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on fries’ nomenclature of colours. 
ermineus, ermine- white, niveus , snow-white, and virgineus , virgin 
or pure white, have no more distinction than the English terms by 
which they are naturally translated. 
Between the extremes of white and black there can be great 
varieties of greys, and the pure greys run into the blues and 
browns, so that they are best studied in three groups. Of the 
pure greys, canus and incanus are the nearest to white ; just as we 
call white hair or a white horse “ grey.” Cinereus is the grey of 
wood-ashes, cinerascens is becoming such a grey ; griseus seems 
to be a little darker, and lixivius is darker still and inclining to 
brown. Cretaceo-pallidus is a pale chalky grey. Nigrescens and 
nigricans do not mean so much dark grey as a grey that turns 
black with age. 
Of greys that incline to blue, caesius is the palest ; it was the 
classical term for the blue-grey of the eye. Glaucus is a grey 
that inclines to green, and glaucescens denotes a paler shade of the 
same colour. Livens and lividus are bluish or leaden-grey, much 
like molybdus and plumbeus. Ardosiacus is a dull lead-colour. 
Ag. (Collybia) tylicolor and Ag. fOmphalia) oniscus seem to owe 
their specific names to their likeness in colour to a kind of cod-fish 
known as oniscus , and so mean rather a light grey, and not the 
dark slate-grey of the woodlouse we describe under the name of 
Oniscus. Chalybaeus is a steel or iron-grey ; Fries, under 
Cortinarius sciophyllus, explains it as caeruleo- fuscus, dusky blue. 
Of the brown-greys, murinus , mouse -colour, is the palest (cf. 
Paxillus extenuatus , Fries, p. 402). Myochrous should have the 
same signification, but is used by Fries for a dusky umber. 
Argillaceus is a light brownish ash-colour. Fuscus, dusky, is 
rather a vague term, but it is almost too brown to be classed 
under the greys at all ; fuscescens means becoming dusky. Ravidus 
is a dark grey. Fumosus , fuligineus , and /uliginosus are best 
translated smoky, and not, as the latter might be, sooty black. 
Pure blacks fortunately do not admit of much variation, although 
since an absolute black is rarely seen, several terms occur. Ater 
is strictly a lustreless black, and niger is a glistening black ; 
piceo-ater , black as pitch, and furvus , swarthy, come into the 
former category ; coracinus, raven-black, with a tinge of blue, into 
the latter. Atratus and pullatus mean simply “ clothed in black.” 
Denigratus , “ blackened,” is used for a dark dusky brown, and not 
black at all. Nigerrimus, “ black as black can be,” seems rather 
pleonastic, but Fries uses it in his descriptions {Ag. Panaeolus 
hypomelas, p. 313). 
The next group, the yellows, under which I range the oranges, 
citrines, and browns, presents the greatest difficulties of all, and 
it is hard to get them into satisfactory order. Canon Du Port, 
in the interesting paper which we had the pleasure of hearing him 
read last year, cleared up many doubtful points, but his range was 
more limited than that which I set myself here. 
The type of pale yellow seems to be luteus , like the flowers of 
