Note 64 — Chapter I · ON WATER AND ITS COMPOUNDS

Efflorescence, like every evaporation, proceeds from the surface. In the interior of crystals which have effloresced there is usually found a non-effloresced mass, so that the majority of effloresced crystals of washing soda show, in their fracture, a transparent nucleus coated by an effloresced, opaque, powdery mass. It is a remarkable circumstance in this respect that efflorescence proceeds in a completely regular and uniform manner, so that the angles and planes of similar crystallographic character effloresce simultaneously, and in this respect the crystalline form determines those parts of crystals where efflorescence starts, and the order in which it continues. In solutions evaporation also proceeds from the surface, and the first crystals which appear on its reaching the required degree of saturation are also formed at the surface. After falling to the bottom the crystals naturally continue to grow (see Chapter X.).