OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE OF RIDG- 
WAY’S NEW COLOR-BOOK . 1 - 2 THE 
COLOR OF THE SPORES OF 
VOLVARIA SPECIOSA FR. 
L. C. C. Krieger 
In using the recently published book, “ Color Standards and 
Color Nomenclature,” by Ridgway, the writer was confronted 
with certain difficulties which operate against exactness in color 
determination, viz. : the appearance of the complementary of an 
adjacent color in the one under observation; the darkening or 
lightening effects of backgrounds of varying degrees of lumi- 
nosity ; and the effect of area on colors. 
As these difficulties will be encountered by others who may 
have occasion to consult this valuable repository of color tones, 
an account of some tests will doubtless prove of interest. 
The writer wished to ascertain the precise color of a spore- 
print of the gill-fungus, V olvaria speciosa Fr. The print was 
about 15 cm. in diameter, and so dense as to cover completely the 
White paper underneath. On comparing the entire area of the 
print with the small color squares in the book, it was found that 
a tone somewhere between l and k of column 13, PI. Ill, cor- 
responded with the tone of the spore-deposit. 3 
1 Color Standards/and/Color Nomenclature/by/Robert Ridgway, M.S., 
C.M.Z.S., etc. /Curator of the Division of Birds, United States/National 
Museum. /With Fifty-three Colored Plates/and/Eleven Hundred and Fifteen 
Named Colors. /Washington, D. C./1912. /Published by the Author./(8 mo., 
colored frontispiece, pp. (I) 1 1— 1 1 1 (IV), (1) 2-43 (44). Reviewed by P. L. 
Ricker in Mycologia 5: 172-174. March, 1913.) 
2 While the discussion here presented is confined to Ridgway’s book, the 
deductions are applicable to any work which attempts to standardize colors by 
giving the colors themselves. 
3 The tests here recorded were conducted in a room, near a good-sized 
window in the north wall. Sky clear. No other illumination. No reflections 
from strongly colored objects outside. Wall-paper and near-by objects not 
conspicuous in color. Every test was verified by two persons. 
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