238 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
especially of Teas, are very difficult to express to 
ordinary readers in language that they will clearly 
understand, for some are extremely variable in their 
tints, and others come much fuller in colour when 
grown strongly. 
It is not every one who is, without studying the 
matter, well conversant with the different tints 
expressed in the terms frequently used. Among 
these may be found—ivory, cream, lemon, chrome, 
straw, canary, sulphur, nankeen, saffron, apricot, 
fawn, buff, salmon, copper, bronze, blush, flesh, 
peach, rose, cerise, coral, cherry, currant, madder, 
vermilion, scarlet, lake, carmine, lilac, plum, violet, 
magenta, claret, maroon, and amaranth. It requires 
not only a good eye for colour, but also a certain 
amount of training, for an ordinary man to distin- 
guish accurately between these shades; perhaps the 
description ‘‘a soft shade of écru, passing to a lovely 
golden yellow ” might leave him not much wiser than 
he was before. I confess that some of them beat me, 
and that even the first two on the list, ivory and 
cream, as seen in Roses, would present very slight 
distinctions to my eyes. 
A good many of the Tea Roses, especially the light 
yellows, come practically, if not pure, white, when 
exposed to strong and continued sun; and as these 
are generally credited as to colour with the first 
descriptions of the raisers as seen under glass, there 
is sometimes a little disappointment with the tints 
as seen out of doors. Thus Devoniensis, Edith 
Gifford, and Innocente Pirola used to be described 
without any mention of the word ‘‘ white,” which 
must seem very strange to those who know the 
Roses. 
Such good old colour-words as white, yellow, pink, 
