A SPRIG OF WATER CROWFOOT. 37 



over the pool below, known to me as the 

 undoubted residence of a pair of trout. It is 

 a queer plant, this crowfoot, with its two 

 distinct types of leaves, much cleft below and 

 broad above ; and I often wonder why so 

 strange a phenomenon has attracted such 

 very scant attention. But then we knew so 

 little of life in any form till the day before 

 yesterday that perhaps it is not surprising we 

 should still have left so many odd problems 

 quite untouched. 



This problem of the shape of leaves 

 certainly seems to me a most important one ; 

 and yet it has hardly been even recognised 

 by our scientific pastors and masters. At 

 best, Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes to it a 

 passing short chapter, or Mr. Darwin a stray 

 sentence. The practice of classifying plants 

 mainly by means of their flowers has given 

 the flower a wholly factitious and over- 

 wrought importance. Besides, flowers are 

 so pretty, and we cultivate them so largely, 

 with little regard to the leaves, that they 



