CXCviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



35. COLOUR CHART. 



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

 a Coloue 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 production has hitherto deterred them 

 from issuing it. 



Not long since an admirable chart, containing more than 1,450 shades 

 of colour between white and black, was published at the instance of the 

 French Chrysanthemum Society, the price 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 wanjb 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, shaded," 

 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 

 International Standard, so that all lovers of flowers all over the world 

 could accurately and exactly describe to one another (no matter how far 

 away or speaking what language) the colour and shade of any particular 

 flower they refer to ? There seemed no other difficulty than the somewhat 

 prohibitive cost of £1 Is. net. But difficulties only exist to be overcome, 

 and by undertaking to be responsible for a very large number the Society 

 is now in a position to offer this Chart to its Fellows at the reduced cost 

 of 14s. 6d., for which price it can be obtained at the Society's Offices, 

 Vincent Square, or it can be sent free by post for 15s. ; but in all cases 

 a cheque or postal order must be sent beforehand. 



This Chart will, of course, be found vastly useful for many other 

 purposes ; for example, a lady wishing to match a certain shade has only 

 to refer her dressmaker to such and such a colour on p. — , shade — , and 

 it can be infallibly matched. An artist wishing to describe the colour of 

 the sky on a certain sundown can do so exactly by reference to the Chart. 

 And in many other like ways it must prove generally useful, containing 

 as it does every possible shade of colour between black and white. 



The Chart is being adopted extensively by dyers, mercers, drapers, 



