the ages
of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their
birth, enthronization and death have thrown much light on the chronology
from the XXIInd dynasty onwards. The name of the mother-cow and the
place of birth are often recorded. The sarcophagi are of immense size,
and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is therefore
remarkable that the priests contrived to bury one of the animals in the
fourth year of Cambyses.

See Jablonski, _Pantheon_, ii.; Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, ii.
350; Mariette-Maspero, _Le Serapeum de Memphis_. (F. Ll. G.)

APLITE, in petrology, the name given to intrusive rock in which quartz
and felspar are the dominant minerals. Aplites are usually very
fine-grained, white, grey or flesh-coloured, and their constituents are
visible only with the help of a magnifying lens. Dykes and threads of
aplite are very frequently to be observed traversing granitic bosses;
they occur also, though in less numbers, in syenites, diorites,
quartz-diabases and gabbros. Without doubt they have usually a genetic
affinity to the rocks they intersect. The aplites of granite areas, for
example, are the last part of the magma to crystallize, and correspond
in composition to the quartzo-felspathic aggregates which fill up the
interspaces between the early minerals in the main body of the rock.
They bear a considerable resemblance to the eutectic mixtures which are
formed on the cooling of solutions of mineral salts, and remain liquid
till the excess of either of the components has separated out, finally
solidifying _en masse_ when the proper proportions of the constituents
and a suitable temperature are reached. The essential components of the
aplites are quartz and alkali felspar (the latter usually orthoclase or
microperthite). Crystallization has been apparently rapid (as the rocks
are so fine-grained), and the ingredients have solidified almost at the
same time. Hence their crystals are rather imperfect and fit closely to
one another in a sort of fine mosaic of nearly equi-dimensional grains.
Porphyritic felspars occur occasionally and quartz more seldom; but the
relation of the aplites to quartz-porphyries, granophyres and felsites
is very close, as all these rocks have nearly the same chemical
composition. Yet the aplites associated with diorites and
quartz-diabases differ in minor respects from the common aplites, which
accompany granites. The accessory minerals