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PRECIOUS STONES 45
thinner color, like a watered rose-color. Rubies are seen at their best by morning light.
The
color of a Siam ruby is dark and tainted, and the value increases as it
approaches the Oriental. The stone is the same in everything save color.
Red,
with a slight tint of orange, is the general color of the spinel. The
nearer it comes to ruby-red, and the less it has of the orange tint,
the better.
A deep corn-flower blue is the gem color of the sapphire. Like the ruby, it is generally marred by more or less purple or black.
Emerald
should be a deep grass-green. At its best it is free from a slight
touch of yellow or blue, which appears in many by comparison with one
of the true color.
The
gem alexandrite is a fine tourmaline-green by day and ruby-red by
artificial light. The combination is rare, one or the other color
being, as a rule, weak. The night color is rarely stronger than a
purplish pink to columbine-red, and the day color is often too light.
This is generally so if the stone be cut thin. The double colors show
best when it is cut thick.
The
stone known commercially as olivine should be a bright yellowish green.
The light, watery, or muddy green is to be avoided. This stone loses
the yellow cast by artificial light, and is often called for that
reason the " night emerald."
The blue-tinted aquamarine is preferred to those of a greenish cast.
A deep royal purple distinguishes the finest amethysts.
The
yellow of the topaz has such a wide range, from clean canary to amber
and the deepest orange, that no one of the many beautiful shades can be
designated as superior to the others. Some prefer the rich wine-reds of
the Madeira variety.
Of the tourmalines, a medium bright green is better than
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