Red Stilbite
- Class 2. Earths.
- Order 1. Homogeneous.
- Gen. 4. Silex.
- Spec. Stilbite.
- Syn.
- Stilbite. Haüy, 3. 161. Wern. Catal. 267.
- Blattriger Zeolith. Emmerl. 1. 204.
- Foliated Zeolite. Thomson, 4. 316.
- Zeolith. Kirw. 1. 278.
- Zeolithe nacrée. Lameth. 2. 305.
One sort of Red Zeolite, as it is commonly called, seems a curious variety of Stilbite; but I do not know that it has been recognised as such by any author on British fossils: indeed it is considered as very rare. The peculiar laminated form it assumes distinguishes it from the Zeolites in general, and gives the radii a very different appearance, as they lie over each other, resembling, in some measure, the flyers of a ventilator. The mica-like lustre of the substance gives the reddish orange a peculiar pleasant cast, although nearly void of transparency.
Since my figure has been finished, I have been favoured with a fine specimen, by the Earl of Seaforth, which distinctly shows the form of the crystals to be similar to the last.
It is found (like most of the substances usually denominated Zeolite) lining and almost filling the hollows in a coarse kind of Trap, mixed with Carbonate of Lime, which fills the remainder of the hollows, and is peculiar for having striae upon the long diagonals of the primitive or fractured faces.
The specimen figured came from Hall Hill, Kincardineshire.