92 PROSERPINA. 



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 nothing, 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 extremely 

 long one, if needed, to fill a gap, so contriving that the flow- 

 ers 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 some time of its 

 existence, the flower-stalk lets fall something of what it sus- 

 tained, petal or seed. 



In late Latin it is called 'petiolus,' the little foot; because 

 the expanding piece that holds the grape, or olive, is a little 

 like an animal's foot. Modern botanists have misapplied the 

 word to the /m/-stalk, which has no resemblance to a foot at 

 all. We must keep the word to its proper meaning, and, 

 when we want to write Latin, call it ' petiolus ; ' when we want 

 to write English, call it ' stalk,' meaning always fruit or flower 

 stalk. 



I cannot find when the word ' stalk ' first appears in Eng- 

 lish : its derivation will be given presently. 



5. Gather next a hawthorn leaf. That also has a stalk ; but 

 you can't shake the leaf off it. It, and the leaf, are essentially 

 one ; for the sustaining fibre runs up into every ripple or jag 

 of the leaf's edge : and its section is different from that of the 

 flower-stalk ; it is no more round, but has an upper and under 

 surface, quite different from each other. It will be better, 

 however, to take a larger leaf to examine this structure in. 

 Cabbage, cauliflower, or rhubarb, would any of them be good, 





