8 4 
HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
defined. Royal purple is, of course, a wine 
or murrey colour ; but see the word purple 
clematis written, and a mind-picture is 
instantly formed of a purple the colour of 
Clematis Jackmanni. 
If one takes violet as describing the violet 
Princess of Wales, or any of the single violets 
we see piled up in baskets in the streets, which 
are surely the origin of the description, how 
can one reconcile it with the extraordinary 
coloured tulips sent out as violets ? — -magenta, 
maroon, red mauves, all classed as violet. 
There is no doubt this wants simplifying. 
There are red-purples, and there is a crimson- 
purple violet. Admiral Avellan. There is a 
blue-violet, as instanced in California, the 
Nice violet. 
There are lilacs of all shades and tones in 
real life, from the washy-blue Persian lilac to 
the full stately mauve of Cottage Lilac and the 
red purple of Charles X. But the generally 
accepted term lilac as applied to colour is a 
fresh, springlike, pinky tone of mauve. An- 
other old colour one never hears of is puce ; 
one’s great-grandmother wore it, and I im- 
agine it to be a very grey mauve, or was it 
more of a dull, pinkish shade ? 
Possibly the colour chart of the R.H.S. will 
