The peridots in the gem collection of our Museum were acquired a long time ago (part of them were from the collection of King William I of the Netherlands). We should be sceptical about data on the origin of this material. Firstly we do not generally know whether the stones were bought or received as a gift; we learned by experience that a person giving material (often a layman) will not be too precise when stating the locality especially as he will not see its importance. Moreover in the last century scientists could not realize yet how valuable an accurate description of the locality would be nowadays. For they did not think of the possibility that samples of one mineral from various localities might have different properties (of course they did not yet know the importance of an investigation as to the nature of inclusions). Besides in cataloguing small objects (such as gemstones) systems were used which did not rule out mistakes, so that a recent investigation of old material may present difficulties as to the definite locality.