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Capable of being converted; susceptible of change; transmutable; transformable. Minerals are not convertible into another species, though of the same genus. Harvey.

A mineral consisting principally of sulphate of iron; white copperas; -- so called because found in the province of Coquimbo, Chili.

A mineral substance or petrifaction, in the form of coral.

A smokeless powder composed of nitroglycerin, guncotton, and mineral jelly, and used by the British army and in other services. In making it the ingredients are mixed into a paste with the addition of acetone and pressed out into cords (of various diameters) resembling brown twine, which are dried and cut to length. A…

A mineral occuring in silky fibers of a lavender blue color. It is related to hornblende and is essentially a silicate of iron and soda; -- called also blue asbestus. A silicified form, in which the fibers penetrating quartz are changed to oxide of iron, is the yellow brown tiger-eye of the jewelers.…

A mineral consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with perfect basal cleavage; -- so named from the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt.

Indistinctly crystalline; -- applied to rocks and minerals, whose state of aggregation is so fine that no distinct particles are visible, even under the microscope.

A minute mineral form like those common in glassy volcanic rocks and some slags, not having a definite crystalline outline and not referable to any mineral species, but marking the first step in the crystallization process. According to their form crystallites are called trichites, belonites, globulites, etc.…

Mineral coal that is not bituminous; anthracite, especially when found in small masses.

A mineral occuring in thin-bladed crystals and crystalline aggregates, of a sky-blue color. It is a silicate of aluminium. [Written also kyanite.]

A concretion of mineral matter within a leaf or other part of a plant.

A mineral occuring in octahedral crystals, also massive, of a reddish color. It is a silicate of iron, zinc manganese, and glicinum, containing sulphur.

A supposed rare element, said to be associated with cerium, yttrium, etc., in the mineral samarskite, and more recently called samarium. Symbol Dp. See Samarium.

A stone or mineral on or in which are branching figures resembling shrubs or trees, produced by a foreign mineral, usually an oxide of manganese, as in the moss agate; also, a crystallized mineral having an arborescent form, e. g., gold or silver; an arborization.

A natural occurrence of a useful mineral under the conditions to invite exploitation. Raymond.

of determining the relations of an object, as regards genus and species; the referring of minerals, plants, or animals, to the species to which they belong; classification; as, I am indebted to a friend for the determination of most of these shells.

I. Taylor. Determinative tables (Nat. Hist.), tables presenting the specific character of minerals, plants, etc., to assist in determining the species to which a specimen belongs.

A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.

A mineral of the scapolite group; -- so called from the double effect of fire upon it, in fusing it, and rendering it phosphorescent.

s, and determining the nature and quantity of metallic substances contained in any ore or mineral.