MODELLING THE SEA-ASTER 341 



A small modelled corymb of flower-heads is shown on the 

 left of Plate XVIII. 



The Leaves 



The stem-leaves, as before stated, are either long, thin, and 

 lanceolate, or, short, thick, and lanceolate, while the radical 

 leaves {i.e. those at the base of the plant) are large, broadly 

 spatulate, twisted, and — including their long, stout stem — some 

 6 to 9 inches in length. The former are so simple as to 

 require no special instructions for their casting and reproduc- 

 tion, but the latter, which are not quite so easy as would at first 

 sight appear, owing to their unusually thick and transparent 

 rib and stem, are managed as now described. The leaves, 

 having been steeped in water for an hour or so, and gently 

 brushed to remove the mud and sand which often thickly 

 encrust them, should be treated with plaster as previously 

 directed ; but, after they have been covered sufficiently by the 

 spoon - pouring process to give them the necessary rigidity 

 to support a greater weight of plaster, when laid upon the 

 cardboard or thick brown paper — which is better than wood, 

 especially if the paper is laid upon a sheet of glass (plate glass 

 is the best, from every point of view, and need not be very 

 large or of superior quality) — they should be surrounded with 

 walls of zinc, and the plaster thickened to, say, an inch, by 

 pouring on a little at a time, with intervals of rest between 

 to allow the one layer of plaster to just set before the next is 

 superimposed. Otherwise — and this is the most satisfactory 

 plan with the larger, or twisted, leaves — they should be laid 

 upon the casting-board and packed underneath with sand or 

 putty. 



The zinc walls are simply strips of about 18 inches in 

 length by i inch in width, bent around the leaves, and held 

 in position and blocked at the free end by a piece of wood, 



