Nine ferrohastingsites from the Younger Granites of Northern Nigeria and five from the nepheline-bearing rocks in the Marangudzi complex of Southern Rhodesia have been analysed chemically and their optical properties and unit-cell parameters determined.

All the minerals have compositions that can be expressed by the formula NaCa2(Fe″,Mg)4Fe‴Al2Si6O22(OH)2, but the Nigerian minerals differ from those of Marangudzi in their lower alumina contents, generally greater degree of iron enrichment, lower potassium, and more variable fluorine contents. These differences are considered to reflect the differences in composition of their respective parent rocks. The compositional similarities between some hastingsites and barkevikite are commented upon and the pleochroism of barkevikite is briefly discussed.

Refractive indices of the analysed hastingsites have been plotted on the optical curves of Tröger. It is suggested that such curves are of limited use and that variations in unit-cell parameters might be a more useful method of determining the iron contents of hastingsites.

The variation in cell parameters with variation in chemical composition of the analysed minerals is also discussed.