44 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
The
Macedonian found in the gold-mines of Philippi was also a Lasque
(cucumis semini par). The Arabian resembled the Indian in all respects,
but was smaller. The Andro-damas had a silvery lustre, like the Adamas,
but was always square, and resembled a die in shape. Here we
have the cubic crystal, the faces of which are never polished, but
covered by a semi- opaque striated varnish. Lastly, the " Genchros,"
described as like a millet-seed, denotes the spherical, an abnormal
form where ,the crystallisation radiates from the centre, preventing
all artificial polish, and for that very reason designated Bort (Bastard, in Provençal), from Abortus.*
Of
the six kinds into which Pliny divides the Adamas the four above
described are doubtless all forms of the true Diamond. The minute size
is enough to demonstrate this ; for how else could inconspicuous
stones have been so highly valued—stones, too, whose minuteness can
only be exemplified by the comparison to a gourd-seed or a grain of
millet ? But, besides these, two kinds remain, rejected by Pliny
himself as " degenerate, arid possessing nothing of the Adamas but the
honour of the name." These were, the " Cyprian, of a bluish tinge (vergens in aërium colorem), most valuable as an amulet, and the Siderites of a steely splendour, and exceeding all the others in weight." Both
these were Sapphires, as their blue or grey colour and greater specific
gravity prove, coupled with the remark that both could be drilled by
means of another diamond, i. e. a true one. It is a singular coincidence that Epiphanius (a Cyprian bishop, by the
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