Nephrite Nephrite Nephrite is a variety of the calcium, magnesium, and iron-rich amphibole minerals tremolite or actinolite (aggregates of which also make up one form of asbestos). The chemical formula for nephrite is Ca(Mg, Fe)SiO(OH). It is one of two different mineral species called jade. The other mineral species known as jade is jadeite, which is a variety of pyroxene. While nephrite jade possesses mainly grays and greens (and occasionally yellows, browns or whites), jadeite jade, which is rarer, can also contain blacks, reds, pinks and violets. Nephrite jade is an ornamental stone used in carvings, beads, or cabochon cut gemstones.
Ornamental bulbous plant in the 5th Century. Many ornamental bulbs were introduced into Europe via Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (who reigned 1520–1566) was noted for his love of gardens, where tulips and other bulbs were grown. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, the ambassador to the sultan from Emperor Ferdinand I in Vienna, observed ornamental bulbous plants such as narcissi, hyacinths and "those which the Turks call tulipam". The botanist Carolus Clusius, who was based in Vienna from 1573 to around 1580, devoted one volume of his 1576 botanical work "Rariorum Plantarum Historia" to bulbs, some of which he knew