THE CLIMBING HEMP-WEED. 119 



remain with me. To be sure, they had the grace of a well- 

 rounded form, bounded by lines of beauty on every side. But 

 their foliage was their glory, a solid mass of it, every leaf and 

 leaflet perfect, and perfectly arranged and displayed, the terminal 

 ones overlying each other from the bottom to the top of the tree 

 like the feathers upon the breast of a bird. They were indeed 

 master-pieces of Nature's art ; pictures of the most exquisite beauty 

 painted in one pigment. How simple are nature's methods, but 

 how manifold the results. 



In a former paper in this book I have recommended making 

 cojlections of leaves of plants for studies of artistic forms. Since 

 writing that paper I have chanced upon the same suggestion by 

 Starr King in his "White Hills." I am only too glad to be con- 

 vinced by eloquence so fine that my hint had not even the 

 merit of novelty. The idea is all the more valuable to me, now 

 that I find it commended by a lover of nature, whose fine sense 

 of her various and matchless beauties is only equalled by the 

 incomparable skill with which he makes them live and shine in 

 his glowing words. He says: 



"While we are shut in by the forest, we may turn our atten- 

 tion to the symmetry and variety of the leaves, and try to learn 

 something of Nature's wealth of resources as to graceful form, 

 within narrow boundaries. An eye that is sensitive to the grace 

 of curves and parabolas and oval swells will marvel at the feast 

 which a day's walk in the woods will supply from the trees, the 

 grasses, and the weeds, in the varying outlines, the notchings, 

 veinings, and edgings of the leaves. They stand for the art of 

 sculpture in Botany, representing the intellectual delight of Nature 

 in form, as the flowers express the companion art of painting. 



