clxxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



36. CLASSIFICATION OF DAFFODILS. 



At the request of the Daffodil Committee the Council recently 

 appointed a Committee to consider the best way of avoiding the confusion, 

 and consequent disputes, likely to arise from the recent multitudinous 

 crossing, recrossing, and intercrossing of the old Divisions of Magni- 

 Medio- and Parvi-coronati. The Committee have delivered their Report 

 instituting an entirely new system of classification, which the Council 

 have (with slight modifications) adopted and confirmed, and ordered to be 

 used at all the Society's Shows. The Report contains a list of every 

 Daffodil known to the Committee, together with the name of the raiser as 

 far as it could be discovered, each flower known being allotted to its 

 appropriate class. The Report has been printed in a handy book form, 

 and can be obtained from the Society's Office, Vincent Square, at a cost 

 of Is. 



37. COLOUR CHART. 



Hardly a gardener or florist exists who has not at times longed for 

 a Colour Chart — that is to say, for a standard of reference whereby he 

 could himself name, or recognize, or convey to a friend at a distance, the 

 exact shade of colour of a flower he desired to procure or had seen 

 advertised, or wished to commend to a friend. Take, for example, the 

 word " crimson," what a multitude of colours and shades it may be made 

 to include ! Some, very beautiful ; some, horrible concoctions of red and 

 blue crudely combined. 



The Council of the Society have long felt the need of such a Colour 

 Chart, but the huge expense of producing it has hitherto deterred tbem 

 from issuing it. 



Not long since a most admirable chart, containing more than 1,450 

 shades of colour between white and black, was published in France at the 

 instance of the French Chrysanthemum Society, the price in England 

 being £1 Is. net, and by it it is now possible to exactly recognize or 

 describe to a friend or purchaser at a distance the precise colour of any 

 possible flower. You may have met with an Azalea, for instance, which 

 greatly strikes your fancy ; you take out your chart and match its shade, 

 and describe it to your friend or your nurseryman as, " Colour : Apricot, 

 p. 53, shade 3," and he turns to his chart and sees exactly what it is you 

 want or describe. Or you want to make someone understand the exact 

 shade of a rose in the way of " Andersoni," and you need only say, "Rosy 

 pink, p. 118, shade 4," and your correspondent turns to his chart and sees 

 in a moment exactly what it is you want to describe. Or a nurseryman, 

 having raised a new variety, can by simply quoting " Colour Chart, p. — , 

 shade — ," exactly represent to his customers the colour-beauty of his new 

 introduction. 



The Council recognizing both the excellence and the usefulness of 

 this chart, the idea at once occurred, Could it not be adopted as an 



