114 PROSERPINA. 



Love is, and those unclasped, that toss with tangle and 

 with shells. 



13. I had a long bit in my head, that I wanted to write, 

 about St. George of the Seaweed, but I've no time to do 

 it; and those few words of Tennyson's are enough, if one 

 thinks of them : only I see, in correcting press, that I've 

 partly misapplied the idea of 'gathering ' in the leaf edge. 

 It would be more accurate to say it was gathered at the 

 central rib ; but there is nothing in needlework that will 

 represent the actual excess by lateral growth at the edge, 

 giving three or four inches of edge for one of centre. 

 But the stiffening of the fold by the thorn which holds it 

 out is very like the action of a ship's spars on its sails ; 

 and absolutely in many cases like that of the spines in a 

 fish's fin, passing into the various conditions of serpentine 

 and dracontic crest, connected with all the terrors and 

 adversities of nature ; not to be dealt with in a chapter 

 on weeds. 



14. Here is a sketch of a crested leaf of less adverse 

 temper, which may as well be given, together with Plate 

 III., in this number, these two engravings being meant 

 for examples of two different methods of drawing, both 

 useful according to character of subject. Plate III. is 

 sketched first with a finely : pointed pen, and common ink, 

 on white paper ; then washed rapidly with colour, and re- 

 touched with the pen to give sharpness and completion. 



