222 WOOD AND GARDEN 



bright yellow is meant. Gold is not bright yellow. I 

 find that a gold piece laid on a gravel path, or against 

 a sandy bank, nearly matches it in colour; and I 

 cannot think of any flower that matches or even 

 approaches the true colour of gold, though something 

 near it may be seen in the pollen-covered anthers of 

 many flowers. A match for gold may more nearly be 

 found among dying beech leaves, and some dark 

 colours of straw or dry grass bents, but none of these 

 when they match the gold are bright yellow. In 

 literature it is quite another matter ; when the poet or 

 imaginative writer says, " a field of golden buttercups," 

 or "a golden sunset," he is quite right, because he 

 appeals to our artistic perception, and in such case 

 only uses the word as an image of something that is 

 rich and sumptuous and glowing. 



The same irrelevance of comparison seems to run 

 through all the colours. Flowers of a full, bright-blue 

 colour are often described as of a " brilliant amethystine 

 blue." Why amethystine ? The amethyst, as we 

 generally see it, is a stone of a washy purple colour, 

 and though there are amethysts of a fine purple, they 

 are not so often seen as the paler ones, and I have 

 never seen one even faintly approaching a really blue 

 colour. What, therefore, is the sense of hkening a 

 flower, such as a Delphinium, which is really of a 

 splendid pure-blue colour, to the duller and totally 

 diSerent colour of a third-rate gem ? 



Another example of the same slip-slop is the term 



