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Ch. 7: Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum

Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 377 Ch. 7: Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
242 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
HYACINTHUS: Υάκινθος: Sapphire: Precious Corundum.
Of no ancient appellation has the proper attribution been so much, and so variously disputed as of this. The earlier writers, such as De Boot, and De Laet, put it down without any hesitation as the finer sort of the common Amethyst ; Millin and K. O. Müller regard it as the lighter-coloured variety of the same ; the latter pretending that the name " Amethystus " only applied to the dark-purple kind. Bruckmann is uncertain whether it meant a pale Amethyst or a Garnet tinged with violet—the Almandine. Lessing, on the other hand, defines it as a reddish-brown fiery stone, the present dark Jacinth. All these explanations are based upon the exclusive consideration of the passage of Pliny's (xxxvii. 40) containing a brief and vague description of the Hyacinthus ; for, curiously enough, it is not included in Theophrastus' list of ring-stones : perhaps in his age it had scarcely found its way into Greece from the remotest parts of India. Pliny's words are : " The Hyacinthus differs greatly from the Amethystus, although descending from a neighbouring colour (ab vicino tarnen colore descendens). The difference consists in this, that the violet splendour of the Amethystus is diluted in this stone, and, so far from filling the eye, does not even reach it, fading away more speedily than the flower of the same name." But what this flower was is fully as much a matter of dispute amongst the botanists, as is the nature of
Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 377 Ch. 7: Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum
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