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Stone Lore
The name Garnet comes from the
latin word Granatus, which means
"seedlike" or "having many seeds"
due to gernet crystal's resemblance
to pomegranate seeds. The color
of red gems suggested blood to
primitive cultures, and red garnets
were thought to stop bleeding and
cure inflammation. There were
believed to have the powers to
smooth discord between enemies
and to prevent blooshed. Garnet is
considered the gem of faith,
constancy and truth. It occurs in
every color of the spectrum, except
blue, and each of thses colors are
permissibleto wear for the January
birthstone. To date, there are no
known enhancements for garnet.
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Garnet is the birthstone for the month
of January and anniversary gemstone for
the second year of marriage.
Garnet derived its name from the Latin word granatus,
meaning like a grain, which refers to the mode of occurrence
wherein crystals resemble grains or seeds embedded in the
matrix. Garnet is a family of minerals having similar physical
and crystalline properties.
There are a number of trade and variety names for garnet,
most of these names are for particular colors of a specie.
Hessonite is the variety name for a fine orange, cinnamon
brown, or pinkish variety of grossularite, while tsavorite is
the trade name for fine dark green grossularite.
Melanite is a black titanium bearing variety of andradite and
demantoid is a rich green variety.
Malaya is a trade name for a pyrope-spessartite that varies
in color from red, through shades of orange and brownish
orange to peach and pink.
Rhodolite is a purplish red pyrope-almandite solid solution
garnet.
Fine-quality pyrope garnets from Czechoslovakia are often
called Bohemian garnets.
Almandite and almandite-pyrope solid solution garnets are
the best abrasive types, but andradite, grossularite, and
pyrope also are used.
All species of garnet have been used as gemstones.
Garnet displays the greatest variety of color of any mineral,
occurring in every color except blue. For example,
grossularite can be colorless, white, gray, yellow, yellowish
green, various shades of green, brown, pink, reddish,
or black. Andradite garnet can be yellow-green, green,
greenish brown, orangy yellow, brown, grayish black
or black.
Pyrope is commonly purplish red, purplish red, orangy red,
crimson, or dark red; and almandite is deep red, brownish
red, brownish black or violet-red. Spessartite garnet can be
red, reddish orange, orange, yellow-brown, reddish brown,
or blackish brown.
A few garnets exhibit a color-change phenomenon. They
are one color when viewed in natural light and another color
when viewed in incandescent light.
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