ASTERIA, in natural history, a beautiful pellucid gem of variable colours, as viewed in different lights; called also sculus cati, or cat's eye. The variable colours, which are a pale brown and white, seem to be lodged deep in the stone, and shift about as it is moved. It is nearly allied to the opals; from which, however,
however, it is distinguished by its colour and superior hardness.
ASTERIA is also the name of an extraneous fossil, called in English the star-stone. See STAR-STONE.