78 COLOUR SCHEMES 



and made my own notes. I cannot but think that a 

 correct description of the colours, instead of a fanciful 

 one, would help both customer and seed-merchant. 

 As it is, the customer, in order to get the desired flowers, 

 has to learn a code. I have often observed, in com- 

 paring French and English seed-lists, that the French 

 do their best to describe colours accurately, but that 

 the English use some wording which does not describe 

 the colour, but appears to be intended as a compU* 

 mentary euphemism. Thus, if I want a Giant Comet 

 of that beautiful pale silvery lavender, perhaps the 

 loveliest colour of which a China Aster is capable, I 

 have to ask for " azure blue." If I want a full hlac, 

 I must order " blue " ; if a full purple, it is " dark 

 blue." If I want a strong, rich violet-purple, I must 

 beware of asking for purple, for I shall get a terrible 

 magenta such as one year spoilt the whole colour 

 scheme of my Aster garden. It is not as if the right 

 colour-words were wanting, for the language is rich 

 in them — violet, lavender, lilac, mauve, purple : 

 these, with slight additions, will serve to describe 

 the whole of the colourings falsely called blue. 

 The word blue should not be used at all in con- 

 nection with these flowers. There are no blue China 

 Asters. 



The diagram shows a simple arrangement for a 

 little garden of China Asters of the purple and white 

 colourings. The seed-Ust names are used in order 

 to identify the sorts recommended. A Lavender 

 hedge surrounds the whole ; the paths are edged with 

 Stachys lanata. Taking Messrs, Sutton's list and 



