192 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



pure light, which we most nearly represent by 

 white. Of course pigments themselves do not 

 actually produce white, because they are not 

 pure vibrations of light, but that is another 

 matter and does not concern us when we are 

 dealing with a thing as tangible as the colors of 

 flowers and vegetation generally. 



The three sets of complementary colors vary 

 in the degree of harmony between them. To 

 meet this variation they must be combined un- 

 equally, the proportion varying according to 

 the combination. Yellow and purple offer less 

 difficulty than the other two and may be used 

 in the proportion of about one part of either 

 to two parts of the other. Flowers of certain 

 irises give examples of this combination, also 

 pansies. 



Red and green come next, but with this com- 

 bination we are not called upon to deal. Nature 

 taking care of green very much better than we 

 could if it were left to us. Note, however, just 

 by way of illustrating the point of proportion, 

 that the red or the green is always very much 

 in the ascendant when this combination occurs. 

 Red berries among green foliage show probably 

 not more than a one-to-ten proportion of red to 

 green, while scarlet flowers generally either re- 

 verse this by concealing a large amount of their 



