[ 133 J 



balanced fabi*ic, assuming one general direction, whether upright 

 or i-ecumbent, and bounded by one well defined curve. In an 

 upright shrub the removal of a branch to the left gave a tendency 

 to lean to the right. As the original branch could not be replaced, 

 another on that side must sprout. Owing to the rigid law of general 

 outline, it was probable that none could be found which was licensed 

 to cany the same weight, but by a judicious use of two or three, 

 their i-espeetive leverage being taken into account, and some for- 

 bearance on the part of the buds on the other side, the balance was 

 generally restored without injury to the outline. Often the main 

 stem itself bent over somewhat to favour this equilibrium, but in 

 every case he who set his skill against that of a tree, and tried to 

 force it out of its time-honoured habits, would find it an opponent 

 worthy of his steel. 



Another form of disease was that which is caused by 

 injudicious or improper food. A plant which had injudiciously 

 swallowed a dose of ink or vermillion would at times get rid of it 

 by a process of desquamation very curious to witness. Those who 

 had transplanted a cabbage in very dry weather had seen a little 

 piece of self-cure. A large quantity of water was usually given in 

 such cases, and a few large leaves were plastered to the ground. 

 These leaves were living sacrifices. Times had changed with the 

 unhappy vegetable — many of its root fibres had remained behind 

 in its once happy home, and it had no longer the power to nourish 

 the large number of leaves that looked to it for food. These large 

 leaves comprehended the necessity, and acted the part of martyrs, 

 and by their death a sufficient supply of nourishment was left to 

 meet the wants of the next pair. In this slow death, every circum- 

 stance was puzzling. The strange yellow colour which leaves of 

 every shade assumed, creeping from the point to the stalk, told 

 the gradual process of the change, and reminded one of mortifica- 

 tion in the animal frame. A large white dead nettle on the 

 Rottingdean road, which had produced a continual succession of 

 flowers for weeks past, had lately found it necessary to perform an 

 amputation on its own person. He thought, but was not sui-e, 

 that some insect damaged the part since affected, a spreading leaf 

 half way up the great square stem. The tapering point first 

 showed the yellow tinge, which soon crept along the margin and 

 gradually covered the whole leaf. It reached the main stem and 



