360 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



pigeon's egg, was presented in 1579 to Philip II., King of Spain : it 

 was valued at 4000. A Lady of Madrid possessed an American pearl 

 in 1605 valued at 31,000 ducats. 



The Pope Leo X. purchased a pearl of a Venetian jeweller for 



14,000. Another was presented to the Sultan Soliman the Great by 



-the Venetian Kepublic valued at 16,000. Julius Caesar, who was a 



great admirer of pearls, presented one to Servilia which was valued at 



a million of sesterces, about 48,000 of our money. 



There is no data for the volume or value of the two famous pearls 

 of Cleopatra ; one of these which the queen is said to have capriciously 

 dissolved in vinegar and drank Heavens preserve us from such a 

 draught ! is said by some authors to have been worth 60,000 ; the 

 other was divided into two parts, and suspended one half from each 

 ear of the Capitoline Venus. Another pearl was purchased at Califa 

 by the traveller Tavernier, and is said to have been sold by him to the 

 Shah of Persia for the enormous price of 180,000. 



A prince of Muscat possessed a pearl so extremely valuable not on 

 account of its size, for it was only twelve carats, but because it was so 

 clear and transparent that daylight was seen through it he refused 

 4000 for it. 



In the Zozema Museum at Moscow there is a pearl, called the 

 " Pilgrim," which is quite diaphanous ; it is globular in form, and 

 weighs nearly twenty-four carats. It is said that the pearl in the 

 crown of Eudolph II. weighed thirty carats, and was as large as a 

 pear. This size, besides being indefinite, is more than doubtful. 



The shahs of Persia actually possess a string of pearls, each indi- 

 vidual of which is nearly the size of a hazel nut. The value of this 

 string of jewels is inestimable. 



At the Paris Exposition of 1855, Her Majesty the Queen exhibited 

 some magnificent pearls ; and on the same occasion the Emperor of 

 the French exhibited a collection of 408 pearls, each weighing over 

 nine pennyweights, all of perfect form and of the finest water. The 

 Eomans were passionately fond of pearls, and they have transmitted 

 their taste to the Eastern nations, who attach notions of great 

 grandeur and wealth to the possessor of large and brilliant pearls. 



The genus Pinna, so called by Linnaeus, from one of the species 

 which was so designated from the resemblance of its byssus to the 



