aquamarine, aqua marina

[Lat. marine water, a term borrowed from the Italian lapidaries, to whom it was suggested by a remark of Pliny's, that the mineral thus named resembled the green colour of the sea.] Min.: A bluish-green variety of the Beryl (q.v.). It is regarded as a gem. The finest specimens known come from Brazil. "Kinchinjunga bore nearly due north, a dazzling ma of snowy peaks, intersected by ected by blue glaciers, which gleamed in the slanting rays of the rising sun, like aquamarines set in frosted silver." - Hooker: Him a lay an Journals , chap. viii., vol. i., p. 184.