What was bizarre and an acknowledged mystery of 'modern' geology was how these 'grown' gems were identical to their naturally occurring brethren.  The same also apparently applied to crystals, which resonated strongly with magic. That was a misuse of the term ‘natural’, considering the world he was in, but Handy wasn't sure of calling one kind igneous and the other agrarian as the mare did. He was no geologist, but that sounded like those would be incorrect terms, but he'd leave the intellectual slap fighting to the people with the rock boners and not challenge the matter.