[ 137 ]
that is a ſcarce ſtone, and found in but few Places: It ought, however, to be ranked with theſe Stones, as it poſſeſſes a like Quality.
LIV. There are, beſide theſe, many other Gems uſed for the engraving Seals: As the [1]Hyaloides, which reflects the Images of Things, and is pellucid; the Carbuncle, and the [2]Omphax; as alfo [3]Cryſtal, and the
- ↑ The Hyaloides has been by different Authors ſuppoſed to be the Aſteria, the Iris, the Lapis Specularis, and the Diamond; all which ſeem very random Gueſſes, and liable to Objections not to be ſurmounted. The Stone, I think, appears rather to be the Aſtrios of Pliny, which he deſcribes to be a fine white or colourleſs Gem, approaching to the Nature of Cryſtal, and brought from the Indies: His Words are, having been ſpeaking of the Aſteria, Similiter candida eſt, quæ vocatur Aſtrios, cryſtalle propinquans, in India naſcens, & in Pallenes Littoribus. Intus a centro ceu ſtella lucet fulgore Lunæ Plenæ: Quidam cauſam nominis reddunt quòd Aſtris oppoſita fulgorem rapiat, & regerat; optimam in Carimania gigni nullamque minus obnoxiam vitio, l. 37. c. 9. And Stones of this Kind have of later Years been found near the River of the Amazons in America, and taken for Diamonds.
- ↑ The Omphax was moſt probably the Beryllus Oleaginus of Pliny; which, from what is left us about it, appears to have but little deſerved to be ranked among the Beryls, and ſeems much more properly diſtinguiſhed by a particular Name, as this Author has allowed it.
- ↑ Cryſtal is the moſt known and moſt common of all this Claſs of Stones. Our Lapi-
the World, and there are very good ones found in England: Many have been picked up in Devonſhire and the neighbouring Counties, as well as other Parts of the Kingdom; and I not long ſince found a Fragment of one, which will take up a ſmall Needle, within two Miles of London.
