64 
NATURAL HISTORY. (Minerals.) 
[north 
Case 54 contains the sulphates of lime^ the principal varieties of 
which are,— ihe selenite* or sparry gypsum, in detached crystals and 
splendid groups, from Bex in Swisserland, Montmartre near Paris, Ox¬ 
ford, &c. ; from St. Jago di Compostella, stained by red iron ochre; 
the fibrous gypsum with silky lustre, from Derbyshire, Swisserland, 
Montserrat; the granular gypsum or alabaster; the compact variety, to 
which belongs the stalagmitical gypsum from Guadaloupe; the scaly 
gypsum (chaux sulphatee niviforme of Haiiy) from Montmartre , com¬ 
mon earthy gypsum, &c.— Anhydrous sulphate of lime, or anhydrite, 
(also called cube-spar and muriacite,) crystalline, fibrous, granular, and 
compact; to the last of which belong some of the Itahan varieties 
known by the name of hardiglio and hardiglione, as also the singular 
fibrous-compact variety, familiarly called tripe-stone (pierre des trippes), 
from the salt mines of Wieliczka. 
Case 55. Sulphates continued :— sulphate of magnesia, or epsomite, 
generally occurring in cr^-stalline fibres ; the fine variety from Calatayud 
in Aragon; also the halotrichite {haar-salz) of Idria belongs to this 
species, and the stalactic cobalt-vitriol, as it is called, from Herrengrund 
in Hungary, which is only sulphate of magnesia, coloured red by oxide 
of cobalt.— Polyhalite, a chemical compound of several sulphates, 
formerly mistaken for anhydi’ous sulphate of lime; compact and fibrous, 
from the salt formation of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, and Ischel in 
Austria.— Sulphate of zinc, white vitriol or goslarite — Sulphate of 
iron, green vitriol, or melantherite, (a salt mostly produced by the de¬ 
composition of iron pyrites,) in beautiful large rhombohedral crystals, 
from Bodenmais in Bavaria, and massive, and in stalactic-fibrous forms, 
such as the specimens from the Rammelsberg, in the Hartz, where it 
also occurs in the form of yellow scales, known by the name of misy ; 
and as concretions of a red colour, called vitriol-roth or hotryogene : 
the plumose vitriol (federsalz), and a botryoidal-reniform substance 
called berghutter, are nothing but casual mixtures of sulphate of iron and 
hydrous sulphate of alumifla.— Sulphate of copper, or copper vitriol 
{cyanose, Beud.) :—the finest sky-blue specimens here deposited, toge¬ 
ther with the stalactic, fibrous, and crystallized varieties, (the large group 
of crystals is artificially prepared,) are from Herrengrund in Hungary. 
There are also two or three scarce Siberian mineral substances placed 
in this Case (one of them, the brochantite'), which appear to be sub¬ 
sulphates of copper, but stand in need of more accurate chemical 
examination.— Sulphate of uranium oxide or johannite, a very rare 
mineral sullstance, from Joachimsthal, Bohemia.— Sulphate of lead, 
lead-vitriol, or anglesite, of which we have a suite of specimens with 
brilliant and well-defined crystals from Badenweiler in Suabia, from 
the Parys mine in Anglesea, &c. ; the sulphato-carbonate (Janarkite), 
and sulphato-tricarbonate (^suzannite'), the cupreous sulphato-carbonate 
(^caledonite) of lead, &c., from Leadhills, &c. — Sulphates of alumina .* 
—common alum, crystallized, fibrous, &c., from various places; and 
the hydrous sub-sulphate of alumina, called aluminite, or websterite, 
from Sussex and from Halle in the territory of Magdeburg, which i 
was by some mistaken for pure alumina, and by others for hydrate of ^ 
* A remarkably fine group of selenite crystals is placed on a separate stand be¬ 
tween Table 54 and the window : it is from Herzog Ernst level, Reiuhardsbruna, 
Saxe-Coburg. Presented by H. R. H. Prince Albert. 
