Peridot is actually a transparent green variety of olivine. Peridot has been mined as a gemstone for an estimated four thousand years. Cleopatra is said to favor the green stone. Pliny (a Roman) even wrote about the green stone form Zagbargad Island in 1500 B.C.

The garnet is a family of gems rather than a single gemstone. Garnets consist of many varieties from brown, yellow, white, green to black. Only the deep red are used as precious gems, and sometimes the green. They were very popular in the Victorian times.

Hematite is not a common gemstone because it is an ore of iron and is very heavy. Some varieties of specular hematite have a pretty metallic luster.