10 



Color Standards and Nomenclature. 



naturalists and others, and the preference for color- 

 names very greatly predominates; consequently, when- 

 ever it has been possible to find a name which seems 

 suitable for any color in this work it has been done, 

 leaving as few as possible unnamed, and for these some 

 other means must be devised for their designation. (See 

 page 8). The selection of appropriate names for the 

 colors depicted on the Plates has been in some cases a 

 matter of considerable difficulty. With regard to certain 

 ones it may appear that the names adopted are not en- 

 tirely satisfactory; but, to forestall such criticism, it may 

 be explained that the purpose of these Plates is not to 

 show the color of the particular objects or substances 

 which the names suggest, but to provide appropriate, or 

 at least approximately appropriate, names for the colors 

 which it has seemed desirable to represent. In other 

 words, certain colors are selected for illustration, for 

 which names must be provided ; and when names that 

 are exclusively pertinent or otherwise entirely satis- 

 factory are not at hand, they must be looked up or in- 

 vented. It should also be borne in mind that almost any 

 object or substance varies more or less in color ; and that 

 therefore if the "orange," "lemon," "chestnut" or 

 "lilac" of the Plates does not exactly match in color the 

 particular orange, lemon, chestnut or lilac which one 

 may compare it with, it may (in fact does) correspond 

 with other specimens. Without standardization, even 

 if arbitrary, color nomenclature must, necessarily, remain 

 in its present condition of absolute chaos. Even the 

 standard pigments are not constant in color, practically 

 every one of them being subject to more or less variation 

 in hue or tone, different samples from the same manu- 

 facturer sometimes varying to the extent of several tones 

 or hues of the present work ; indeed, in every case where 

 two or more samples of the same color have been com- 



