144 PROSERPINA. 



always with the feeling that the blossoms are thrown 

 over the green depth like white clouds, — never with 

 any idea of so much as asking what holds the cloud 

 there. Have each of the innumerable blossoms a 

 separate stalk ; and, if so, how is it that one never 

 thinks of the stalk, as one does with currants ? 



4. Turn the side of the branch to you ; — Nature 

 never meant you to see it so ; but now it is all 

 stalk below and stamens above, — the petals no- 

 thing, the stalks all tiny trees, always dividing their 

 branches mainly into three — one in the centre short, 

 and the two lateral, long, with an intermediate ex- 

 tremely long one, if needed, to fill a gap, so con- 

 triving that the flowers shall all be nearly at the 

 same level, or at least surface of ball, like a guelder 

 rose. But the cunning with which the tree conceals 

 its structure till the blossom is fallen, and then — 

 for a little while, we had best look no more at it, 

 for it is all like grape-stalks with no grapes. 



These, whether carrying hawthorn blossom and 

 haw, or grape blossom and grape, or peach blossom 

 and peach, you will simply call the ' stalk,' whether 

 of flower or fruit. A ' stalk ' is essentially round, 

 like a pillar ; and has, for the most part, the power 

 of first developing, and then shaking off, flower and 

 fruit from its extremities. You can pull the peach 

 from its stalk, the cherry, the grape. Always at 



