ZIRCON, which, if known at all in jewellery, is called by its variety names, jargoon and hyacinth or jacinth, is a species that deserves greater recognition than it receives. The colourless stones rival even diamond in splendour of brilliance and display of ‘fire’; the leaf-green stones (Plate XXIX, Fig. 13) possess a restful beauty that commends itself; the deep-red stones (Plate XXIX, Fig. 14), if somewhat sombre, have a certain grandeur; and no other species produces such magnificent stones of golden-yellow hue (Plate XXIX, Fig. 12). Zircon is well known in Ceylon, which supplies the world with the finest specimens, and is highly appreciated by the inhabitants of that sunny isle, but it scarcely finds a place in jewellery elsewhere. The colourless stones are cut as brilliants, but brilliant-cut fronts with step-cut backs is the usual style adopted for the coloured stones. Zircon is a silicate of zirconium corresponding to the formula ZrSiO4, but uranium and the rare earths are generally present in small quantities. The aurora-red variety is known as hyacinth or jacinth, and the term jargoon is applied to the other transparent The name of the species is ancient, and comes from the Arabic zarqun, vermilion, or the Persian zarqun, gold-coloured. From the same source in all probability is derived the word jargoon through the French jargon and the Italian giacone. Hyacinth (cf. p. 211) is transliterated from the Greek ????????, itself adapted from an old Indian word; it is in no way connected with the flower of the same name. The last word has seen some changes of meaning. In Pliny’s time yellow zircons were indiscriminately classified with other yellow stones as chrysolite. His hyacinth was used for the sapphire of the present day, but was subsequently applied to any transparent corundum. Upon the introduction of the terms, sapphire and ruby, for the blue and the red corundum hyacinth became restricted to the other varieties, of which the yellow was the commonest. In the darkness of the Middle Ages it was loosely employed for all yellow stones emanating from India, and was finally, with increasing discernment in the characters of gem-stones, assigned to the yellow zircon, since it was the commonest yellow stone from India. Considered from the scientific point of view, zircon is by far the most interesting and the most remarkable of the gem-stones. The problem presented by its characters and constitution is one that still awaits It is another peculiarity of zircon that it sometimes shows in the spectroscope absorption bands (p. 61), which were observed in 1866 by Church. Many zircons do not exhibit the bands at all, and others only display the two prominent bands in the red end of the spectrum. Of all the gem-stones zircon alone approaches diamond in brilliance of lustre, and it also possesses considerable ‘fire’; it can, of course, be readily distinguished by its inferior hardness, but a judgment based merely on inspection by eye might easily be erroneous. According to Church, who has made a lifelong study of zircon, the green and yellowish stones of the first variety emit a brilliant orange light when being ground on a copper wheel charged with The leaf-green stones almost invariably show a series of parallel bands in the interior. Zircons vary from 5s. to 15s. a carat, but exceptional stones may be worth more. By far the finest stones come from Ceylon. The colourless stones are there known as ‘Matura diamonds,’ and the hyacinth includes garnet (hessonite) of similar colour, which is found with it in the same gravels. The stones are always water-worn. Small hyacinths and deep-red stones come from Expailly, Auvergne, France, and yellowish-red crystals are found in the Ilmen Mountains, Orenburg, Russia. Remarkably fine red stones have been discovered at Mudgee, New South Wales, and yellowish-brown stones accompany diamond at the Kimberley mines, South Africa. |