COLOURS OF FLOWERS 225 



colour-word, would be useful, denoting the shades of 

 colour between the strongest orange and the palest 

 scarlet, frequent in the lightest of the Oriental Poppies. 

 Amber is a misleading word, for who is to know when it 

 means the transparent amber, whose colour approaches 

 that of resin, or the pale, almost opaque, duU-yeUow 

 kind. And what is meant by coral-red? It is the 

 red of the old-fashioned dull-scarlet coral, or of the 

 pink kind more recently in favour. 



The terms bronze and smoke may weU be used in 

 their place, as in describing or attempting to describe 

 the wonderful colouring of such flowers as Spanish 

 Iris, and the varieties of Iris of the squalens section. 

 But often in describing a flower a reference to texture 

 much helps and strengthens the colour-word. I have 

 often described the modest little Iris tuberosa as a 

 flower made of green satin and black velvet. The 

 green portion is only slightly green, but is entirely 

 green satin, and the black of the velvet is barely black, 

 but is quite black-velvet-Kke. The texture of the 

 flower of Ornithogahim nutans is silver satin, neither 

 very silvery nor very satin-like, and yet so nearly 

 suggesting the texture of both that the words may 

 well be used in speaking of it. Indeed, texture plays 

 so important a part in the appearance of colour-sur- 

 face, that one can hardly think of colour without also 

 thinking of textiu*e. A piece of black satin and a 

 piece of black velvet may be woven of the same batch 

 of material, but when the satin is finished and the 



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