5. Porphyrite (or quartzless porphyry).—A basic variety of felstone-porphyry, consisting of a felspathic base with distinct crystals of felspar, with which there may be others of hornblende, mica, or augite. The colour is generally red or purple, and it weathers into red clay, in contrast to the highly acid or silicated felsites which weather into whitish sand.
6. Syenite.—As stated above, this name has been variously applied. Its derivation is from Syene (Assouan) in Egypt, and the granitic rocks of that district were called "syenites," under the supposition (now known to be erroneous) that they differ from ordinary granites in that they were supposed to be composed of quartz, felspar, and hornblende, instead of quartz, felspar, and mica. From this it arose that syenite was regarded as a variety of granite in which the mica is replaced by hornblende, and this has generally been the British view of the question. But the German definition is applied to an entirely different rock, belonging to the felstone family; and according to this classification syenite consists of a crystalline-granular compound of orthoclase and hornblende, in which quartz may or may not be present. From this it will be seen that, according to Zirkel, syenite is essentially distinct from diorite in the species of its felspar.[3] It seems desirable to adopt the German view; and as regards diorites containing quartz as an accessory, to apply to them the name of quartz-diorite, as stated above, the name syenite as used by British geologists having arisen from a misconception.
7. Mica-trap (Lampophyre).—A rock, allied to the felstone family, in which mica is an abundant and essential constituent, thus consisting of plagioclase and mica, with a little magnetite. Quartz may be an accessory. This rock occurs amongst the Lower Silurian strata of Ireland, Cumberland, and the South of Scotland; it is not volcanic in the ordinary acceptation of that term. The term lampophyre was introduced by Gümbel in describing the mica-traps of Fichtelgebirge.
8. Andesite.—This is a dark-coloured, compact or vesicular, semi-vitreous group of volcanic rocks, composed essentially of a glassy plagioclase felspar, and a ferro-magnesian constituent enclosed in a glassy base. According to the nature of the ferro-magnesian constituent, the group may be divided into hornblende-andesite, biotite-andesite, and augite-andesite. Quartz is sometimes present, and when this mineral becomes an essential it gives rise to a variety called quartz-andesite or dacite.
These rocks are the principal constituents of the lavas of the Andes, and the name was first applied to them by Leopold von Buch; but their representatives also occur in the British Isles, Germany, and elsewhere. Dacite is the lava of Krakatoa and some of the volcanoes of Japan.
9, 10. Trachyte and Domite, etc.—These names include very numerous varieties of highly silicated volcanic rock, and in their general form consist of a white felsitic paste with distinct crystals of sanidine, together with plagioclase, augite, biotite, hornblende, and accessories. When crystalline grains or blebs of quartz occur, we have a quartz-trachyte; when tridymite is abundant, as in the trachyte of Co. Antrim, we have "tridymite-trachyte."
The trachytes occupy a position between the pitchstone lavas on the one hand, and the andesites and granophyres on the other.
(b.) Domite is the name applied to the trachytic rocks of the Auvergne district and the Puy de Dôme particularly. They do not contain free quartz, though they are highly acid rocks, containing sometimes as much as 68 per cent. of silica.
(c.) Phonolite (Clinkstone) is a trachytic rock, composed essentially of sanidine, nepheline, and augite or hornblende. It is usually of a greenish colour, hard and compact, so as to ring under the hammer; hence the name. The Wolf Rock is composed of phonolite, and it occurs largely in Auvergne.
(d.) Rhyolites are closely connected with the quartz-trachytes, but present a marked fluidal, spherulitic, or perlitic structure. They consist of a trachytic ground-mass in which grains or crystals of quartz and sanidine, with other accessory minerals, are imbedded. They occur amongst the volcanic rocks of the British Isles, Hungary, and the Lipari Islands, from which the name Liparite has been derived.