914 DESCRIPTIONS OF MINERALS. 
among the largest yet discovered in any part of the world ; 
one from Robinson’s farm measured ‘a foot in length and. 
weighed 18 pounds; but they are nearly opaque and the 
edges are usually rounded. They occur with seapolite, 
“sphene,-ete. Hdenville and Amity, Orange County, N. Y., 
afford fine crystals from half an inch ‘to. twelve inches 
long. At Westmoreland, N. H., fine crys‘als are obtained 
in a vein of feldspar and quartz ; ; also at Blue Hill Bay 
in Maine. Bolton, Chestentia Id, Chester, Mass., are other 
localities. A beautiful blue variety is obtained at Dixon’s 
quarry, Wilmington, Delaware. Abundant in Burgess, 
Elmsley, Grand Calumet Id., Hull, Buckingham, Port- 
land, ete., in Canada. 
The name apatite, from the Greek apatao, to deceive, was 
given in allusion to the mistake of early mineralogists re- 
specting the nature of some of its varieties. 
Apatite, when abundant, is used like guano as a fertilizer, 
on account of its phosphoric acid. To make it capable of 
being taken up by plants it is treated first with a small por- 
tion of sulphuric acid, which renders the phosphoric acid 
soluble. When guano has been accumulated by birds, or 
other animals, over coral rock, a calcium carbonate (as on 
some coral islands), the waters in filtrating through it have 
often carried down the soluble phosphoric acid or phosphates 
into the underlying beds and turned them into calcium 
phosphate. 
Brushite and Metabrushite. ydrous calcium phosphates, found in 
guano. 
Pyrophosphorite. A white earthy phosphate from a guano deposit, 
in the West Indies. Analysis gave it the composition of a pyrophos- 
phate. 
Pharmacolite and Haidingcrite are hydrous calcium arsenates. 
Nitrocalcite. Uydrous calcium nitrate. From caverns. 
Pyrochlore. Occurs in small brown and brownish-yellow isometric 
octahedrons. A calcium-cerium columbate. G.=—4°3-4'5. From Nor- 
way, Siberia. 
Microlite. In crystals similar in form to those of pyrochlore, but 
in composition a calcium tantalate. G.=5°5-6. From Chesterfield, 
Mass., and Redding, Conn. Huatchettolite is a lime-uranium colum- 
bate, from North Carolina. 
Disanalyte. In cubes in granular limestone, a columbate and titan- 
ate of calcium, cerium and iron. From the Kaiserstuhl. 
Romeite and Atopite are calcium antimonates, the latter containing 
also iron and soda. 
