HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i47 



vitality. The greatest teacher is perforce the greatest 

 learner, and to learn with a great teacher, to follow 

 the evolutions of his reasoning as he makes them 

 plain, is the finest form of a fine education. 



Mr. Ruskin's philological definitions are always 

 interesting : here is his description of the leaf : 



" ' The thing that is born ' or ' put forth.' ' When 

 the branch is tender and putteth forth her leaves, ye 

 know that summer is nigh.' The botanists say ' The 

 leaf is an expansion of the bark of the stem.' More 

 accurately, the bark is a contraction of the tissue of 

 the leaf. For every leaf is born out of the earth and 

 breathes out of the air ;~and there are many leaves 

 that have no stems but only roots. It is ' the spring- 

 ing thing ' this thin film of life ; rising with its edge 

 out of the ground— infinitely feeble, infinitely fair. 

 With 'folium' in Latin is rightly associated the word 

 'flos' ; for the flower is only a group of singularly 

 happy leaves. From these two roots come ' foglio,' 

 'feuille,' 'feuillage,' and 'fleur'; 'blume,' 'blossom,' 

 and 'bloom'; our 'foliage,' and the borrowed 'foil,' 

 and the connected technical groups of words in 

 architecture and the sciences." 



" Proserpina " treats pedants very cavalierly, and 

 the following passage is an amusing sample of Mr. 

 Ruskin's difficulties in getting rudimentary informa- 

 tion from accredited text-books : 



" 1. Dresser's ' Rudiments of Botany.' Sap not in 

 die index ; only Samara and Sarcocup — about neither 

 of which I feel the slightest curiosity. 2. Figuier's 

 ' Histoire des Plantes.' Seve not in index ; only 

 Serpolet and Shcrardia arveiisis, which also have no 

 help in them for me. 3. Balfour's ' Manual of Botany.' 

 Sap — yes, at last. 'Article 257. Course of fluids in 

 exogenous stems.' I don't care about the course just 

 now : I want to know where the fluids come from. 

 ' If a plant be plunged into a weak solution of acetate 



of lead ' I don't in the least want to know what 



happens. ' From the minuteness of the tissue it is 

 not easy to determine the vessels through which the 

 sap moves.' Who said it was ? If it had been easy 

 I should have done it myself. ' Changes take place 

 in the composition of the sap in its upward course.' 

 I dare say ; but I don't know yet what its composition 

 is before it begins going up. ' The elaborated sap by 

 Mr. Schultz has been called lafcxJ I wish Mr. Schultz 

 were in a hogshead of it with the top on. ' On ac- 

 count of these movements in the latex, the laticiferous 

 vessels have been denominated cinenchymatous.' I 

 do not venture to print the expressions which I here 

 mentally make use of." 



From this same chapter on the leaf, which is full 

 of mythology, philology, and theology of the brightest 

 and gracefullest character, take the following : 



" There are some (leaves) like paws, and some like i 

 claws ; some like fingers and some like feet ; there 

 are endlessly cleft ones, and endlessly clustered ones, j 

 and inscrutable divisions within divisions of the fretted ! 

 verdure ; and wrinkles, and ripples, and stitchings, I 



and hemmings, and pinchings, and gatherings, and 

 crumplings, and clippings, and what not. But there 

 is nothing so constantly noble as the pure leaf of the 

 laurel, bay, orange, and olive; numerable, sequent, 

 perfect in setting, divinely simple and serene. I shall 

 call these noble leaves ' Apolline ' leaves. They charac- 

 terize many orders of plants, great and small — from 

 the magnolia to the myrtle, and exquisite ' myrtille ' 

 of the hills (bilberry) ; but wherever you find them, 

 strong, lustrous, dark green, simply formed, richly 

 scented or stored — you have nearly always kindly and 

 lovely vegetation, in healthy ground and air." 



These extracts will serve the general scope and 

 temper of this practical work on botanical science, 

 and Mr. Ruskin throughout works on his idea that 

 real botany is not so much the description of plants 

 as their biography. "Proserpina" is spiced with 

 frequent references to the old herbalist Gerarde and 

 the older herbalist Dioscorides. There are number- 

 less passages in this work which compete for quota- 

 tion — little idylls about daisies, poppies, and the like, 

 but the reader must seek and find them in their own 

 pure setting. Mr. Ruskin asks that any writer who 

 may look kindly upon his book will add such names 

 suggested in it as they think deserving of acceptance 

 to their own lists of synonyms under the head of 

 Schol. Art. Oxon., as he wishes his own name kept 

 well out of the way. 



I cannot leave this book without bearing my humble 

 testimony to the very great value of the illustrations, 

 drawn all of them by Mr. Ruskin himself and en- 

 graved by his rural publisher. It needs not to be 

 said that they are exquisitely accurate, and finished 

 down to the minutest details with a carefulness 'as 

 rare as it is laudable. 



Whatever opinion scientific botanists may form'of 

 this extraordinary work, certain it is that from its 

 pages they may, if they will, glean many useful sug- 

 gestions, and in addition enjoy a rich literary per- 

 formance by the greatest master of English prose 

 now living. 



It may be thought that with a strain of almost 

 unadulterated eulogy I have damned where I came 

 to bless, and it would be easy to vindicate my acumen 

 by girding at small flaws and matters of sentiment 

 which lend themselves to cheap ridicule, but I prefer 

 that a wholesome and noble, though unfinished, work 

 should appear in the brightest colours, rather than 

 spotted here and there with tarnishes which every 

 mean hand can lay on. 



James Hooper. 



" Carnation Grass." — A report of the Glouces- 

 tershire Chamber of Agriculture, asserts that "sheep 

 are more liable to the fluke when kept on land where 

 the sedge called ' Carnation Grass ' grows." What 

 species of carex is this ? Can any Gloucestershire 

 botanist kindly give information ? — F. If. Arnold. 



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