June I, 189'.] 
Supplement to the “ Tropical Agriculturist 
891 
Dunmuis averred that in 1703 thfe Dutch first 
brought from Ceylon “ a precious stone named 
Tourmaline, Turmale or Trip. “ In the catalogue 
of the collection of Natural Curiosities belonging 
to Paul Hermann who was in Ceylon from 1670 
to 1677, sold at Leyden in 1711 was a stone 
named Chrysolethus Turmale, Zeylon. This 
was evidently meant to be Tourmaline, 
and the circumstance is con.sidered to prove 
that both the stone and name had their origin 
in Ceylon. In 1719 the Academy of Sciences 
at Paris announced in their Memoirs for 1717, 
that in the latter year Mr. Lemery had laid 
before them a stone found in a river in Ceylon, 
nswering to the description of Tourmaline. 
In the Dictionary of Natural History, which is 
often printed with II iibner’s preface, under the 
article Trij) the following passage occurs : — “ This 
stone was brought to Holland by some 
persons who had travelled in India, from tlie 
Island of Ceylon, where it is found pretty 
frequently among the fine sand near Colombo, 
and sold to the German Jews. These caused 
it to be cut thinner, and the price of it soon 
rose to 8 and 10 Dutch florins. It has been 
since much dearer ; but at present it is cheaper.” 
The first person who thought of explaining the 
property of the Tourmaline by electricity was 
Linneus, who in his preface to his Flora 
Zeylanica, calls it the electric stone. 
