10 Color Standards and Nomenclature. 
naturalists and others, and the preference for color- 
names very greatly predominates; consequently, when¬ 
ever it has been possible to find a name which seems 
suitable for any color in this work it has been done, 
leaving as few as possible unnamed, and for these some 
other means must be devised for their designation. (See 
page 8). The selection of appropriate names for the 
colors depicted on the Plates has been in some cases a 
matter of considerable difficulty. With regard to certain 
ones it may appear that the names adopted are not en¬ 
tirely satisfactory; but, to forestall such criticism, it may 
be explained that the purpose of these Plates is not to 
show the color of the particular objects or substances 
which the names suggest, but to provide appropriate, or 
at least approximately appropriate, names for the colors 
which it has seemed desirable to represent. In other 
words, certain colors are selected for illustration, for 
which names must be provided; and when names that 
are exclusively pertinent or otherwise entirely satis¬ 
factory are not at hand, they must be looked up or in¬ 
vented. It should also be borne in mind that almost any 
object or substance varies more or less in color; and that 
therefore if the “orange,” “lemon,” “chestnut” or 
“lilac” of the Plates does not exactly match in color the 
particular orange, lemon, chestnut or lilac which one 
may compare it with, it may (in fact does) correspond 
with other specimens. Without standardization, even 
if arbitrary, color nomenclature must, necessarily, remain 
in its present condition of absolute chaos. Even the 
standard pigments are not constant in color, practically 
every one of them being subject to more or less variation 
in hue or tone, different samples from the same manu¬ 
facturer sometimes varying to the extent of several tones 
or hues of the present work; indeed, in every case where 
two or more samples of the same color have been com- 
