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Ch. 10: Garnet

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CHAPTER X
GARNET
GARNET is a noun that is applied to a variety of gem minerals red or brown­ish-red. Almandite, a stone of rich cherry, claret, or blood-red colour is the precious garnet. A variety of garnet recently established that is in high favour is rhodolite. The chemical bases of both of these leading varieties are the same, a silicate of iron and aluminium. Precious gar­net has a hardness of about 7.5, with a specific gravity seldom less than 4. and occasionally as high as 4.3. Closely following almandite, or as jewellers call it, " almandine," in the favour of gem fanciers, is Bohemian garnet or pyrope, meaning " fire-like "; this has a range of colour from a deep blood red to almost black. Pyrope is slightly harder than almandite, and its spe­cific gravity lies between 3.7 and 3.8. The fracture is brittle; refraction, single; lustre,
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Ch. 9: Coral Page of 451 Ch. 10: Garnet
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