Colour Names
Most of us who have read flower catalogues have been amused at the frantic efforts made to describe colours and tints, and the sellers of stuffs make equally vain efforts. The animal kingdom is called in to describe the vegetables: Cinnabar, salmon, mouse and deer all contribute names. The " infinite variety " of hues, like Cleopatra's beauty, will doubtless continue to defy description ; but a valiant attempt is being made to define and name the colours. The experts have decided that 220 hues may be safely distin guished ; a colour dictionary has, I believe, been compiled— and invented—and a British Colour Council is in existence. The question was ventilated some weeks ago, I believe; in the Daily Telegraph; and it is presumed that it will form the subject of discussion at the International Horticultural Congress to be held in Rome in September next. One of the difficulties is the astonishing difference between individuals (and perhaps races) in the appreciation of the finer shades of colour. A great man of science once maintained in my hearing that no colour in isolation could be either ugly or beautiful ; and perhaps colour is inseparable from tissue. It is, for example, quite difficult to make contrasted sweet peas" swear.',
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