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Ch. 15: Chrysoprase

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CHAPTER XV
 
 

 
 
CHRYSOPRASE
CHRYSOPRASE is the chief of two varieties of hornstone which are cut as ornamental stones, the other being wood-stone or silicified wood, such as is obtained from the petrified forest known as Chalcedony Park, in Arizona, and which occurs abundantly in various moun­tainous localities in the western United States. Hornstone is an old mining term and is not used by lapidaries. It is a fine-grained, very compact, variety of quartz, of a granular consistency.
The name chrysoprase is derived from two Greek words, meaning golden leek, and describes the colour of the stone. The ancients ascribed to it the virtues of the emerald, though in a lesser degree. They believed it lost its colour when in contact with poison, and was a cordial and stimulant.
A characteristic of chrysoprase is its splintery
fracture; the sharp edges of fragments verging
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Ch. 14: Cat?s Eye Page of 451 Ch. 15: Chrysoprase
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