Flowers and Gardens 



Now all this the dot helps to accomplish. 

 It emphasises just that point which should 

 catch the eye at once, guiding it straight 

 to the outlines or leading lines, and res- 

 cuing the whole plant from what might 

 otherwise appear but a confused patch of 

 green. This plan of leading the eye is 

 continually adopted by painters. There 

 is a good example of it in Leonardo da 

 Vinci's " Last Supper," where the radi- 

 ating beams of the roof and main lines of 

 the bodies of the disciples converge to- 

 wards the head of Christ, thus carrying us 

 at once to the grand point of the picture. 

 The means which are used in different 

 kinds of leaves to make the outlines more 

 noticeable are often well worth examining. 

 Sometimes it is by thickening, as in the 

 case we have already mentioned, some- 

 times by means exactly opposite. Very 

 frequently, as in the Lily of the Valley, a 

 thin line of cuticle surrounds the leaf, and 

 gleams in the light by its transparency. 

 In the common purple Iris of the gardens, 

 where the leaf is like a broad sharp sword- 

 blade, there is a gradual thinning from 

 the centre towards the edges, as well as 

 a translucent margin. So that, look at 

 what distance you will, the large broad 

 surfaces are easily distinguishable from 

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