Flowers and Gardens 



this be seen, in their flowing, careless, 

 easy look, as if they were pouring out of 

 the plant. You will observe the gradual 

 disappearance of the teeth where the leaf 

 flattens out towards its extremity, leaving 

 scarce any irregularity there except from 

 those water-like sinuosities of the outline. 

 It is this which gives the rounded tongue- 

 like aspect, which sometimes in the more 

 down-bent leaves almost suggests an idea 

 of languor, as if they were stretching out 

 athirst for falling rain. Yet the moment 

 the word arises we reject it as inappropri- 

 ate ; and though I have spoken of the 

 teeth disappearing at the end of the leaf, 

 it will be found that they are really there, 

 but smaller and turned downwards, so as 

 to be out of sight. And yet one thing 

 more has entered into the effect we noticed : 

 if you look at the midrib of the leaf in 

 profile, you will see that towards the end 

 it curves gradually upwards, so that the 

 tip of the leaf is, in a manner, hooded. 

 In fact, the leaf has a double arch. But 

 the upper surface at the end is at times 

 so convex that this curve may be easily 

 overlooked by a careless observer, though 

 in reality it is always there. And the 

 insinuating, often sidelong, bend of the 

 tip of the leaf, which gives half the force 



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