Very good, Art. I had a similar problem as a young teenager excited by a
book on growing crystals. My father and I went to the local drugstore to
buy potassium alum, which the book recommended as one of the easiest
compounds to grow into crystals from a solution in water. The druggist did
a doubletake and was quite suspicious of us until my father explained what
we wanted it for. We had no idea that the chief use of potassium alum was
for female hygiene.

Incidentally, the crystals did grow well, though they eventually acquired
their own variant of Byne's disease from the air's humidity.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama