III. THE LEAF. 47 



a contraction of the tissue of the leaf. For every 

 leaf is born out of the earth, and breathes out of 

 the air; and there are many leaves that have no 

 stems, but only roots. It is 'the springing thing'; 

 this thin film of life ; rising, with its edge out of 

 the ground — infinitely feeble, infinitely fair. With 

 Folium, in Latin, is rightly associated the word 

 Flos; for the flower is only a group of singularly 

 happy leaves. From these two roots come foglio, 

 feuille, feuillage, and fleur ; — blume, blossom, and 

 bloom ; our foliage, and the borrowed foil, and 

 the connected technical groups of words in archi- 

 tecture and the sciences. 



4. This thin film, I said. That is the essential 

 character of a leaf; to be thin, — widely spread out 

 in proportion to its mass. It is the opening of 

 the substance of the earth to the air, which is 

 the giver of life. The Greeks called it, therefore, 

 not only the born or blooming thing, but the 

 spread or expanded thing — " ttetmov." Pindar calls 

 the beginnings of quarrel, " petals of quarrel." 

 Recollect, therefore, this form, Petalos ; and connect 

 it with Petasos, the expanded cap of Mercury. For 

 one great use of both is to give shade. The root 

 of all these words is said to be IIET (Pet), which 

 may easily be remembered in Greek, as it some- 

 times occurs in no unpleasant sense in English. 



