26 
on fries’ nomenclature of colours. 
Another difficulty that constantly presents itself is the indefinite- 
ness with which colour-names were used in classical times. In 
trying to make out what Fries intended to describe, we are con- 
tinually hampered by a divergence from the ancient use of the very 
words he uses ; and although the knowledge of each usage is 
necessary to a complete understanding of the subject, it is my 
endeavour here to make out the idea in Fries’ mind, and only to 
that end to use the light that can be thrown on the subject from 
classical sources. Perhaps the best instance of the vague way in 
which the ancient Homans used the names of colours is to be found 
in a line by Albinovanus, a Latin poet contemporary with, and a 
friend of, Ovid’s, who flourished about a.d. 28 ; he describes a 
woman’s arms as whiter than the “ purple ” snow : 
Brachia purpurea candidiora nive. 
Of course, “ purple ” here only means “ glistening ” or 
“ dazzling,” but such a use of words does not accord with modern 
ideas. 
Much of the difficulty that surrounds the nomenclature of 
colours is also due to there being no authoritative code. In each 
branch of art or knowledge at the present day different names are 
used for the same colours. The “purple ” of the cardinal is crim- 
son ; the “ pink ” of the huntsman is scarlet. An artist calls his 
colours by the names under which he buys them of his colour-man. 
But a milliner wants to invent a fresh name with each change of 
fashion, and the words we get from the fashionable journals are 
veritable marvels ; couleur de crapaud mort, eau de Nile, elephant - 
grey, London smoke, mushroom-colour, being specimens. Fortu- 
nately “ they have their day, and cease to be.” An amusing 
instance was given me lately by an omnibus-driver. One of his 
passengers had been much struck by a pair of horses he had been 
driving, a dun and a strawberry-roan, in the horsey-man’s lan- 
guage ; the passenger, a tailor, described the one as “ drab,” and 
the other as a “ claret- mixture.” 
Consequently mycologists must be a law unto themselves, and if 
we are willing to hold the illustrious Fries as our law-giver, we 
must study, not so much what colour-names should mean, as in 
what sense he used them. 
Perhaps the only wonder is that there is such a limited number 
of colour-names after all. If we have a clear idea of a dozen 
colours, we must remember that we can get 479,001,600 permuta- 
tions out of them, by mixing each with every other, even in similar 
proportions. For our names to be of any use we must group 
around each one those shades which most closely assimilate to the 
named type, and indicate their differences as far as we can by com- 
pound words, or qualifying adjectives, or suffixes, or affixes. We 
all have an idea of the colour of gold, for example, but look at a 
sovereign, together with a dozen pieces of jewellery made at various 
times and places, and you will soon see what a very comprehensive, 
