiefly in trap-rocks and serpentine, often in the form of nodules, called ge odes. It is esteemed the least valuable of the precious stones. Agates are cut and polished in large quantities at Oberstein in Oldenburg, Germany, where also artificial means are used to produce striking varieties of color in these stones. In Scotland also they are cut and polished, under the name of Scotch pebbles. They are used for rings, seals, cups, beads, boxes, handles of small utensils, burnishers, pestles and mortars, and, in delicate mechanism, as bearing-surfaces, pivots, and the knife-edges of weighing apparatus. In Shakspere agate is a symbol of littlene or smallne , from the little figures cut in these stones when set in rings. I was never manned with an agate till now. Shak ., 2 Hen. IV., i. 2. 2. A draw-plate used by gold-wire drawers, named from the piece of agate through which the eye is drilled.-3. In printing, type of a size between pearl and nonpareil, giving about 160 IMG:content-0383.png:[blocks in formation] 108 throws up rapidly from its center a tall scape bearing a large compound inflorescence, and dies after perfecting its fruit. It is extensively cultivated in Mexico under the name of maguey, and is put to many uses. The sap, obtained in abundance from the plant when the flowering stem is just ready to burst forth, produces when fermented a beverage resembling cider, called by the Mexicans pulque. An extract of the leaves is used as a substitute for soap, and the flower-stem, when withered, is cut up into slices to form razor-strops. The leaves of nearly all the species yield a more or le valuable fiber, which is made into thread and ropes and has been used in the manufacture of paper. Sisal hemp, or henequin, is the product of A. Ixtli, and is exported in large quantities from Yucatan. A West Indian species, A. A. IMG:content-0384.png:[ocr errors] of certain (which see).