Rubellite and Quartz

Sample of coarse granular white Quartz with a vitreous lustre that has several pieces of Rubellite embedded on the Quartz crystals. Rubellite is pink in colour and are long, subhedral prismatic crystals with visible striations along the length of the faces. Quartz (SiO2) can come in a large variety of colours from white to purple. Lustre can be vitreous or greasy and streak is white. Hardness is 7. Quartz usually occurs as long or short prismatic crystals that are terminated by double rhombohedrons and have striations crosswise. Quartz can also occurs as granular, disseminated or massive forms. Rubellite (Na(Mg,Fe)3Al6(BO3)3(Si6O18(OH,F)4) is the variety of pink/red tourmaline. Lustre is vitreous and streak is white. Hardness is 7 to 7 1/2. Tourmaline usually occurs as short or long prismatic crystals that have a rounded triangular cross section. Striations are commonly seen along the length of the crystal face. Tourmaline can also occur as radiating, columnar or compact forms.