Fain would I snare her, smit with mighty love; But arrow-like she soared, and through the air Fled to her nest upon the boughs above; Wherefore to follow her is all my care, For haply I might lure her by some snare Forth from the woodland wild where she is flown. I found myself one day all, all alone, For pastime in a field with blossoms strewn. Yea, I might spread some net or woven wile; But since of singing she doth take such pleasure, Without or other art or other guile I seek to win her with a tuneful measure; Therefore in singing spend all my leisure, To make by singing this sweet bird my own. I found myself one day all, all alone, For pastime in a field with blossoms strewn. —Angelo Poliziano, (1454-1494.) TOURMALINE. Early in the eighteenth century some children of Holland, playing on a warm summer’s day in a court yard with a few bright colored stones, noticed that these possessed a strange power when warmed by the heat of the sun. They attracted and held (just as a magnet attracts iron) ashes, straws and bits of paper. On reporting this strange discovery to their parents the latter, it is said, could give no explanation of the curious property, but a relic of their knowledge of it is left in the name of “aschentreckers” or “ash-drawers” which they gave the stones and by which they were known for a long time. Such was the method of introduction to the civilized world of the mineral now known as Tourmaline, a mineral which in variety of color, composition and properties is one of the most interesting in Nature. The lapidaries who had given the Dutch children the stones for playthings did not recognize them as different from the other gems in which they were accustomed to deal. So to the present day, although Tourmaline is considerably used in jewelry, it is rarely ever called by that name. The green varieties are often known as Brazilian Emerald, Chrysolite or Peridot, some varieties of blue as Brazilian Sapphire, others as Indicolite, the colorless as Achroite, and the red as Rubellite, Siberite, and even as Ruby. It is only somewhat recently that these different stones have been recognized as being varieties of a single mineral species which is known by the name Tourmaline. This name comes from a Cingalese word (turamali) which was applied to the first Tourmaline gems sent from Ceylon to Holland. At one time the name Schorl was chiefly applied to the species. This was before the means of distinguishing mineral species were as well understood as they are now, and a large number of minerals and even rocks were included under the name Schorl. One by one, however, they were distinguished by separate names until Schorl included only Tourmaline, and shortly afterward the name Schorl was dropped altogether.