spiculum

I pray you note that for many a day his carpet hath been the spicula of pine, and his atmosphere hath been perfumed by the fir-tree.

The failures they experienced, even their humble successes, were met with sneers and laughter; till at last Hermose held up aloft a little spicula of gold about the thickness of a pencil.

The whole surface is uniformly covered with short compressed calcareous spicula embedded in the cuticle.

The last fact, trivial as it appears, assumes immense importance when we learn that to these spicula we must turn for an explanation of the isolated masses of flint which abound in various chalk formations.

We can, for example, converge a powerful luminous beam upon a surface covered with hoar frost, without melting a single spicula of the crystals.