Minerals. 359 



necessary to realise his property for division among his next-of- 

 kin. The property included a collection of minerals which he 

 had been forming for more than 30 years, and had arranged in 

 his house at Paddington Green. Its nucleus was the collection 

 of Baron Ignaz von Born [1742-1791], of Prague, described by 

 Baron Born in the Lithophylacium Bornianum, and purchased from 

 him by Mr. Greville before the second part of that catalogue 

 was published [1775]. To this was probably added the collection 

 of the Marchese Ippolito Durazzo [1754-1818], mineralogist and 

 afterwards botanist, of Genoa; of this collection an undated 

 manuscript Latin catalogue is preserved in the Department ; the 

 epoch of formation of the collection and catalogue is roughly 

 indicated by the system of classification, which was the one 

 published by A. F. Cronstedt in 1758. Count de Bournon, long 

 a political refugee from his own estates and country, obtained 

 employment in connection with several mineral collections in 

 England, one of them being that of Mr. Charles Greville. He 

 was occupied with its arrangement from 1794 to 1806, and 

 during the same interval of time gave advice as regards further 

 acquisitions. The Greville collection eventually became the 

 finest assemblage of minerals which had been seen in England, 

 and was declared by English mineralogists and Count de Bournon 

 in 1810 to be in most parts equal, and in many parts superior, 

 to the best Continental collections. A sum of money was 

 specially voted by Parliament for the purchase of the collection, 

 numbering about 14,800 specimens, for the British Museum. 

 The faceted precious stones of Mi. Greville did not form part of 

 this purchase, but had been disposed of separately : but the 

 precious stones in their native condition were well represented 

 in the collection ; there were fine series of crystallised diamond, 

 ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz and rubellite. 



More especially may be mentioned the following : 

 Rubellite : the largest and most remarkable crystal, or 

 parallel growth of crystals, in this and probably in any 

 other collection. It was given by the King of Ava to 

 Colonel (then Major) Michael Symes when the latter was 

 on an Embassy to that country in 1795. 

 Corundum : a rough deeply worn piece which had long been 



used in a family of Indian lapidaries. 

 Atacamite : crystallised ; from South America. 

 Datolite from Arendal, Norway. 

 Euclase : an isolated crystal from Minas Geraes. 



