Hyacinth

Red zircon stone
credit: Rob Lavinsky

Description

1) A dark, yellow-red Zircon crystal that has been used as a Gemstone. Hyacinth is also known as jacinth. The zircon crystal is brittle with a high refractive index. Many catalogs of ancient gemstones mislabel Hessonite as jacinth (Ogden 1982).

2) A plant, Hyacinthus orientalis, that grows from bulbs and produces blue-purple flowers. It is also called jacinth.

Pink hyacynth

Synonyms and Related Terms

hyacynth; jacinth; Hyacinthus orientalis; Hyazinth (Deut.)

Comparisons

Properties of Common Gemstones

Resources and Citations

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971

• Jack Odgen, Jewellery of the Ancient World, Rizzoli International Publications Inc., New York City, 1982

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_%28flower%29 accessed Nov. 10, 2004