iv FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



not afforded to Dr. Asa Gray. Aster ericoides I do 

 not find confined to southern New England ; it is 

 common in northern New Hampshire. It is also the 

 fact that certain variations in type are unrecorded 

 in botanical books to which I have referred; such 

 variations appear in a few of my drawings. The 

 environment of a flower and the length of time in 

 which it blooms are also recorded here with some 

 variation from that according to Dr. Gray. In such 

 instances I have relied upon my own personal expe- 

 rience. Regarding the colors of flowers, I take the 

 liberty of saying that no authority has appeared to 

 be perfectly satisfactory from my particular point of 

 view, and I regret to add that certain records in Dr. 

 Gray's books seem to point to the fact that he was 

 at least partially color-blind. 



To any artist who is a colorist it is almost incon- 

 ceivable that crimson should not be distinguished from 

 scarlet. When it is possible for him to produce fifty 

 distinct variations of red between these two colors, it 

 will be easily understood why he should look on the 

 color-blind person as an eighth wonder of the world ! 



Color terms are best considered as relative to each 

 other — for instance, blue-violet, violet, violet-purple, 

 purple, purple-magenta, magenta, magenta-red, etc. 

 The name rose-purple is quite indefinite. I suppose it 

 means j9mA;-purple ; but pink-purple is anomalous. It 



