36 
all the same form, and all originate in precisely the 
same manner. In the Christmas rose the side leaflets 
have branched stalks, but the middle leaflet has an 
undivided one; so that, while in the one plant the 
leaflets are placed like the radii of a circle, in the 
other they spring from a branching base in which 
little radiation is perceptible. 
79. Similar resemblances, yet differences, may be 
found in the veins themselves, of which the Vine and 
Plane will be found also to offer a good illustration. 
80. It has been already stated that the different 
sides of leaves are essentially alike, and that we do 
not usually find leaves with one side different from the 
other. Hence all those drawings, in which this prin¬ 
ciple is neglected, may be assumed to be misrepresen¬ 
tations of nature. And yet this truth is forgotten 
by men of whom something better might be expected. 
There has been lately published a little work on 
architectural decoration, in which will be found a 
drawing of a frieze or moulding covered with the 
foliage of the Ivy. But the artist does not make the 
sides of his Ivy leaves correspond. On the contrary, 
one side of his leaf is twice as large as the other; yet 
no such leaf as that would be found in the Ivy, unless 
it were a monster. A similar fault has been com¬ 
mitted by the same author in the tracery of foliage 
proposed for decorating the capital of a column. It 
is not only doubtful whether the leaves employed all 
belong to the same plant, as is intended, but the two 
sides of the leaf will not balance each other, as they 
ought to do. The result is a one-sided design, of 
which nature knows nothing. 
81. It may, indeed, happen that the symmetry of 
foliage is in certain cases disturbed by the habitual 
