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Lyncurium, Jacinth

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218
LYNCURIUM.
by Theophrastus in the passage above quoted, such at least appears to be the meaning of the obscure expression, " γίνεται Bè καϊ κατεργασία tîç αύτοΰ 7τΧείων." He alludes here to what he had just before said of the Smaragdus : " there is a par­ticular mode of working this stone so as to give it lustre, for in its native state it is not brilliant." Probably ho means by this that use of the Marcasite (instead of the usual Emery) which Ben Mansur describes as the only possible method of polishing the Laal (Spinel), one variety of which he gives as yellow, another as green. Now, as far as regards the peculiar lustre, texture, and electricity, as well as hardness, the antique Jacinth presents a wonderful analogy to the Spinel ; only differing in this, that the former is a rich orange, the latter a crimson tinged with blue.
This explains the peculiar style of the Greek intagli, in Jacinth, worked out as they are in flowing and shallow hollows, evidently by a method dissimilar to that employed in the Sards and Agates of the same period. From its porous texture, in spite of its great hardness (7.5, that of the Spinel being 8), antique works in it have always a worn and scratched surface ; so that a Jacinth exhibiting a perfectly polished exterior may justly be suspected of being a modern work, or at best retouched. Even the interior of the design, unless where protected by the unusual depth of the cutting, will be found to have suffered in a singular manner from the effects of friction and of time.
From its high electricity the soft wax (such as the Romans used in sealing) adheres to the intaglio, and will hardly afford a good impression : it is therefore singular that so many fine intagli should have been executed in it. But the Greeks, in­stead of wax, used pipeclay (the creta of the Romans) for their seals, to which the same objection does not apply. One of the finest intagli in Jacinth known is the head, formerly considered that of Pompey, but now with more justico attributed to Mœcenas (Ehodes Gems), which is rendered still more valuable by the supposed signature of the engraver Apollonius (see Mormorio).
The deep-coloured sort, of the richest orange-brown, usually found with antique Camei, for the most part heads of Fauns, Masks, and such like Bacchic ideas, carved out of it, has a better claim than the dark Carbuncle to be considered the
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