Aragonite (var: Flos Ferri) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

When you hear the term "Flos Ferri", this is what people are talking about. The name translated from Latin means "flowers of iron", which is strange because Aragonite doesn't contain any iron, but I can't find a reason why it became associated with Aragonite. This specimen is a classic example of a fine quality "cave Aragonite" featuring arborescent, branching, white to beige colored crystals, with no matrix or associations. The piece almost looking organic in its shape, as though it were a tree or a coral. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #19404CL. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.