very
many qualities of garnet, which, on account of slight modifications of
colour, of transparency, and of growth, take, scientifically, a
different name.
In
general, the garnet is seldom found in veins, hut more frequently in
round or crystallized grains : in the first case, its surface is rough
and unequal ; when crystallized, it is always smooth ; its primitive
form is the rhombohedral dodecahedron. Either in a rough or polished
state, it is not very bright, but it reflects natural light admirably.
Of a specific weight between 3Ί0 to 4·30, and of a degree of hardness between 6-5 and 7-5,
it marks quartz and sometimes even the topaz. It yields a greenish-red
powder ; its fracture is more or less concave, and its refraction is
single. Under the action of the blowpipe, it melts into a kind of
black enamel.
The garnet may be divided into three principal qualities, which are called :
