Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/123

 of less note are by no means rare, and smaller stones of ten or twenty carats are always in the market. They are generally offered for sale in lots cut and polished, consisting of stones of various sizes and quality, and of the value of from twenty to sixty shillings per carat. 1 possess one of eighteen carats, for which I paid £30. The price of stones of three or four carats, may be said to be capricious, depending on thie brilliancy of the gem, and the peculiar beauty of its color.

remarkable variety of this gem is the Asteria or Star-stone. This is a