fiery scarlet specimens, the deep red, and the crimson are commonly cut en cabochon, with
a hollow at the back to receive a bit of foil ; such stones are called
carbuncles. A delicate silvery cross is seen in some carbuncles, which
may be called star carbuncles ; this star has but four rays instead of
the six belonging to the star sapphire. The garnets of this variety
generally show a very distinctive set of three black bands when viewed
with the spectroscope.* This peculiarity was discovered by the present
writer and published in the " Intellectual Observer " of 1866. This
group of absorption bands may be made to serve as a criterion for
discriminating between the red garnets of this variety and red
spinels. When a red garnet is faceted the table should not be large nor
the stone be left very thick or a blackish appearance will result. The
almandine is said to have arisen from Pliny's adjective alabandicus, applied to the carbunculus cut
and polished in the town of Alabanda, in Asia Minor. Syriam, once the
capital of the ancient kingdom of Pegu, was, it appears, an important
mart for fine almandines, hence the term Syriam or Syrian garnets was
applied to the choicer specimens of almandine. Besides the old and
numerous Indian localities of almandine, Brazil, South Australia and
German East Africa furnish fine specimens.
Transparent
red garnets of very large size have been fashioned into cups and boxes.
Slabs of polished garnet, sometimes of considerable area, were
employed as inlays in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon jewellery.
The
red or precious garnets of the variety under discussion are never found
with the exact theoretical composition of a pure " ferrous aluminium "
garnet ; there is always some admixture or replacement. But a
characteristic specimen was found to contain, in 100 parts, about- -
