Spherulite

In petrology, spherulites (pronunciation: /ˈsfɛrʊlaɪt/) are small, rounded bodies that commonly occur in vitreous igneous rocks. They are often visible in specimens of obsidian, pitchstone and rhyolite as globules about the size of millet seed or rice grain, with a duller luster than the surrounding glassy base of the rock, and when they are examined with a lens they prove to have a radiate fibrous structure.

Under the microscope the spherulites are of circular outline and are composed of thin divergent fibers that are crystalline as verified with polarized light. Between crossed Nicols, a black cross appears in the spherulite; its axes are usually perpendicular to one another and parallel to the crosshairs; as the microscope stage is rotated the cross remains steady; between the black arms there are four bright sectors. This shows that the spherulite consists of radiate, doubly refracting fibers that have a straight extinction; the arms of the black cross correspond to those fibers that are extinguished. The aggregate is too fine-grained to directly determine what minerals it is composed of using visible light microscopy.

Spherulites are most common in silica-rich glassy rocks. Sometimes they compose the whole mass; more usually they are surrounded by a glassy or felsitic base. When obsidians are devitrified, the spherulites are often traceable, though they may be more or less completely recrystallized or silicified. In the center of a spherulite there may be a crystal (e.g. quartz or feldspar) or sometimes a cavity. Occasionally spherulites have zones of different colors, and while most frequently spherical, they may also be polygonal or irregular in outline. In some New Zealand rhyolites the spherulites send branching cervicorn processes (like stags horns) outwards through the surrounding glass of the rock. The name axiolites is given to long, elliptical or band-like spherulites.

...
Wikipedia