|
156
|
PRECIOUS STONES.
|
||
|
|
|||
|
of the same specific gravity ; the same hardness; and each similarly " dichroic," that is, showing, when looked at through the dichroscope, two colours : maroon, and cochineal.
"
A fine natural Ruby varies from five pounds to thirty pounds per carat,
in price ; while these reconstructed Rubies can be sold, cut, at from
twenty-five to thirty shillings per carat."
From this Precious Stone Herrick has deduced,—in his Lines to Dianeme ; (Hesperides)—an exquisite moral;
"Sweet,
be not proud of those two eyes, Which, starlike, sparkle in their
skies; Be not you proud of that rich haire Which wantons with the
lovesick aire; Since that red Rubie which you weare, Sunk from the tip
of your soft eare, Will last to be a precious stone When all your world
of beautie's gone."
GARNETS.
Chemically allied
to the Ruby, as being similarly composed of the Silicates of Alumina,
Lime, Iron, and Manganese, comes the family of Garnets. First there is
the Precious, or Noble Garnet, of a deep, clear, poppy-red, being
called also Almandine, like the violet-red Ruby, and being got from
Ceylon, and Greenland. Then there is the common Garnet, with a clash of
tawny in the red, and less transparent than the above; also the
Grossularia, like a gooseberry, being of a dirty yellow-green, and
coming from Siberia. There is, too, the Cinnamon Stone, of a light
Cinnamon colour ; and the Melanite, or black Garnet, again the
Ouvarovite, or green, very like an Emerald; and the Oriental Garnet,
found in Pegu, of an orange-red, drawing
|
|||
|
|
|||