THE STEM. 



93 



but don't grow wild in the luxuriance I want. So, if you 

 please, we will take a leaf of burdock, (Arctiuin Lappa,) the 

 principal business of that plant being clearly to grow leaves 

 wherewith to adorn fore-grounds.* 



6. The outline of it in Sowerby is not an intelligent one, 

 and I have not time to 



draw it but in the rudest 

 way myself ; Fig. 13, a ; 

 with perspectives of the 

 elementary form below, 

 b, c, and d. By help of 

 which, if you will con- 

 struct a burdock leaf in 

 paper, my rude outline 

 (a) may tell the rest of 

 what I want you to see. 



Take a sheet of stout 

 note paper, Fig. 14, A, 

 double it sharply down 

 the centre, by the dotted 

 line, then give it the two 

 cuts at a and b, and 

 double those pieces 

 sharply back, as at B ; 

 then, opening them 

 again, cut the whole into 

 the form C ; and then, 

 pulling up the corners c 

 d, stitch them together 

 with a loose thread so 

 that the points c and d 

 shall be within half an inch of each other ; and you will have 

 a kind of triangular scoop, or shovel, with a stem, by which 

 you can sufficiently hold it, D. 



7. And from this easily constructed and tenable model, you 

 may learn at once these following main facts about all leaves. 



* If you will look at the engraving, in the England and Wales series, 

 of Turner's Oakhampton, you will see its use. 



Fio. 13. 



