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BERYL.
BERYL-SONG.
We whose home is the Beryl,
Fire-spirits of dread desire,
Who entered in
By a secret sin,
'Gainst whom all powers that strive with ours are sterile,
Fire-spirits of dread desire,
We whose home is the Beryl.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Sometimes it happens that a humble family is found closely
related to a great lady. The world does not know this until suddenly
it comes out. Then everybody is more or less surprised and embarrassed.
The emerald is such a great lady. She is simply the vivid green
variety of the beryl group, whose other phases are the aquamarine
and its yellow kin. These poor relations of the aristocratic sister,
who sits secure in her inaccessible retreat, are of comparatively little
importance, though precisely like her in all except personal appearance.
They are of her blood, but cannot eat at her table. She is rich
and rare, they are common.
Aquamarine, the most expensive variety of beryl next to emerald,
is a trifle harder than the latter, and its crystals are clear and often
of large size, but it is found in abundance. Its name means seawater
; the "gem" color is deep water-blue ; but generally it is various
shades of light blue or green, and colorless. The last, if slightly
tinged with blue, strongly resembles the blue diamond. It has, besides
the tint, almost the same lustre, but without prismatic play. All
beryls are very brilliant by artificial light, and therefore desirable
evening stones.
Those only, either blue or green, which suggest sea-water are
called aquamarines but all are identical in ; composition. Beryl proper
usually is yellow. The deep blue are from North Carolina, California,
Brazil and Siberia the ; yellow, yellow brown and golden from Connecticut,
the Ural Mountains and Siberia. It is doubtful if the best
blue is ever entirely free from a tinge of green.
The beryl was known in earliest times and was somewhat engraved
upon. It is of a singularly compact structure, for intagli
found thereon often retain their original surface polish to this day.
Not so the emerald, which never was engraved upon in the time
of the "perfect" Greek school, but at a later period. Engravings on
both, beryl as well as emerald, are rare.
Pliny notes the variations in color with almost the exactness of
to-day. The most admired, he says, emulated the green tint of pure
sea-water. Then came the sapphire-like sort, and after that a yet
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