232 PROSERPINA. 



quisite botanical plates ignore ; and exemplify uses of the pen 

 and pencil which cannot be learned from the inimitable fine- 

 ness of line engraving. The frontispiece to this number, for 

 instance, (a seeding head of the commonest field-thistle of our 

 London suburbs,) copied with a steel pen on smooth grey 

 paper, and the drawing softly touched with white on the 

 nearer thorns, may well surpass the effect of the plate. 



23. In the following number of ' Proserpina ' I have been 

 tempted to follow, with more minute notice than usual, the 

 * conditions of adversity ' which, as they fret the thistle tribe 

 into jagged malice, have humbled the beauty of the great do- 

 mestic group of the Vestals into confused likenesses of the 

 Dragonweed and Nettle : but I feel every hour more and more 

 the necessity of separating the treatment of subjects in 'Pro- 

 serpina ' from the microscopic curiosities of recent botanic 

 illustration, nor shall this work close, if my strength hold, 

 without fulfilling in some sort, the effort begun long ago in 

 ' Modern Painters,' to interpret the grace of the larger blos- 

 soming trees, and the mysteries of leafy form which clothe 

 the Swiss precipice with gentleness, and colour with softest 

 azure the rich horizons of England and Italy. 



