[3151] Identified by Ajasson with snow-flake chalcedony.
[3152] Spotted jasper onyx.
[3153] See B. xxxi. c. 41.
[3154] Smoked jasper onyx.
[3155] It is still used for making vases, boxes, knife-handles, and other articles, and is much used in the manufacture of Florentine mosaics. We may also remark, that the “iaspis” of Pliny probably included some stones not of the jasper kind.
[3156] “Azure stone;” generally supposed to have been a species of Lapis lazuli or azure. Beckmann is of opinion that it was a mineral or mountain blue, tinged with copper.
[3157] It is found in China, Persia, Siberia, and Bucharia.
[3158] Ultramarine is prepared from Lapis lazuli, and an artificial kind is extensively in use, which equals the native in permanency and brilliancy of colour, and is very extensively employed in the arts. Theophrastus, De Lapid. sec. 55, speaks of this artificial ultramarine.
[3159] This must not be taken for the Sapphire of the present day, but was most probably Lapis lazuli, and identical, perhaps, with Cyanos. Beckmann has devoted considerable attention to this subject; Hist. Inv. Vol. I. pp. 468-473. Bohn’s Edition.
[3160] Particles of iron pyrites, probably, which are frequently to be seen in Lapis lazuli.