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Heliotropium, Heliotrope

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HELIOTROPIUM.
135
the locality mentioned as producing it leads to the infer ence that the Hephsestites was the common áíèñÜêùí of Theophrastus, found according to him in that place.
Marbodus adds to the other powers of the Heliotrope that of bringing together the clouds and evoking tempests :—
" The Heliotrope, or ' gem that turns the Sun,' From its strange force the name hath justly won ; For set in water opposite his rays, As red as blood 'twill turn Sol's golden blaze ; And, far diffused the inauspicious light, Doth with the strange eclipse the world affright. Boils next the vase, urged by its secret power, And flings far o'er the brim the sudden shower ; And as when day enshrouded is in storms, With blackest clouds it heaven's fair face deforms."
This material was very little employed in ancient art in spite of its beauty ; the irregular distribution of its colours totally destroying the effect of any work cut upon it. For, except in the case of the banded Agate, it was a necessity with the ancient engraver that the field of his design should be of one uniform shade. A Mercuiy seated, the tortoise upon his hand (once Bishop Horsley's) ; and Sol standing with his whip raised, are the only speci­mens of really antique work in Heliotrope within my knowledge, and in both instances we may suspect the sub­stance was recommended to superstition by the analogy of its name to the nature of the subjects engraved upon it. The coarser and commoner Bloodstone, though never em­ployed for the productions of high art, occurs not un-frequently amongst the talismans of the later Egyptian and Gnostic religionists.
The exact converse to the ancient neglect of the latter stone holds good for the Glyptic art of the Byzantines, with whom the Bloodstone became the material especially preferred for their relievi of sacred subjects, particularly
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