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Prasius, Plasma

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PRASIUS.
289
one kind was "horrent with drops of blood," our Heliotrope; and the third, marked by three opaque white lines. This last is the same stone as that described by him under " Jaspis " as universally worn for an amulet in the East ; resembling the Emerald and surrounded by a white line passing through its middle, and therefore called the Grammatias ; as that with more than one line was termed Polygrammos. I have met with a Gnostic amulet on a stone exactly answering to this description of the Grammatias ; and by its means identified the true Prase beyond all possibility of doubt.
But amongst the numerous varieties of the Plasma some are to be occasionally seen which distinguish themselves from the rest by the purity of their substance, and peculiar shade of light green slightly tinged with yellow. They strongly resemble the rrehnite (silica, alumina, lime), a stone as hard as the Garnet, and found in considerable botryoidal masses in the Tyrol as well as at the Cape of Good Hope. As we know the Romans obtained Pock-crystal from the Alps, there is no reason why they should not have discovered and made use of the rrehnite also : its colour and hardness would have highly recommended it to a people such lovers of green-coloured gems.
The commonness of the stone when Pliny wrote, is clearly shown by his expression " vilioris est turbae Prasius," the Prase belongs to the vulgar herd. It was extensively used for intagli by the Romans of the Lower Emprre, though but little at an earlier date, to judge from the circumstance that although en­gravings in it are more abundant than in any other material except the Sard and Carnelian, yet any of really fine work are excessively rare ; and of the Greek period, never to be met with. The subjects also engraved upon it are usually of the class most in fashion in the times of the Decline, such as Eagles, Victories, Venus, and the Graces. It is strange that it should not have been more employed by the artists of a better period, both on account of its agreeable colour, and its resemblance to Calcedony in the facility of working. One would argue from this that the material was of late importation into the Roman world. As for camei in this stone, though abundant enough, yet they seem with few exceptions to belong to the times of the Renaissance, or later.
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