shorl

SHORL, n. A mineral, usually of a black color, found in masses of an intermediate form, or crystallized in three or nine sided prisms, which when entire are terminated by three sided summits. The surface of the crystals is longitudinally streaked. the amorphous sort presents thin straight distinct columnur concretions, sometimes parallel, sometimes diverging or stelliform. This is called also tourmalin.

The shorl of the mineralogists of the last century comprehended a variety of substances which later observations have separated into several species. The green shorl is the epidote, or the vesuvian, or the acinolite. The violet shorl an the lenticular shorl ar ethe axinite. The black volcanic shorl is si the augite. The white Vesuvian shorl is the sommite. The white grenatiform is the leucite. The white prismatic is the pycnite, a species of the topaz, and another is a variety of feldspar. Of the blue shorl, one variety is the oxyd of titanium, another the sappare, and another the phosphate of irin. The shorl cruciform is the granitite. The octahedral shorl is the octahedrite or anatase. The red shorl of Hungary and the purple of Madagascar, are varieties of the oxyd of titanium. The spathic shorl is th espodummene. the black shorl and th eelectric shorl only remain, and to this species the name tourmalin was given by that celebrated mineralogist, the Abbe Hauy.

Blue shorl is a variety of Hauyne. Red and titanic shorl is rutile.