My Garden 
A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! 
Hose plot, 
Fringed pool, 
Ferned grot — 
The veriest school of peace! and yet the fool 
Contends that God is not— 
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool! 
Nay, but I have a sign! 
’Tis very sure God walks in mine. 
Thos. Edward Brown. 
After four years’ work on comparing the garden flowers with the color chart. 
“Repertoire de Coulcurs,” and Dr. Ridgway’s “Color and Nomenclature,” I 
found the latter the more useful and simple, and have discarded the former in 
favor of Dr. Ridgway’s book. 
With all the material at hand, I find it simmers down to a surprisingly small 
list of flowers that we have to draw upon that are suitable for color work, and these 
few flowers can be limited to a few spectrum colors, instead of the alarmingly long 
list of unfamiliar names standing for unknown tints and shades. 
I find, also, that confusion has arisen from the lack of a standard of color 
and color-names, and the wonderful ignorance of the majority of people as to the 
actual color when signified by a well-known name. 
To understand the color, one must know the Spectrum Scale, not vaguely but 
distinctly, so that when the word “red" is used descriptively the eye immediately 
places it as a color free from all tints of either blue or orange-“scarlet,” showing 
the trace of orange; “orange” warmed by the adjoining red; and “yellow” free from 
either red or green, while “green” is a brilliant pure color, with no trace of yellow 
or violet; “violet-blue,” showing the influence of blue on the approaching-revl; 
"violet-red,” where the red is more noticeable than the blue, and so back to the 
pure red again. 
The next step in the understanding of color is nomenclature, which has been the 
stumbling-block between the seedsman and the buyer. Up to the present time, 
one could use any descriptive word as one preferred and the result has been dis¬ 
astrous to color planting, but now, since Mr. Fuld has recognized the importance 
of a standard and is bending all effort in this very important movement, I foresee 
that before long we will all speak the same color language, as it were. 
