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Chrysoprasius, Chrysoprase

Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper Page of 384 Chrysoprasius, Chrysoprase Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
90                   NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
CHRYSOPRASIUS : ×ñõó6ôôñáóïs;.
After noticing the existence of several kinds of green-coloured gems not considered worth a particular description, Pliny defines the Prasius, and then proceeds to state that there was a superior variety of the same, the Chrysoprasius, also of the same leek-green tint, but " receding somewhat from the Peridot's into a golden." It occurred of such dimen­sions that the oval cups termed cymbia (the gondoles of the French) were formed out of it. This last circumstance proves of itself that the stone would now be referred to the class of green Jaspers, in which several of these antique vases are still remaining, and have been fully noticed under Smaragdus. His Chrysoprasius, however, as distinguished from the above, is the third kind of his Beryl, approxi­mating to the Chrysoberyllus, but still paler or yellower, and considered by some as belonging to a distinct species. This latter supposition was to all appearance correct, and the stone in question the Indian Chrysolite. Most cer­tainly it was not our Chrysoprase, Silica coloured a beau­tiful apple-green by oxide of Nickel, slightly translucent, and of uncommon hardness. Had the ancients known the latter gem, they must have classed it amongst the more opaque Smaragdi: it is more probable they were unac­quainted with it, for its only source at present is the mine of Rosemutz,* in Silesia. Although of much the same com-
* Where it occurs in veins traversing Serpentine.
Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper Page of 384 Chrysoprasius, Chrysoprase
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