Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/124

transparent sapphire with a pale cloudy tinge, and exhibiting the appearance of a star with six radii, which sparkles with great brilliancy as its position is varied in the rays of the sun.

This gem, when extremely fine, is rare.—The best specimen known, I had the honor to sell for the private collection of his Majesty Louis XVIII.^[1]

THE ORIENTAL RUBY

Is esteemed the most valuable of precious stones, and is supposed to differ from the Sapphire in color alone; the hardness, form of crystallization, and specific gravity, being very nearly the same^[2].

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1. This Asteria is represented in the plate of colored stones: it is considered of unrivalled beauty.
2. The Asteria is also produced in the ruby, by the same