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uſed for ſetting in Cups and other Veſſels of Gold, they have from Bactriana, toward the Deſart: They go thither on Horſeback to ſearch for them, at the Time. of the blowing of the Eteſian or annual Eaſterly Winds; for they are ſeen at that Time, as the Sands are violently toſſed about by the Winds: What they find there, however, are but ſmall.
LXIV. Of the Number of the Precious Stones is that alſo which is called
which they were found, has been copied by moſt of the Writers after him, though all of them have not been careful enough to do him juſtice, by doing it correctly. It is evident, that Pliny rendered his κινꙋμένης τῆς ἄμμꙋ, tellure aperta, (though it is not exactly ſo printed in any of the Copies, but, tunc enim terta, terfa, or tellure internitent,) becauſe Solinus and Iſidorus have it, tunc enim detecto ſolo facillime internitent, and tunc etiam tellure deoperta intermicant; which ſhews that they had read it tellure aperta in him; however our later Copies may have deviated from the old ones. But the ſame Iſidorus condemns Pliny in another part of this Sentence, by tranſcribing from him his noted Error, of rendering the τὰ λιθόκολλα of Theophraſtus by colliguntur enim in commiſſuris ſaxorum: The Meaning of Theophraſtus evidently is, that theſe Bactrian Emeralds were uſed for ornamenting Veſſels of Gold, by being fixed in them in various Figures. That this was a common piece of Luxury among the Antients, and that Emeralds and Berylls, the only other green Gem, were moſtly employed in it, as making the beſt Figure in Gold, is to be ſeen in many Paſſages of the Antients.
Gemmatuin Scythicis ut luceat ignibus aurum
Adſpice quot digitos exuit iſte calyx.
& inæquales Beryllo
What the Author here means by εἰς τὰ λιθόκολλα,
