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JASPIS.
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139
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another
the violet * (Grecian, our pink cyclamen), definitions applying
exactly to the various shades, some bright and pale, some dull and
overcharged with purple, of our common Amethystine Quartz.
The
Persian and Caspian kinds were cerulean in colour, which gave them
their designation of " Aërizusa," explained by Pliny as resembling the
hue of the sky on an autumnal morning : these were also termed Borea
(Âïñáá) by the Greeks. That these sorts were our Sapphirine-Calcedony
may, besides their colour, be also inferred from another
circumstance—the finest and bluest specimens of that stone are chiefly
to be met with in the cylinders and conical seals of the Persians,
whose country exclusively produced it. That brought from the Thermodon
was likewise cerulean ; the Phrygian was purple ; the Cappadocian
turning from purple to cerulean (ex purpura caerulea), dull and
lustreless. What species can be intended by these latter descriptions,
unless, as above suggested, it be the Amethystine or the Rose Quartz,
it is impossible to discover.
There were many other varieties of the Jaspis ; the general fault of them all was the being either cerulean, or crystal-like (i. e. colourless),
or resembling the myxa-plum )a dull yellow ?) : all which are
peculiarities applicable to our coloured Quartz-gems. To the same
family belonged the gems called, by way of distinction, " Sphragides,"
as the best for making seals—" supremacy over all other signet-stones
having been awarded to them on this account by public favour."
Theophrastus likewise states to the same effect (23), " that the stones
out of which signets are made for the sake of their beauty alone, are
the Sard, the Jaspis, and the Lapis-lazuli." And,- earlier than any,
* I fear Pliny has mistaken here the ibs, verdigris, of Theophrastus' Prasitis for tov, the cyclamen.
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