[2523] Erected A.U.C. 741.
[2524] See B. xxxiii. c. [47].
[2525] The reading here is doubtful, and it is questionable whether he considers the two stones as identical.
[2526] Probably calcareous Alabaster, Ajasson thinks. See B. xxxvii. c. [54].
[2527] See B. xiii. c. 3.
[2528] Plaster of Paris is made of gypsum or alabaster, heated and ground.
[2529] A feature both of jasper and of sardonyx.
[2530] By some persons it has been considered to be the same with the “lychnitis,” or white marble, mentioned in Chapter [4] of this Book. Ajasson is of opinion that it has not been identified.
[2531] Ajasson is in doubt whether this stone was really a marble or a gypsic alabaster. It received its name from the river Curalius or Coural, near which it was found; and it was also known as Sangaric marble. Ajasson thinks that the ancient milk-white marble, still found in Italy, and known to the dealers in antiquities as Palombino, may have been the “corallitic” stone. He also mentions the fine white marble known as Grechetto.
[2532] See B. v. c. 29. Sulphuret of manganese is now known as Alabandine; it is black, but becomes of a tarnished brown on exposure to the air. It is not improbable that this manganese was used for colouring glass, and that in Chapter 66 of this Book Pliny again refers to manganese when speaking of a kind of “magnet” or load-stone. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 237-8, Bohn’s Edition; who thinks, that in the present passage Pliny is speaking of a kind of marble. It is the fact, however, that Pyrolusite, or grey ore of manganese, is used, at a red heat, for discharging the brown and green tints of glass. See also B. xxxiv. c. [42], and the Note.