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a stone like the sapphire, running the whole gamut of color, all
things are possible.
The awakening interest in the hyacinth and the difficulty of
knowing it when seen is not confined to the amateur. Jewelers are
as apt to be mistaken about it as the least of their customers.
Mineralogists alone recognize its distinguishing features, and even
they are but little acquainted with its history.
It took me, studying alone, many weeks, if not months, to
understand one simple thing: that the hyacinth, when not a flower,
is a color rather than a distinct precious stone. A certain shade
of the garnet as well as the zircon, and nothing else, is a hyacinth as
now known to the world.
It was finding things for oneself, learning at first hand, an instruction
like no other the first ;
perception of truth to one who has
taken everything for granted.
The French "hyacinthe" comes from the Italian "jacinto,"
formed according to the usual rule from the Latin hyacinthus, in its
turn from the "jacut" of the Orient, maybe. Dropped from the
sapphire and ruby, "hyacinthus" clung to many stones of superior
hardness till rescued by mineralogists for the zircon and garnet
families alone.
The zircon gives what the mineralogists call the true hyacinth,
in distinction from the essonite garnet, largely sold as such. They
are of a common hardness, about 7.5, the essonite a trifle softer, but
the zircon is a clean terra-cotta, and of far more brilliant lustre. To
whichever of these two the hyacinth may belong, its yellow must
border on orange, its red on brown. In the zircon this is very
marked, but the garnet varies in its tints : the cinnamon-stone is reddish
brown, almost the color of certain topazes; the spessartite a
dull shade of cinnamon, and full of impurities; the Cingalese es-
sonite, also much flawed and generally turbid, is yellowish red;
while in Lower California, there is found an orange, sometimes faint-
ly red at its base, which is the most seductive of all. It is strongly
akin in color to beautiful red hair.
Some have called the zircon of a fine imperial yellow, often with
a tawny tinge in its rich depths, jacinth; reserving hyacinth for
the brownish red variety; but the terms are usually synonymous.
The resemblance between Spanish topaz, or burnt citrine, and
hyacinth is very strong. Some of these products are as red as the
Cingalese essonite, others much like the cinnamon-stone, only far
more clear and brilliant. It is just because of this clarity, in fact,
that one can easily decide between them. Then the pseudo-topaz,
being quartz, is softer than garnet.
The hyacinth seems peculiarly autumn's stone, in harmony with
turning foliage. A northern forest early in October manifests the
composite beauty, the Oriental moderation, of its rich tones. Set
between brown diamonds, the browner and "dirtier" the better, it
forms a color composition altogether enchanting.
Nowadays the hyacinth is nobody's birthstone, though in the
seventh century, and later by the Russians and Italians, it was used
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