1 64 PROSERPINA. 



plant. I had set myself once, in a bye-study for 

 foreground drawing, hard on this point ; and 

 began, with Mr. Burgess, a complete analysis 

 of the foliation of annual stems ; of which Line- 

 studies II., III., and IV., are examples ; reduced 

 copies, all, from the beautiful Flora Danica. But 

 after giving two whole lovely long summer days, 

 under the Giesbach, to the blue scabious, (' Devil's 

 bit,') and getting in that time, only half-way up 

 it, I gave in ; and must leave the work to happier 

 and younger souls. 



25. For these flowering stems, therefore, pos- 

 sessing nearly all the complex organization of a 

 tree, but not its permanence, we will keep the 

 word ' virga ; ' and ' virgula ' for those that have 

 no leaves. I believe, when we come to the study 

 of leaf-order, it will be best to begin with these 

 annual virgas, in which the leaf has nothing to do 

 with preparation for a next year's branch. And 

 now the remaining terms commonly applied to 

 stems may be for the most part dispensed with ; 

 but several are interesting, and must be examined 

 before dismissal. 



26. Indeed, in the first place, the word we have 

 to use so often, ' stalk,' has not been got to the 

 roots of, yet. It comes from the Greek crreXe^os, 

 (stelechos,) the ' holding part ' of a tree, that which 



