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Lyncurium, Jacinth

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LYNCURIUM.
167
the Italian " Giacinto," formed according to the usual rule of that language from the Latin "Hyacinthus." * Although it is perfectly made out that the Hyacinthus of the earlier writers, Pliny and Solinus, was our Sapphire, and that its distinctive quality to them was its azure colour, yet we find Epiphanius, at the close of the fourth century, describing under that name all the three varieties of the Precious Corundum—the Blue, the Eed, and the Yellow ; following the Indians, who give the same generic title to all, but distinguish each sort by an epithet, denoting its colour ; or rather the Persians, who divide the "Jacut" (whence "Hyacinthus") into six classes. Now Sapphirinus, ultra­marine, being employed to indicate the Blue, or most esteemed sort,j Ttuhinus, rosy, the next ; these epithets, the noun being dropped, were used absolutely for designating those two varieties, and thus became fixed in the jewellers' language as Sapphire and Ruby. But a third sort remained, the least valuable of all, the Citrinus or lemon-coloured, known by that name even as early as when Marbodus wrote. This last sort being the most common retained the generic name, and continued the Hyacinthus. After the importation of gems fell off and gradually became extinct, all yellow stones of superior hardness then circulating throughout Europe got confounded together, and the more readily because nothing being now required in the way of engraving or even of polishing these relics of ancient prosperity, the eye was the sole means of discriminating their quality and value. Now, the Zircon, a gem the most
* The corruption goes back to an early date : in Pope Gerbert's fine hymn " Extra portam," composed in the eleventh century, we already find it :
" Sed quae gemma muros pingit, Quis Chalcedon, quia Jacinthus. . . t " Albertus (Magnus) tarnen ponit SappMrinum Jacinthum princi-patum obtinere." (Spec. Lap. p. 112.)
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