Related Images Gallery

Red water mite, Hydrachna geographica

Red water mite, Hydrachna geographica.. Illustration drawn and engraved by Richard Polydore Nodder. Handcolored copperplate engraving from George Shaw and Frederick Nodder's The Naturalist's Miscellany, London, 1800

© Florilegius / Mary Evans

Copperplate, Engraving, Fredericknodder, Georgeshaw, Handcolored, Historical, History, Hydrachnageographica, Naturalhistory, Redwatermite, Richardpolydorenodder, Thenaturalistsmiscellany, Zoology

Gold, Carnon Stream Works, Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England

Gold is a native element and precious metal which has been prized by mankind for thousands of years for its beauty, malleability and resistance to corrosion. This gold nugget is the largest known to have been found in Cornwall and weighs 1 oz t, 18 dwt. 6 grs. It was found in January 1808 in the Carnon Valley tin-stream works and bought by collector Philip Rashleigh in March of the same year. Rashleigh wrote in his Manuscript (112 Au): Native Gold found in Carnon Stream work in Cornwall weighs - 1 oz. 18 pw. 6 gr. Troy this piece has had all the extra matter picked out except a mite in one place the marks of many others remain. The smoothness of the piece shews the great time it has been washed by the water where it was exposed and the hollow parts more rough gives a proof of its not being manufactured'. In the ownership of Mr Wills, a silversmith from Truro, the find was reported in the Royal Cornwall Gazette on 6th February 1808 this is unquestionably the largest and most beautiful specimen ever found in Cornwall, or probably in any other country'. The paper reported in March 1808 that Rashleigh purchased the specimen from Mr Wills. Mineral analysis undertaken in 2018 indicates that the gold content in the nugget is in the high 90s while other gold nuggets from the Carnon Stream Works, which were analysed, are around the 70s. As a result, it has been suggested that this gold nugget may have been refined and worked into a forgery by the silversmith who sold it to Rashleigh. Rashleigh Collection

© RIC, photographer A.G. Tindle

A witcha€™s broom on a Spruce (Picea sp.)

A witch's broom on a Spruce (Picea sp.), a deformity in which the host's natural structure is changed, a tangled mass of shoots emerging at a single point. The disease has numerous causes including mistletoe, insects, mites, viruses or a plant hormone. Saguenay Fjord National Park, Quebec, Canada

© BIOS PHOTO/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Abnormal Growth, Abnormality, Broom, Disorder, Infection, Parasites, Plant Pathogens, Witchesí Broom, Witchesibroom