112 A Book of Precious Stones
recognised
precious stone was christened rhodolite. Although niineralogically
different from almandite, and more like pyrope, rhodolite is known in
the trade as " almandine," and, in the United States at least, is
bought and sold under that title; the difference in composition and
colour is too slight for merchant jewellers to recognise, and the name
" rhodolite" is scarcely known to the trade or the general public. In
fact, in the jewelry trade, any garnet with a tendency toward a violet
colour is classed as an " almandine." Under the name " almandine,"
there has been an increased demand for this variety of garnet for
medium-priced jewelry for about five years previous to this writing.
Scarcely second to almandite, is the dark blood-red pyrope, found in
company with the diamond in South Africa, and, in the trade, called "
Cape Ruby." This fine South African gem stone, companion of the diamond
and native to the world's greatest diamond fields, is a
magnesium-aluminium garnet, containing manganese oxide and ferrous
oxide; its specific gravity is 3.86, approximating that of the
Bohemian pyrope, which it resembles in both chemical composition and
colour, thus clearly classing it as pyrope, and not almandite, as was
done for
