This page has been validated.
DIAMOND.
59

carats in weight. The figures quoted are carats, but are probably not in all instances based upon one exact standard—

NAME. ORIGIN. WEIGHT
IN THE ROUGH.
WEIGHT
WHEN CUT.
Nizam India 277
Excelsior S. Africa. 9713/4 239
De Beers of 1888 S. Africa. 4281/2 2281/2
Orloff India 1943/4
Darya-i-nur India 186
Victoria S. Africa. 4571/2 180
Taj-i-mah India 146
Regent or Pitt India 410 1367/8
Austrian Yellow India 1331/4
Star of the South Brazil 2541/2 1253/4
Tiffany Yellow S. Africa 1251/2
Stewart S. Africa. 2883/4 120
Koh-i-nur India 1061/16

Full discussions of the history of these diamonds and of many others will be found in the works named in the Bibliographical Notes. Dr. Max Bauer's "Precious Stones" contains a good set of figures representing most of the celebrated big diamonds of the world. A large uncut Cape stone, given to the British Museum by John Ruskin and named after Bishop Colenso, is a good octahedron of 1292/3 carats.

Diamonds and the more valuable of precious stones generally are bought and sold by the weight called a carat. This carat, whatever its precise value, is always considered as divisible into 4 diamond grains, but the subdivisions of the carat are usually expressed by the vulgar fractions, one-fourth, one-eighth, one-twelfth, one-sixteenth, one-twenty-fourth, one-thirty-secondth, and one-sixty-fourth. The origin of the carat is to be sought in certain small hard leguminous seeds, which, when once dry, remain constant in weight. The brilliant, glossy, scarlet-and-black seed of Abrus precatorius constitutes the Indian rati, about 2 grains; the Adenanthera pavonina seed is about 4 grains. The seed of