Chrysoberyl

The various stones beginning with chrys (Greek for gold) should in the main be yellow. Chrysoberyl is a yellowish, sometimes slightly greenish, mineral, beryllium aluminate, chemically Be Al₂O₄. It has been used for adornment since ancient times.

Chrysolite

This is a rather common yellow silicate of magnesium and iron, of granular structure. When, as sometimes occurs, it is greenish in tint, it is called olivine by mineralogists, but when used for adornment jewelers call it peridot.

Chrysolite is mentioned as one of the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem prophesied in Revelations. Shakespeare has Othello, wrought with agony over his beloved Desdemona whom he believes unfaithful, exclaim:

Nay, had she been true,

If heaven would make me such another world

Of one entire and perfect chrysolite

I’d not have sold her for it.

There is indeed beauty in an entire and perfect chrysolite.