It is said the antique fashion of cutting fine Persian
lapis-lazuli for brooches and pendants has recently been
revived.
The Zircon.—This stone is supposed to be the same as the
lyncurium of antiquity, though Pliny discards the idea that
such a gem as the lyncurium was ever known. Ancient intagli
are found upon the zircon, therefore it must have been familiar
to early engravers by some other epithet, not now identified.
The name is thought to come from the Arabic word zcrk,
meaning gem.
It is a rare and beautiful mineral, affording a range of rich
and delicate shades, which, for their remarkable play of colors
and brilliant lustre, place it next to the diamond as an ornamental stone. The transparent colored specimens and the colorless varieties are used in jewelry. In its physical qualities, it
affords an instance of decided double refraction, with a hardness a little above quartz, and crystallizes in the form of double
pyramids. The colors are variable — red, green, blue, yellow,
brown, gray, amber, all presenting many gradations, and a
colorless variety, which, on account of its high refracting
power, transparency, and lustre, is often passed for the diamond. Some of the red varieties are remarkable for the vividness of their tints, and have been likened to a flame of fire ;
the blue and yellow hues are rare. Silica and zirconia, with
iron for coloring, form the constituents of this species of
precious stone. The zircon, in some of its varieties, has
sometimes been taken for essonite ; but its composition is
quite different from that of the garnet.
It is found in many different countries, including Ethiopia,
India, Arabia, Ceylon, Norway, Bohemia, Saxony, France, New
South Wales, and the United States though it has not yet been
discovered in this country of sufficient size to be of great value
