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CHAPTER XV
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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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