Surveyed Malt Moss

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Old English mealt, germinated-grain. As a color modifier, malt implies a kilned-grain-and-amber-stout quality, the visual register of Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt hand-kilned-grain-and-amber-stout Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen malt-and-kilned-grain surfaces under Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen Burton-and-Munich-and-Pilsen brewery-and-kiln-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to syrup and zest in usage.

Bryophyta — the nonvascular plants that colonized land 470 million years ago, before vascular plants and far before flowers. The color refers to a thick mat of Hypnum or sphagnum on a temperate forest floor: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the velvet texture of millimeter-scale leaves. Dustier than fern, deeper than lichen, with the slow patience of a plant that lives by absorbing rain through its surface.