422 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec.  i,  1892. 
strong  opinion  which,  as  head  of  the  court,  Ihave 
expressed.  And  I may  say  with  regard  to  the 
Inventions  Ordinance  which  contains  a clause  giving 
a right  of  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council,  that  clause 
requires  that  the  appeal  shall  be  governed  by  the  same 
rules  as  those  laid  down  in  the  charter.  The  charter 
has  since  been  repea’ed  and  the  terms  of  it  re- 
enactod  in  section  42  of  the  Courts  Ordinance,  so  that 
our  judgment  applies  as  well  to  the  right  of  ap- 
peal as  given  by  the  Inventions  Ordinance. 
GEIKIEL1TE  AND  BADDELEYITE,  TWO  NEW 
MINERAL  SPECIES. 
Various  pebb'es  were  lately  trrnght  to  this  country 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Baddeley,  who  has  been  acting  as 
manager  of  a Gun  and  Mining  Company  in  Ceylon. 
They  had  been  picked  up  by  him  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Rabwana  (Rackwann6)  at  various  times,  and 
had  then  attracted  his  special  attentioinby  reason  of 
their  high  specific  gravity.  Their  real  nature  not 
being  evident  on  insp'dion,  Mr.  Baddeley,  whrn 
invalid  brought  them  home  to  England  lor  identi- 
fication. 
Oae  bind  of  pebble,  kindly  analyzed  for  him  by  Mr. 
C audet,  was  found  to  be  essentially  a tantal&te  of 
yitrinm. 
Pebbles  of  another  kind  were  taken  to  the  Museum 
of  Practical  Geology  in  Jermyu-Slreet  for  examination. 
The  external  characters  beii  g found  by  Mr.  Pringle 
insufficient  for  the  determination  of  the  species,  the 
pebbles  were  handed  over  to  Mr.  Allan  Dick  for 
ohemical  investigation.  Quantitaii'e  analysis  proved 
the  mineral  to  be  essentially  magnesium  titanate 
(MgTiOg)  and  chemically  analogous  to  Pernfsk’te, 
calcium  titanate  (CaTiOg).  To  this  in'erestirg  new 
species  Mr.  Dick,  in  a paper  read  b' fore  Minera- 
logical  Society  in  June,  gave  the  name  Geikielite,  in 
honour  of  Sir  Archibald  Geikie,  F.R.S.,  Direotor- 
General  of  the  Geological  Survey,  in  whose  laboratory 
the  anahsishad  been  made. 
As  described  by  Mr.  Dick,  Geikielito  ha' a specific 
gravity  3‘98  its  hardness  (6  5)  is  between  that  of 
quartz  and  felspar.  It  has  a perfect  cleavage,  with 
a splendent  metallio  lustute,  and  an  imperfect  cleav- 
age nearly  at  right  angles  to  the  former.  The 
pebbles  themselves  chow  no  remains  of  crystal-faces, 
ere  bluish-black  in  colour,  and  opaque;  but  thin 
cleavage-  flakes,  when  seen  in  the  microscope  have 
a peculiar  purplish  red  tint,  and  in  convergent 
polarized  light  show  a uniaxal  figure,  of  which  the 
axis  is  just  outside  the  field  of  vision.  When  digested 
with  hot  strong  hydrochloric  acid  the  finely  powdr  red 
mineral  is  slowly  decomposed,  and  the  ti'anio  acid 
separates  out.  In  strong  hydrofluoric  acid  complete 
solution  takes  plaoe  in  a few  hours.  The  mineral  is 
infusible  with  the  blowpipe  : fused  with  miorocosmio 
salt  it  gives  the  characteristic  reaction  of  titanic  acid 
notwithstanding  the  presence  of  a small  proposition  of 
oxide  of  iron. 
Shortly  after  Mr.  Dick’s  paper  had  been  read,  Mr. 
Bsd  leley  courteously  offered  to  allow  me  to  select  a 
single  pebble  for  the  British  Museum  Collection  out 
of  his  small  store  of  the  mineral,  the  remaining  ones 
being  required  by  him  for  sending  as  samples  to  be 
used  by  searchers  in  Ceylon.  But  this  store,  small 
though  it  was  consisted  of  more  than  one  kind  of 
pebble,  the  close  similarity  of  aspect  being  due  to 
friction  against  a hit  of  graphic  which  was  with 
them.  On  this  heterogeneity  being  pointed  out, 
Mr.  Baddeley  allowed  me  to  take  not*  only  the 
promised  pebble  of  Geikielite,  but  also  those  three  peb- 
bles which,  not  being  Geikielite,  were  useless  as  samples 
of  that  mineral.  One  of  the  three  fragments  proved  to 
be  garnet,  a second  was  ilmenite — both  of  them  com- 
mon minerals — but  the  third,  a fragment  of  a orystal 
still  retaining  some  of  its  faces,  presented  characters 
which  give  it  unusual  interest. 
Tee  fragment,  which  weighs  just  over  three  grams, 
ia  black  and  opnque,  and  has  the  general  asp<  et  of 
oolumbite  ; its  extremely  high  specific  gr„vity  ( 6 02 ; 
and  its  hardness  (6*5)  are  also  suggestive  of  that  mineral 
In  microscopio  fragments  it  transmits  light  and  ia 
dichroio,  changing  from  a greenish  yellow  to  brown 
with  the  plane  of  polarzation  of  the  light  ; the  frag- 
ments, when  examined  in  convergent  polarized  light, 
show  a biaxsl  figure,  the  apparent  axial  angle  being 
large  (near  70°1 ; the  character  of  the  double  refraction 
ia  negative.  There  is  only  one  well-developed  zone  of 
crystal-faces  remaining  on  the  fragment  ; it  consist* 
of  two  rectangular  pairs  of  parallel  faces  (pinekoids) 
and  of  four  priem  faces  (to),  the  faces  of  one  pinakoid 
(a)  kerne  muob  larger  than  those  of  the  other  (6)  ; the 
angle  am,  »s  determined  by  means  of  reflect  ion,  is 
about  44°,  but  the  images  of  the  signal  are  multiple 
and  wanting  In  definition  ; the  dispersion  of  the  optio 
Bxes  indicates  that  the  sys'em  of  crys'allizatioo  is 
mono-symmetric.  Two  other  laces  form  a re-entrant 
edge  parallel  to  the  larger  pinakoid,  and  inclined 
to  the  edges  of  the  well-developed  zone,  hut 
whether  this  is  really  due  to  twinning  or  rot  is  far  from 
evident. 
The  above  set  of  external  characters  suggested  that 
the  fragment  does  not  belong  to  any  of  the  known 
speoies  and  it  became  necessary  todetsrrnine  its  chemical 
behav'onr,  bnton  arconnt  of  the  necessity  of  preserving 
the  natural  faces  of  what  might  possibly  be  an  unique 
fragment,  this  was  a process  demanding  great  caution; 
fortunately,  the  behaviour  was  such  that  it  was  prac- 
ticable to  determine  the  preone  chemical  nature  of  the 
mineral  without  interference  with  the  crystal  faeeB, 
or.  indeed,  anv  appreciate  drstruction  of  materisl. 
It  will  he  sufficient  to  slate  here  the  risuD,  namely 
that  the  material  is  no  other  than  crystn'l'zpd  z’rcoria  ; 
the  technical  details  relative  to  ho' h this  mineral  and 
Geikielito  will  be  given  in  Ihe  n<xt  number  of  the 
Mineralogical  Magazine.  It  is  remarkable  that,  Dot. 
withstanding  the  wi.le  prevalence  of  zircon  itself 
(silicate  of  zirconium)  the  natural  occurrence  ef 
the  oxide  of  zirconium  has  not  previously  been  noticed. 
For  this  new  species  I heg  to  suggest  the  name  Bad- 
deleyite,  in  recognition  of  the  services  of  Mr.  Baddeley 
to  mineralogical  science;  but  for  hi*  close  sorutiny  of 
the  mineral  produots  of  Rakwans,  the  existence  of 
the  above  remarkable  species  would  doubtless  have 
long  remained  unknown.  L.  Fletcher. 
— Mature,  Oct.  27. 
[This  is  interesting  ; aDd  we  trust  a full  account 
of  the  researches  of  Mr.  Baddeley  and  others  will 
be  published.— Ed.  T.A.] 
SECRETS  ABOUT  TEA. 
INTERESTING  FACTS  AND  SUGGESTIONS  TO  LOVERS  07 
GOOD  TEA — AMERICANS  DRINK  THE  WORST  AND 
CHEAPEST-  PAYING  8 1,000  FOR  FIVE 
POUNDS  OF  CEYLON  TEA. 
Tea  drinkers  will  be  interested  in  an  interview  a 
Mail  and  Expressman  recently  held  with  Mr.  S. 
Elwood  May,  president  of  the  great  Ceylon  Planters’ 
Tea  Company,  at  No  110  Fifth  avenue,  in  this  city. 
He  is  a tea  expert,  sndsaid  : 
THE  PERFECT  TEA. 
“The  perfect  tea  does  not  please  at  first,  for  two 
or  three  reasons.  Too  strong  ; or,  rather,  you  use 
too  much  of  it.  Excellent  fault,  when  you  find  it  out 
and  adapt  your  making  of  it.  Too  strong  in  another 
sense  ; that  is,  you  steep  it  too  long  and  get  ihe  tannin. 
You  want  the  tea  without  the  tannin.  Stop,  then, 
between  tea  and  tannin.  This  applies  to  all  sorts  of 
tea.  Hotel  and  restaurant  tea  is  steeped  by  the  hour, 
and  nobody  wants  a second  cup  of  it.  Tea  at  home, 
as  a rule,  is  sieeped  too  long ; it  is  tea  and  tannin ; 
puckery  ; wrong  in  strength ; it  is  tea,  strong,  not  of 
tea,  but  of  tannin. 
THE  FAMOUS  CEYLON  TEA. 
“The  tea  of  Ceylon  has  two  strengths : that  of  tea 
which  is  delioate,  fine,  inspiring,  and  that  of  tannin, 
pu-kery,  harsh,  unpleasing,  bitter.  Une  is  a beautiful 
umber;  the  other  is  dark  and  forbidding.  All  tea 
has  these  two  strengths.  A proper  steeping  exTaots 
the  belter  and  leaves  the  worre.  Japan  and  China 
teas,  at  their  best,  are  o<  arse  compared  with  that 
of  Ceylon,  which  is  new  to  your  taste.  This  newness 
