Complaints about colors from 1892

EVERY student of botany, ornithology, or entomology, has found the lack of any well-defined standard or credited nomenclature of color a prolific source of trial and perplexity, while to the common eye there is nothing but confusion in our present methods of desi­g­­nating color. No stronger proof of this is needed than some of the terms used to designate fashionable colors, such as “crushed strawberry,” “ashes of roses,” “elephant’s breath,” etc. What more absurd terms could one easily choose to express an intelligible conception.
Science, February 26, 1892

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com