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GARNET.
121
hesitation in calling it a calcedony sapphire, which being made convex, was thus turned into a girasol.
That
which is called the common or Occidental girasol is a resinous quartz,
of a bluish-white colour, inclining to yellow. Although harder than the
opal, it cannot be compared with the corundum. It is found at Cyprus,
in Brazil, Hungary, Bohemia, and principally in Siberia, where it is
mixed with opal, within a soft reddish stone spotted with black.
I have already remarked that the asteria is not to be considered a separate species, nor, in my opinion, is the girasol.
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XLVI.
GARNET.
This gem was named by the ancients, who called it granatica on account of its colour, which resembles that of the seeds of the pomegranate, Punicum granatum.
It
would be, endless to try and enumerate the places in which garnet is
found, and the multiplied names given to it, according to place and
colour, both by the ancients and also by modern mineralogists. I think,
nevertheless, that the origin and variety of name matter very little,
since the ferruginous, aluminous silicate will be always a garnet, and
mineralogical science must always allow a place in its collections for
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