394 FLINT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXVIL__ 



coed a small waiter, 43 and, as to thickness, they rarely admit of 

 being used as drinking-cups, so large as those already 44 men- 

 tioned. The brightness of them is destitute of strength, and 

 it may be said that they are rather shining than brilliant. 45 

 But the chief merit of them is the great variety of their 

 colours, and the wreathed veins, which, every hero and there, 

 present shades of purple and white, with' a mixture of the two; 

 the purple gradually changing, as it were, to a fiery red, and 

 the milk-white assuming a- ruddy hue. >Somc persons praise 

 the edges of these vessels more particularly, with a kind of 

 reflection in the colours, like those beheld in the rain-bow. 

 Others, again, are more pleased with them when quite opaque, 

 it being considered a demerit when they are at all transparent, 

 or of a pallid hue. The appearance, too, of crystals 46 in them, 

 is highly prized, and of spots that look like warts ; not pro- 

 minent, but depressed, as we mostly sec upon the human body. 

 The perfume, 47 too, of which they smell, is looked upon as an 

 additional recommendation. 



CHAP. 9 THE NATUKE OF CRYSTAL. 



It is a diametrically opposite cause to this that produces 

 crystal, 48 a substance which assumes a concrete form from ex- 

 cessive congelation. 49 At all events, crystal is only to be found 

 in places where the winter snow freezes with the greatest in- 

 tensity ; and it is from the certainty that it is a kind of ice, 

 that it has received the name 50 which it bears in Greek. The 

 East, too, sends us crystal, there being none preferred to the pro- 

 duce of India. It is to be found, also, in Asia, that of the vicinity 

 of Alabauda,* 1 Orthosia, 43 and the neighbouring mountains, 

 being held in a very low degree of esteem. In Cyprus, also, 



riizing any affinity between murrhine vessels, as here described, and porce- 

 lain. ""Abacus." u In the preceding Chapter. 



Meaning that they are scmitransjmrent, Ajasson thinks. One great 

 characteristic of Fluor spar is its being subtranslucent. 



** This would appear to be the meaning here of " sales." See p. 396. 



47 One of the grounds, Ajasson says, on which may bo based the 

 opinion that they were artificial. 



4tf Colourless crystals, quartz, or rock crystal; called " white stone" in 

 jewellery. 



49 See B. xxxvi. c. 45. This was a very general opinion of the ancients 

 vith respect to crystal. 



41 Kpi-ffraXXof, from rpt'of, " cold." ftl See B. V. C. 29. 



K In Caria, see B. v. c. 29. 



