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Chalcedonius, Calcedony

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158
CHALCEDONIUS.
refulgens;" whilst in his 'Prosa' he makes it a Carbuncle, lustrous by night: " pallensque Chalcedonius ignis habet effigiem." Now, Pliny does in fact mention one kind of Jasper as found at Chalcedon, but all he says of it is that it is cloudy (turbida). Hence it is probable that the " pale " colour, and slight " opal­escence," somewhat resembling that of the Fire-Opal, which distinguish that common European stone now known as Calce-dony, gave it in the Middle Ages an undisputed title to that name ; a transfer to which people were also led by the definition in the 'Prosa' of Marbodus, their great authority. It may, moreover, be conjectured that Pliny's mentioning a " Chalce-donian Jasper" contributed to bring about this interchange of names.
The modern Calcedony is a semi-transparent white quartz (Quartz-Agathe-Calcedoine of Hauy), slightly tinged with yellow or blue. Some of the best specimens of the former kind can hardly be distinguished from the poorer Hungarian Opal, for they exhibit precisely the same milkiness of tint; but their lustre is flamy, not iridescent, and contains no admixture of green. This is the Girasol of writers of the last century, but must not be confounded with the Girasol, or Chatoyant Sapphire, Pliny's Asteria. This variety was evidently classed by Pliny amongst the commoner European Opals, which he distinguishes from the incredibly precious and true Indian species. The kind tinged with pale blue, now called the Sapphirine on account of its colour, seems to have been the Jaspis Aerizusa, i. e. of a colour tending towards the Cerulean: this, adds Pliny, the Greeks term Boria, from its resemblance to the sky on an autumnal morning. An apt comparison, which exactly represents the paley-blue tint of a good Sapphirine. A third variety, found in very large masses, was turbid, very opaque, and soapy, sometimes even of a dirty brown. The two last species were abundantly employed by the ancients of every period, but more especially by the Asiatics; the Babylonian cylinders are frequently made of it, and it is the material almost exclusively used for the large conical seals of the Sassanians. The most beautiful Persian cylinder known is in Sapphirine. It bears the usual type of the king fighting against a lion (the evil genius), a design that
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