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SOLIS GEMMA.
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SOLIS GEMMA.
Solis Gemma, described by Pliny (67) as " colourless, but diffusing brilliant rays in a circle after the fashion of that luminary." This exactly describes the Adularian Felspar, now however known to lapidaries as the Moonstone, from the silvery radiance of the large orb that floats upon its convex surface. Sometimes the ground has a slight tinge of the greenish-yellow peculiar to the Cat's eye. Though now abundantly produced in Mount Adula of the Alps, whence its epithet Adularian, the best examples come from Ceylon : therefore there can be little doubt the Romans. had received consignments of it amongst the other products of Taprobane.
Pliny's Selenitis (Moonstone) seems to be a variety of the last, " shining with a yellow lustre from a colourless ground, containing an image of the moon, which (if the story be true) daily waxes or wanes according to the state of that luminary.1 It is said to be found in Arabia." Marbodus, improving upon this, makes the stone itself increase or decrease proportionally with the moon, whence it derived the title of the Sacred Stone.
Orpheus, however, differs from Pliny in his description of the " Gem of the Sun " (388), of which he makes two kinds. " In both, there grow real rays, straight, shining, and in appearance like unto hairs ; but the colour of the stones is different : one of them you would deem a Crystal, but the other is exactly like
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