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Birth-Stones: California
Month. Stones. Where found. January Garnet, rhodolite Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, North Carolina February Amethyst North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia March Californite California April Sapphire Montana, Idaho May Green tourmaline Lake Superior June Moss-agate California, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona July Turquoise New Mexico, California, Arizona August Golden beryl California, Connecticut, North Carolina September Kunzite California October Aquamarine North Carolina, Maine, California November Topaz Utah, California, Maine December Rubellite Montana The year is divided into four seasons or cycles,--spring, summer, fall, and winter,--and--each season has its particular gem. The emerald is the gem of the spring, the ruby the gem of summer, the sapphire the gem of autumn, and the diamond the gem of winter.
For spring, no precious stone is more appropriate than the emerald. Its beautiful color is that of Nature, for Nature clothes herself with green when she awakens from her long rest of winter. Having decked herself with green of the various tints and colors, she has selected a background by which a contrast is made for the flowers that come in the spring and summer and ripen into fruit and seeds of autumn. To be a seasonable gem it must be rare, and the emerald is rare. Whether found in the mines of Bogota, whether mined in ancient times at Zabarah in Egypt, or in the past century in the Ural Mountains, it has never been found in abundance. It is softer in color than the ruby and less hard in structure.
The ruby, although as a natal stone it belongs to December, is the gem of summer. It is born in the hot climates,--the pigeon's-blood ruby in Burma, the pome-granate-red in Ceylon, and the more garnet-hued type in Siam,--these three equatorial countries produce the ruby. Those of large size are always rare, and this is the gem which Job valued more highly than any other, although "garnet" may perhaps be a better rendering. It is on an equal plane in hardness, in composition, in crystalline structure, and in every way, with the sapphire. These are sister gems, structurally alike, yet varying in complexion, due to a slight difference which some scientists think is not even dependent upon the coloring matter.
The sapphire-the gem of autumn, the blue of the autumn sky-is a symbol of truth, sincerity, and constancy. Less vivid than its sister gem, the ruby, it typifies calm and tried affection, not ardent passion; it is therefore appropriate to the autumn season, when the declining sun no longer sends forth the fiery rays of summer but shines with a tempered brilliancy. The diamond, the gem of winter, typifying the sun, is the gem of light. Its color is that of ice, and as the dewdrop or the drop of water from a mountain stream sparkles in the light of the sun, as the icicle sparkles in winter, and the stars on a cold winter night, so the diamond sparkles, and it combines and contrasts with all known gems. Like light, it illumines them just as the sun does the plants of the earth. The diamond, the gem of light, like light itself when broken into a spectrum, gives us all known colors, and by combining all these colors it gives us white. Like gold, the diamond was made rare, so that it must be searched for, and the mines and deposits contain less of these two substances in a given area than of any other known materials. It is thirty to a hundred times more rare than gold, for if gold occurs one part in 250,000, it can scarcely be worked with profit, while the diamond can be worked to advantage when found only one part in 10,000,000,--yes, even one part in 25,000,000-and, like gold, it sometimes spurs the searcher on to wealth or to ruin. As great nuggets of gold have occasionally been found, so has a diamond been discovered large enough to make the greatest ruler pause to pay its price, and one which it took an entire country to give to that ruler who sways his sceptre over countries in which the world's greatest diamonds have been found.
When the God of the Mines called his courtiers to bring him all known gems, he found them to be of all colors and tints, and of varying hardnesses, such as the ruby, emerald, sapphire, etc., etc. He took one of each; he crushed them; he compounded them, and said: "Let this be something that will combine the beauty of all; yet it must be pure, and it must be invincible." He spoke: and lo! the diamond was born, pure as the dewdrop and invincible in hardness; but when its ray is resolved in the spectrum, it displays all the colors of the gems from which it was made. "Mine," said the god, "must be the gem of the universe; for my queen I will create one that shall be the greatest gem of the sea," and for her he created the pearl.
Gems of Spring Gems of Summer Amethyst Zircon Green diamond Garnet (demantoid and ouvarite) Chrysoberyl Chrysoberyl (alexandrite) Spinel (rubicelle) Spinel Pink topaz Pink topaz Olivine (peridot) Ruby Emerald Fire opal Gems of Autumn Gems of Winter Hyacinth Diamond Topaz Rock-crystal Sapphire White sapphire Jacinth Turquoise Cairngorm Quartz Adamantine spar Moonstone Tourmaline Pearl Oriental chrysolite Labradorite SENTIMENTS OF THE MONTHS JANUARY Natal stone Garnet. Guardian angel Gabriel. His talismanic gem Onyx Special apostle Simon Peter. His gem Jasper. Zodiacal sign Aquarius. Flower Snowdrop. No gems save garnets should be worn By her who in this month is born; They will insure her constancy, True friendship and fidelity. The gleaming garnet holds within its sway Faith, constancy, and truth to one alway.