Alabaster

CaSO4.2H,O. Soft, fine-grained, snow-white or delicately tinted variety of gypsum, quarried near Leghorn, Italy; stone of excellent quality for vases and other ornaments. That of the ancients was a firm, compact, somewhat opalescent stalagmite (see CALCITE), now sometimes called Egyptian or Oriental alabaster; one of its best-known localities was near Thebes.