238 THE BOOK OP 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 ecru, 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 Eoses, 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 

 Eoses. 



Such good old colour- words as white, yellow, pink. 



