14 
26. Not only do the two sides of a leaf balance, but 
the veins of every leaf on the same plant are formed 
on the same uniform plan ; however great the number 
of leaves, the veins are developed in the same manner 
in every instance. 
27. It is a great mistake not to look attentively to 
this point, when the object of the artist is to obtain de¬ 
signs for flat decoration. It is difficult to conceive 
anything so beautiful as the tracery of veins — their 
graceful curves and the exact relation they bear to 
each other, stopping here, expanding there, infinitely 
varied and nevertheless producing a whole in which 
there is not the least loss of balance or essential 
symmetry. 
28. It has thus been shown that a plant consists of 
a centre or branch, on which certain bodies, buds, or 
leaves, are placed in a symmetrical manner; that all 
the component parts of those bodies are again placed 
in a perfectly regular and symmetrical position with 
respect to each other, one part growing out of 
another according to certain fixed laws which no 
natural circumstances can alter. 
29. The same principles are manifest among flowers. 
A flower is a body in which that system of equipoise, 
of which symmetry is the great result, is as clearly 
traceable as in branches or leaves, or in the veins of 
leaves. Either one-half of a flower balances the 
other, or one series of organs alternates with another, 
or any deviation from symmetry that occurs in one 
part is immediately compensated for by some peculiar 
development specially provided in another part. 
30. Take a blossom of the common Goosefoot ( Che- 
nopodiuvi). It consists of five slender arms or sta- 
