STALACTITES. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Calcareous earth fixed by water. 
Diaphanous ; breaking- into fragments of no determinate 
shape ; fracture, when solid, striated ; stria; generally 
diverging from the centre. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Stalactites spatosus. St. pendulus intus lamellosus diapha- 
nus. Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. 3. 
p. 100. 
Pendulous stalactite, lamellated within, 
semi-pellucid. 
Stalactites solidus particulis spatosis. 
Cronst. Miner. 1 . p. 31. 
Spatum molle ex aqua distillante gene- 
ratum. Carth. Miner. 13. 
Stalactites. . . . Kina. Miner. 1 . p. 88. Patrin. Hist. 
des Miner-. 3. p. 122. 
We occasionally meet with cylindrical pieces of 
spar attached to the roofs of large caverns, and 
having the appearance of icicles of different sizes. 
These are called stalactites, or drop stones, and 
are formed of chalk, ( carbonate of lime ,) which the 
