330 Count de Bournon’s Observations on a new 
The above are all the forms I have been able to discover, in 
the species of carbonate of lime here described. 
This substance does not appear to be very scarce. Among 
the crystallized carbonates of lime preserved in Mr. Greville’s 
collection, I have met with about a dozen specimens of it, 
most of which came either from Carinthia, or from Transyl- 
vania, or from Scotland. The beautiful and delicately white 
stalactitical substance, hitherto known by the name of Jtosferri, 
generally belongs to the substance here described, particularly 
certain pieces of it, which have their ramifications covered with 
small brilliant asperities, giving them the appearance of fine 
satin. These little asperities, all of which are inclined, in the 
same direction, to the axes of the various ramifications, are in 
fact so many very perfect but minute crystals, which most com- 
monly belong to the forementioned flat pyramidal varieties. 
Among the specimens of this kind of carbonate of lime which 
came from Carinthia, there exist some, in which the sharp py- 
ramids are very small, and appear as if planted almost perpendi- 
cularly in the matrix. These specimens may, from the above 
circumstance, be more easily confounded with the common 
carbonate of lime in small needle-like crystals ; there is, how- 
ever, the following difference between them, namely, that in 
the common carbonate of lime, we cannot touch these little 
crystals, though ever so lightly, without breaking them ; whereas, 
in the substance here described, the crystals are capable of 
resisting a tolerably strong compression of the fingers, and, if 
the pressure be increased, they very frequently, instead of 
breaking off, actually penetrate into the skin. The lustre of the 
latter substance is also much more lively than that of the 
former. 
