Chapter Cryptogamian to Cubit of C by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Crystal
(Crys"tal), a. Consisting of, or like, crystal; clear; transparent; lucid; pellucid; crystalline.

Through crystal walls each little mote will peep.
Shak.

By crystal streams that murmur through the meads.
Dryden.

The crystal pellets at the touch congeal,
And from the ground rebounds the ratting hail.
H. Brooks.

Crystallin
(Crys"tal*lin) n. (Physiol. Chem.) See Gobulin.

Crystalline
(Crys"tal*line) a. [L. crystallinus, from Gr. : cf. F. cristallin. See Crystal.]

1. Consisting, or made, of crystal.

Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline.
Shak.

2. Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture.

Their crystalline structure.
Whewell.

3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline, while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized.

4. Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid. "The crystalline sky." Milton.

Crystalline heavens, orCrystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavenly bodies. — Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic epithelium.

Crystalline
(Crys"tal*line), n.

1. A crystalline substance.

2. See Aniline. [Obs.]

Crystallite
(Crys"tal*lite) n. [See Crystal.] (Min.) 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.

Crystallizable
(Crys"tal*li`za*ble) a. Capable of being crystallized; that may be formed into crystals.

Crystallization
(Crys`tal*li*za"tion) n. [Cf. F. cristallization.]

1. (Chem. & Min.) The act or process by which a substance in solidifying assumes the form and structure of a crystal, or becomes crystallized.

2. The body formed by crystallizing; as, silver on precipitation forms arborescent crystallizations.

The systems of crystallization are the several classes to which the forms are mathematically referable. They are most simply described according to the relative lengths and inclinations of certain assumed lines called axes; but the real distinction is the degree of symmetry characterizing them. 1. The Isometric, or Monometric, system has the axes all equal, as in the cube, octahedron, etc. 2. The Tetragonal, or Dimetric, system has a varying vertical axis, while the lateral are equal, as in the right square prism. 3. The Orthorhombic, or Trimetric, system has the three axes unequal, as in the rectangular and