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Hessonite
The yellow-brown variety of grossular is called
hessor (or essonite). Its name comes from the Greek ess meaning
"interior," gems of this color being regal the least
valuable.
Appearance It is a honey-yellow or yellow-brown
cc sometimes tending to a pinkish orange similar to tha: spessartine.
It has good luster and seemingly good tra parency, but when
viewed with a lens or other form magnification, the interior
always looks treacly, with dulating, contorted areas of lesser
transparency, like highly concentrated sugar solution with
frequent, rouno transparent crystalline inclusions. The gems
are norm:given a mixed, oval, or round cut.
Distinctive features Seen through a lens,
the treac appearance combined with the color are a sure means
identification. Nothing comparable is found in other ge of
similar color, such as citrine quartz, topaz, and yell sapphire.
Its luster, in any case, is superior to that of citr quartz.
It is distinguished from zircon of a similar color its lack
of obvious birefringence.
Occurrence It mainly comes from Sri Lanka,
but is a found in the United States, Canada, and Brazil.
Value The value of hessonite is rather low,
like that of mandine and pyrope, despite its very attractive
appeance.
Simulants and synthetics It has neither been
imitatnor produced synthetically
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