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ON FEIES' NOMENCLATUEE OF COLOURS: 



An examirMtion of the epithets used by him in describing the coloration of the 

 Agaricini. 



By Hknkt Thornton Whaeton, M.A. 



The subject of colour-names is so vast and intricate that in the following paper I 

 have confined myself to the consideration of those only vfhich occur in Fries' 

 description of the Agaricini in his Hymenomycetes Europaei. Even in this 

 restricted field I have found nearly 200 names of colours, although, with one or 

 two exceptions, I have avoided reference to compound names ; if I had considered 

 the complete list that I originally made I should have had to describe about 840. 

 Perhaps I have omitted some few as it is, for I have had to go over some 20,000 

 lines of concisely -written Latin to find those that I have gathered together for 

 examination here. 



In so long a list of names it is fortunate that not every one requires separate 

 consideration. I have enumerated not only the colour-names used for descriptive 

 purposes by Fries himself, but also most of those used as specific. And in making 

 specific names there is a natural tendency to use a colour-name absolutely sjmony- 

 mous with another, simply from the fact of the most obvious one having been 

 already used. For instance, a describer wishes to name a white species Agaricus 

 albus; but when he finds that name is preoccupied, he names his species Ag. 

 candidus. Still we need not conclude that he had the strict classical Latin 

 differences of the two words in his mind's eye : he probably never thought that 

 Ag. albus was so named because it was of a dead white, nor in speaking of Ag. 

 candidus need he have meant to imply that it was of a glistening white, as Cicero 

 might have done. This exigency has burdened the list of colour-names with a good 

 deal of useless lumber, but the principle is one that, in the interpretation of specific 

 names, must never be forgotten. 



Another diflBculty that constantly presents itself is the indefiniteness with 

 which colour-names were used in classical times. In trying to make out what 

 Fries intended to describe, we are continually hampered by a divergence from the 

 ancient use of the very words he uses ; and although the knowledge of each usage 

 is necessary to a complete understanding of the subject, it is my endeavour here to 

 make out the idea in Fries' mind, and only to that end to use the light that can be 

 thrown on the subject from classical sources. PerhajJS the best instance of the 

 vague way in which the ancient Romans used the names of colours is to be found 

 in a line by Albinovanus, a Latin poet contemporary with, and a friend of Ovid, 

 who flourished about a.d. 28 ; he describes a woman's arms as whiter than the 

 "purple" snow : 



" Brachia purpurea candidiora nive." 



