414 PLLNY's NATUEA.L HISTOET. [Book XXXVII. 



cubits in length by three in breadth. He informs us, also, that 

 in a temple of Jupiter in Egypt there was an obelisk made of 

 four smaragdi, forty cubits in length, and four in breadth at 

 one extremity, and two at the other. He says, too, that at 

 the period at which he wrote, thsre was in the Temple of Her- 

 cules at Tyrus a large column made of a single smaragdus ;*'' 

 though very possibly it might only be pseudo-smaragdus, a 

 kind of stone not uncommonly found in Cyprus, where a block 

 had been discovered, composed, one half of smaragdus, and 

 one half of jasper, ^^ and the liquid in which had not as yet 

 been entirely transformed. Apion, surnamed " Plistonices,"**^ 

 has left a verj^ recent statement, that there was still in exist- 

 ence, in his time, in the Labyrinth of Egypt, a colossal statue 

 of Serapis made of a single smaragdus, nine cubits in height. 



CHAP. 20. BERYLS : EIGHT VAEIETIES OF THEM. DEFECTS IN 



BERYLS. 



Beryls, it is thought, are of the same^*' nature as the smarag- 

 dus, or at least closely analogous. India^^ produces them, and 

 they are rarely to be found elsewhere. The lapidaries cut all 

 beryls of an hexagonaP'^ form ; because the colour, which is 

 deadened by a dull uniformity of surface, is heightened by the 

 reflection resulting from the angles. If they are cut in any 

 other way, these stones have no brilliancy whatever. The most 

 esteemed beryls are those which in colour resemble the pure 

 green of the sea ;^^ the chrysoberyP* being next in value, a stone 

 of a somewhat paler colour, but approaching a golden tint. 

 Closely allied to this last in its brilliancy, but of a more pallid 



*' Herodotus mentions this smaragdus and the temple, B. ii. c. 44, as 

 having been seen by himself. 



48 " laspis." See Chapter 37 of this Book. 



*3 Meaning " the conqueror of many," probably ; in reference to his 

 contentious disposition. See end of B. xxx. 



°^ The Beryl and the Emerald are only varieties of the same species, the 

 latter owing its cohiur to oxide of chrome, the former to oxide of iron. 



^1 The best Beryls are found in Siberia, Hindostan, Brazil, and the 

 United States. 



='- The crystals are naturally hexagonal. 



^3 Hence the name of the sky-blue, or mountain-green beryl, aquu' 

 marine. 



54 Or " golden beryl," The modern Chrysoberyl is altogether a differ- 

 ent stone from the one here described, which probably is identical with 

 Chrysoprase or leek-g#en Chalcedony, the stone next mentioned. 



