Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica Page 110



	98	DE NATURA FOSSILIUM

	nent lines, equally spaced, extend from the upper circle to the lower and each line has striae on both sides. Transverse lines join the vertical striae. Between these there are always shallow quadrangular areas. Some have only the five-vertical lines with many transverse lines and spaces that are not very large. The entire middle area stands out and may lack lines and striae. Some are the same as this except that they have striae instead of lines and have prominent transverse areas.²⁴ Ceraunia received its name in the same manner as the above minerals for the ignorant believe it falls during flashes of lightening. It is found not only in Carmania but also in our own fields. It lacks striae and lines and differs from brontia. It is usually smooth and either round or oblong. Different species are distinguished by color. Some are black, others red and others white and pellucid in part and in part black. Just as a species of entrochos has the form of a wheel, encrinos has the form of a lily.²⁵ When one angular portion is separated from another one may obtain five lilies. The ridges of one fit into the striae of the other. The five portions have five angles, five sides and on both top and bottom five lilies, hence the Greek name pentacrinus. Just as entrochos sometimes forms from many trochites, encrinos forms from many pentacrinus. It occurs in reddish black stones but the mineral is red. The latter, when broken, has the same color, smoothness and luster as lapis judaicus. It has the same medicinal properties. It is found in the moat of the town of Hildes-heim. Stones with palm fronds are found, as Pliny writes, near Munda, Spain, where Caesar conquered Dictator Pompeius. These can be obtained as often as one will break a stone. Enostos, when broken, resembles a variety of bone as I shall mention under flint. Enorchis resembles the testicles but is white, as Pliny writes. In the district of the Treveri, while they were digging for cement to repair the defective structures of the fortified city of Erebreitestein, they found black hard stones that produced menstruation. Diphyis^ resemble the genitals of both sexes with a dividing line, hence the name. There are two species, according to Pliny, one white the other black. Glossopelra resembles the human tongue. Dactyli idaei occur in Crete, have the color of iron and the shape of a human thumb. Pliny classes these three minerals as precious stones. He writes that ammonis cornu has the form of a ram's horn and a golden color. It is found in Ethiopia. When it has a golden color it is seen to have been covered with armatura. In all the district of Hildesheim from the fortress of Marien-burg through the lower city and on to the town of Hasda, an area that has the appearance of a long hill, this stone is found in the form of a new moon twisted into a horn and covered with armatura of a golden color. It ²⁴ This is an excellent description of a fossil sea urchin. Agricola is probably the first writer to give these names to a specific material. ²⁵ This is the body of the crinoid which is attached to the stem. ²⁸ Concretions.