THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIS1. oe 
times the term jasper is restricted to opaque stones; the green 
transparent iaspis of Pliny, and the stone meant by John, was 
probably identical with that which we now call plasma, and 
which is’a form of chrysophrase, a variety of chalcedony. 
The second foundation was in the Greek, sappheiros, which, 
in the Latin of Pliny, is sapphirus, and is described by him as 
azure in colour, rarely purple, with refulgent spots like gold. 
“Tn no case,” he says, “is this stone transparent. The best kinds 
come from Media.” This description has nothing in common 
with our present-day sapphire, but corresponds exactly to lapis 
lazuli. When ground this beautiful stone was used as a pig- 
ment by the early painters, giving a valuable permanent blue. 
The yellow spots consist of sulphide of iron and constitute a 
great drawback in cutting the stone for ornamental purposes. 
It was largely used for architectural ornamentation during the 
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Chapel of San Martino 
at Naples, and an apartment in the Tsarskoe Palace, Petrograd, 
are perhaps the most notable existing examples of this: use. 
The third foundation is stated to be chalkedon. The only 
halkedon—in the Latin form of the word—mentioned by Pliny, 
is the town of that name standing on the Bosphorus probably 
close to where Scutari is now situated. The town had been 
noted for its copper mines, which, however, in Pliny’s time had 
been worked out. Pliny speaks of a kind of smaragdus (a 
green stone) as being found here, but states that though of 
brilliant colours resembling the feathers of the peacock, the 
stones were brittle, of small size, and not of much value. He 
elsewhere mentions as being found at the same place, an iaspis 
of turbid hue. It is probable that the stone meant by John was 
a variety of smaragdus, a green stone which is found near Pat- 
mos or Ephesus, where he was when he wrote the Book of 
Revelation, and which we now know as amazon stone. 
Fourth foundation, smaragdos,—Latin smaragdus. Of this 
stone Pliny enumerates twelve varieties, the colour of all of 
which was green. Of these, what we now call the emerald was 
one, and we may fairly conclude that this was the stone com- 
posing the fourth foundation. 
Fifth foundation, sardonux. In Biblical times this name 
was given to a red and white sarda, a transparent stone from 
India. The Arabian sardonyx was black or azure as a base 
with vermillion surrounded by white above. ‘This stone is still 
called sardonyx. 
Sixth foundation, sardion.—Latin sarda. This stone was 
