regarded as especially efficacious in liver complaints,
idleness, and stupidity.

The TOPAZ is a beautiful gem of bright citron,
clear gold, or deep orange-yellow colour, sometimes
soft and satin-like, sometimes hard and
clear. What is sometimes called the Oriental
topaz is really a yellow sapphire; but the gems
properly recognised under the name are mostly
from Brazil, though also found in Saxony and
elsewhere in Europe. They were much valued
by the ancients, as well for medicinal purposes
as for dispelling enchantments and calming
frenzy, but they must have been especially useful
if, as supposed, they strengthened the intellect,
brightened the wit, and cured the bearer
of cowardice.

Topaz is not a very valuable stone, but there
are some varieties of colour, such as the red,
sometimes mistaken for ruby, and the blue,
which are of great beauty and interest.

GARNETS are comparatively common stones,
and are much used for ornamental purposes.
They vary a good deal in composition and
colour, and the varieties are known by many
names. The finest of all is the Sorian or
Oriental garnet, called generally carbuncle. Its
colour is a rich blood red, passing into violet,
but acquiring an orange tinge by artificial light.
Fine specimens might easily pass for rubies if
they were not readily distinguishable by their
greatly inferior hardness. It is often cut in
facets, and takes a high polish, and the resemblance
to the ruby or sapphire group of gems is
increased by an occasional six-rayed star seen
in the paler and bluer specimens.

Hyacinth is a beautiful orange or scarlet
garnet found in Brazil; but it is rare. It is nearly
allied to Zircon, which has a deep honey tint.
All these stones are comparatively soft, and
they are less used now than formerly. As a
group they were once valued as a protection
against the plague. They are comparatively
inexpensive jewels in rings and bracelets.

MOON-STONE, sun-stone, amazon-stone, and
other crystalline varieties of the mineral called
felspar, deserve notice as gems which occasionally
possess a considerable value. The moon-stone
is translucent and opaline, sun-stone contains
spangles of mica which look yellow like
gold in some lights, and amazon-stone is a fine
green crystal with a beautiful play of colours.
All have a peculiar silky appearance, and are
much harder than the somewhat similar varieties
of quartz minerals, which we next allude to.

The group of quartz gems includes many
varieties of colour, and stones of various degrees
of value aud interest. Pure quartz, or rock
crystal, is rather used to look through than to
look at, although not unknown as an ornament.
The lenses of spectacles are made of it, and it is
cut into various fanciful forms. Round globes
of crystal are the magic spheres in which some
gifted seers can learn what is doing at distant
spots, and perceive events that have long passed
away as if still in progress. They are curiously
bound up with the superstitions of the ancient
and modem Egyptians. Tinged with colour,
but still clear, the same mineral is called by
many names. A rose-coloured variety resembles
the ruby—a purple or violet kind is the amethyst.
Tinged with brown and yellow, it becomes the
cairngorm of Scotland. With a blood or flesh-red
colour, passing into orange and and yellow, it is
known as carnelian, and a rich brown opaque
quartz, glittering with golden spangles within
its substance, is called aventurine. From its
beauty and convenient hardness, carnelian and
its varieties are much used by lapidaries, and
are brought either cut or uncut from many parts
of India, and from Arabia, as well as found in
Europe.

Jasper and bloodstone, or heliotrope, consist
of quartz, coloured in a more decided manner
than the stones just mentioned, the former being
altogether opaque, and of a brilliant blood red,
while the latter is partially transparent, or translucent,
spotted only with opaque red.

Agate may be best described as a mixture of
almost all the different varieties of quartz above
mentioned. It is partly transparent, partly
opaque, and of all colours; often banded, but the
bands broken and interrupted; and containing
strange figures, representing moss, landscapes
with ruins, and angular marks like fortifications,
stars, and even human faces. Agates are found
abundantly in Scotland, principally near Perth
and Dunbar, but also on many parts of the coast
of England, amongst the pebbles on the sea-shore.
They are still more common at Oberstein, in the
Palatinate, not far from the town of Bingen, on
the Rhine, and multitudes come from Siberia,
Ceylon, and India. From the latter locality
especially are obtained the large plates of agate
used for manufacturing snuff-boxes and other
purposes, and also the pieces used for
knife-handles.

The onyx, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx are
banded agates of peculiar kind and considerable
interest in the arts, as having been selected for
some of the masterpieces of engraving executed
by the ancients in the middle ages. Using
the word sard as indicating the red or flesh-colour
of the carnelian, a sard with a layer or
band of white, is considered to be an onyx, and
if there be two or more bands of different tints,
the same name is still applied. The zones of
colour should be very distinct, separate, and
strongly marked, and the colours themselves
lively and bright. In the sardonyx there is a
red zone, in addition to that which forms the
true onyx, and the chalcedonyx is semi transparent
and milky.

In cutting the onyx, the figures are usually
sculptured from the white portion, leaving the
coloured band as a background, and no little
ingenuity is required to select the parts of the
stone best adapted for the purpose of the artist.
With three or four bands, a wonderful amount
of variety may be obtained, so that the hair,
beard, and drapery of figures is accurately represented.
Fine antiques thus sculptured on the
onyx, are of extreme value, and the art of cutting
was also carried on in perfection during the
middle ages. The works of this kind are called