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[Pers.] (Min.) A mineral allied to soap-stone, entering into several crystalline rocks (talc-schist, protogine), almost entirely silica + magnesia ; silvery white, greenish white, green ; soft ; greasy to touch ; generally massive ; when in thin plates, subtranslucent ; fissile, not elastic. French chalk is powdered talc. Mica (quite a different mineral) is called "tale" in commerce.
By Henry Percy Smith
Word of the day
basidiomycota
- comprises fungi bearing the spores on basidium: Gasteromycetes (puffballs); Tiliomycetes (comprising orders Ustilaginales (smuts) and Uredinales (rusts)); Hymenomycetes (mushrooms; toadstools; agarics; bracket fungi); in some classification systems considered a division of kingdom comprises fungi bearing spores on a basidium; includes Gasteromycetes (puffballs) Tiliomycetes comprising the orders Ustilaginales (smuts) and Uredinales (rusts) Hymenomycetes (mushrooms, toadstools, agarics bracket fungi).