PROSERPINA. 



[L] That they are not flat, but, however slightly, always 

 hollowed into craters, or raised into hills, in one or another 

 direction ; so that any drawable outline of them does not in 

 the least represent the real extent of their surfaces ; and until 

 you know how to draw a cup, or a mountain, rightly, you have 

 no chance of drawing a leaf. My simple artist readers of long" 

 ago, when I told them to draw leaves, thought they could do 

 them by the boughful, whenever they liked. Alas, except by 

 old WilliamHunt, and Burne Jones, I've not seen a leaf painted, 

 since those burdocks of Turner's ; far less sculptured though 



one would think at first that was easier ! Of which we shall have 

 talk elsewhere ; here I must go on to note fact number two, 

 concerning leaves. 



8. [XL] The strength of their supporting stem consists not 

 merely in the gathering together of all the fibres, but in 

 gathering them essentially into the profile of the letter V, 

 which you will see your doubled paper stem has ; and of which 

 you can feel the strength and use, in your hand, as you hold 

 it. Gather a common plantain leaf, and look at the way it 

 puts its round ribs together at the base, and you will under- 

 stand the matter at once. The arrangement is modified and 



