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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:23:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20421-8.txt b/20421-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..001537e --- /dev/null +++ b/20421-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6893 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 1, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Proserpina, Volume 1 + Studies Of Wayside Flowers + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20421] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they +are listed at the end of the text. Original page numbers are shown as {99}. + +PROSERPINA. + +STUDIES OF WAYSIDE FLOWERS, + +WHILE THE AIR WAS YET PURE + +_AMONG THE ALPS, AND IN THE SCOTLAND AND +ENGLAND WHICH MY FATHER KNEW_. + +BY + +JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., + +HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART. + + "Oh--Prosérpina! + For the flowers now, which frighted, thou let'st fall + From Dis's waggon." + +VOLUME I. + +New York: +JOHN WILEY & SONS, +15 Astor Place. + +1888. + + * * * * * + + +Press of J. J. Little & Co., +Astor Place, New York. + + * * * * * + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION, 1 + + CHAPTER I. + MOSS, 12 + + CHAPTER II. + THE ROOT, 26 + + CHAPTER III. + THE LEAF, 40 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE FLOWER, 64 + + CHAPTER V. + PAPAVER RHOEAS, 86 + + CHAPTER VI. + THE PARABLE OF JOASH, 106 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM, 117 + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE STEM, 127 + + CHAPTER IX. + OUTSIDE AND IN, 151 + + CHAPTER X. + THE BARK, 170 + + CHAPTER XI. + GENEALOGY, 176 + + CHAPTER XII. + CORA AND KRONOS, 205 + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE SEED AND HUSK, 219 + + CHAPTER XIV. + THE FRUIT GIFT, 227 + + INDEX I. + DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE, 239 + + INDEX II. + ENGLISH NAMES, 255 + + INDEX III. + LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, 258 + + * * * * * + + +{1} + +PROSERPINA. + +INTRODUCTION. + +BRANTWOOD, _14th March, 1874._ + +Yesterday evening I was looking over the first book in which I studied +Botany,--Curtis's Magazine, published in 1795 at No. 3, St. George's +Crescent, Blackfriars Road, and sold by the principal booksellers in Great +Britain and Ireland. Its plates are excellent, so that I am always glad to +find in it the picture of a flower I know. And I came yesterday upon what I +suppose to be a variety of a favourite flower of mine, called, in Curtis, +"the St. Bruno's Lily." + +I am obliged to say "what I suppose to be a variety," because my pet lily +is branched,[1] while this is drawn as unbranched, and especially stated to +be so. And the page of text, in which this statement is made, is so +characteristic of botanical books, and botanical science, not to say all +science as hitherto taught for the blessing of mankind; {2} and of the +difficulties thereby accompanying its communication, that I extract the +page entire, printing it, opposite, as nearly as possible in facsimile. + +Now you observe, in this instructive page, that you have in the first +place, nine names given you for one flower; and that among these nine +names, you are not even at liberty to make your choice, because the united +authority of Haller and Miller may be considered as an accurate balance to +the single authority of Linnĉus; and you ought therefore for the present to +remain, yourself, balanced between the sides. You may be farther +embarrassed by finding that the Anthericum of Savoy is only described as +growing in Switzerland. And farther still, by finding that Mr. Miller +describes two varieties of it, which differ only in size, while you are +left to conjecture whether the one here figured is the larger or smaller; +and how great the difference is. + +Farther, If you wish to know anything of the habits of the plant, as well +as its nine names, you are informed that it grows both at the bottoms of +the mountains, and the tops; and that, with us, it flowers in May and +June,--but you are not told when, in its native country. + +The four lines of the last clause but one, may indeed be useful to +gardeners; but--although I know my good father and mother did the best they +could for me in buying this beautiful book; and though the admirable plates +of it did their work, and taught me much, I cannot wonder that neither my +infantine nor boyish mind was irresistibly attracted by the text of which +this page is one of the most favourable specimens; nor, in consequence, +that my botanical studies were--when I had attained the age of fifty--no +farther advanced than the reader will find them in the opening chapter of +this book. + +{3} + + * * * * * + + [318] + + ANTHERICUM LILIASTRUM, SAVOY ANTHERICUM, + or ST. BRUNO'S LILY. + + _Class and Order._ + + HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. + + _Generic Character._ + + _Cor._ 6-petala, patens. _Caps._ ovata. + + _Specific Character and Synonyms._ + + ANTHERICUM _Liliastrum_ foliis planis, scapo simplicissimo, corollis + campanulatis, staminibus declinatis. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. + Murr. p. 330._ _Ait. Kew. v. _I._ p. 449._ + + HEMEROCALLIS floribus patulis secundis. _Hall. Hist. n. 1230._ + + PHALANGIUM magno flore. _Bauh. Pin. 29._ + + PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum majus. _Clus. cur. app. alt._ + + PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum. The Savoye Spider-wort. _Park. Parad. p. + 150. tab. 151. f. 1._ + + * * * * * + + Botanists are divided in their opinions respecting the genus of this + plant; LINNĈUS considers it as an _Anthericum_, HALLER and MILLER make + it an _Hemerocallis_. + + It is a native of Switzerland, where, HALLER informs us it grows + abundantly in the Alpine meadows, and even on the summits of the + mountains; with us it flowers in May and June. + + It is a plant of great elegance, producing on an unbranched stem about + a foot and a half high, numerous flowers of a delicate white colour, + much smaller but resembling in form those of the common white lily, + possessing a considerable degree of fragrance, their beauty is + heightened by the rich orange colour of their antherĉ; unfortunately + they are but of short duration. + + MILLER describes two varieties of it differing merely in size. + + A loamy soil, a situation moderately moist, with an eastern or western + exposure, suits this plant best; so situated, it will increase by its + roots, though not very fast, and by parting of these in the autumn, it + is usually propagated. + + PARKINSON describes and figures it in his _Parad. Terrest._, observing + that "divers allured by the beauty of its flowers, had brought it into + these parts." + + * * * * * + +{4} + +Which said book was therefore undertaken, to put, if it might be, some +elements of the science of botany into a form more tenable by ordinary +human and childish faculties; or--for I can scarcely say I have yet any +tenure of it myself--to make the paths of approach to it more pleasant. In +fact, I only know, of it, the pleasant distant effects which it bears to +simple eyes; and some pretty mists and mysteries, which I invite my young +readers to pierce, as they may, for themselves,--my power of guiding them +being only for a little way. + +Pretty mysteries, I say, as opposed to the vulgar and ugly mysteries of the +so-called science of botany,--exemplified sufficiently in this chosen page. +Respecting which, please observe farther;--Nobody--I can say this very +boldly--loves Latin more dearly than I; but, precisely because I do love it +(as well as for other reasons), I have always insisted that books, whether +scientific or not, ought to be written either in Latin, or English; and not +in a doggish mixture of the refuse of both. + +Linnĉus wrote a noble book of universal Natural History in Latin. It is one +of the permanent classical treasures of the world. And if any scientific +man thinks his labors are worth the world's attention, let him, also, write +{5} what he has to say in Latin, finishedly and exquisitely, if it take him +a month to a page.[2] + +But if--which, unless he be one chosen of millions, is assuredly the +fact--his lucubrations are only of local and temporary consequence, let him +write, as clearly as he can, in his native language. + +This book, accordingly, I have written in English; (not, by the way, that I +_could_ have written it in anything else--so there are small thanks to me); +and one of its purposes is to interpret, for young English readers, the +necessary European Latin or Greek names of flowers, and to make them vivid +and vital to their understandings. But two great difficulties occur in +doing this. The first, that there are generally from three or four, up to +two dozen, Latin names current for every flower; and every new botanist +thinks his eminence only to be properly asserted by adding another. + +The second, and a much more serious one, is of the Devil's own +contriving--(and remember I am always quite serious when I speak of the +Devil,)--namely, that the most current and authoritative names are apt to +be founded on some unclean or debasing association, so that to interpret +them is to defile the reader's mind. I will give no instance; too many will +at once occur to any {6} learned reader, and the unlearned I need not vex +with so much as one: but, in such cases, since I could only take refuge in +the untranslated word by leaving other Greek or Latin words also +untranslated, and the nomenclature still entirely senseless,--and I do not +choose to do this,--there is only one other course open to me, namely, to +substitute boldly, to my own pupils, other generic names for the plants +thus faultfully hitherto titled. + +As I do not do this for my own pride, but honestly for my reader's service, +I neither question nor care how far the emendations I propose may be now or +hereafter adopted. I shall not even name the cases in which they have been +made for the serious reason above specified; but even shall mask those +which there was real occasion to alter, by sometimes giving new names in +cases where there was no necessity of such kind. Doubtless I shall be +accused of doing myself what I violently blame in others. I do so; but with +a different motive--of which let the reader judge as he is disposed. The +practical result will be that the children who learn botany on the system +adopted in this book will know the useful and beautiful names of plants +hitherto given, in all languages; the useless and ugly ones they will not +know. And they will have to learn one Latin name for each plant, which, +when differing from the common one, I trust may yet by some scientific +persons be accepted, and with ultimate advantage. + +The learning of the one Latin name--as, for instance, Gramen striatum--I +hope will be accurately enforced {7} always;--but not less carefully the +learning of the pretty English one--"Ladielace Grass"--with due observance +that "Ladies' laces hath leaves like unto Millet in fashion, with many +white vaines or ribs, and silver strakes running along through the middest +of the leaves, fashioning the same like to laces of white and green silk, +very beautiful and faire to behold." + +I have said elsewhere, and can scarcely repeat too often, that a day will +come when men of science will think their names disgraced, instead of +honoured, by being used to barbarise nomenclature; I hope therefore that my +own name may be kept well out of the way; but, having been privileged to +found the School of Art in the University of Oxford, I think that I am +justified in requesting any scientific writers who may look kindly upon +this book, to add such of the names suggested in it as they think deserving +of acceptance, to their own lists of synonyms, under the head of "Schol. +Art. Oxon." + +The difficulties thrown in the way of any quiet private student by existing +nomenclature may be best illustrated by my simply stating what happens to +myself in endeavouring to use the page above facsimile'd. Not knowing how +far St. Bruno's Lily might be connected with my own pet one, and not having +any sufficient book on Swiss botany, I take down Loudon's Encyclopĉdia of +Plants, (a most useful book, as far as any book in the present state of the +science _can_ be useful,) and find, under the head of Anthericum, the Savoy +Lily indeed, but only the {8} following general information:--"809. +Anthericum. A name applied by the Greeks to the stem of the asphodel, and +not misapplied to this set of plants, which in some sort resemble the +asphodel. Plants with fleshy leaves, and spikes of bright _yellow_ flowers, +easily cultivated if kept dry." + +Hunting further, I find again my Savoy lily called a spider-plant, under +the article Hemerocallis, and the only information which the book gives me +under Hemerocallis, is that it means 'beautiful day' lily; and then, "This +is an ornamental genus of the easiest culture. The species are remarkable +among border flowers for their fine _orange_, _yellow_, or _blue_ flowers. +The Hemerocallis coerulea has been considered a distinct genus by Mr. +Salisbury, and called Saussurea." As I correct this sheet for press, +however, I find that the Hemerocallis is now to be called 'Funkia,' "in +honour of Mr. Funk, a Prussian apothecary." + +All this while, meantime, I have a suspicion that my pet Savoy Lily is not, +in existing classification, an Anthericum, nor a Hemerocallis, but a +Lilium. It is, in fact, simply a Turk's cap which doesn't curl up. But on +trying 'Lilium' in Loudon, I find no mention whatever of any wild branched +white lily. + +I then try the next word in my specimen page of Curtis; but there is no +'Phalangium' at all in Loudon's index. And now I have neither time nor mind +for more search, but will give, in due place, such account as I can {9} of +my own dwarf branched lily, which I shall call St. Bruno's, as well as this +Liliastrum--no offence to the saint, I hope. For it grows very gloriously +on the limestones of Savoy, presumably, therefore, at the Grande +Chartreuse; though I did not notice it there, and made a very unmonkish use +of it when I gathered it last:--There was a pretty young English lady at +the table-d'hôte, in the Hotel du Mont Blanc at St. Martin's,[3] and I +wanted to get speech of her, and didn't know how. So all I could think of +was to go half-way up the Aiguille de Varens, to gather St. Bruno's lilies; +and I made a great cluster of them, and put wild roses all around them as I +came down. I never saw anything so lovely; and I thought to present this to +her before dinner,--but when I got down, she had gone away to Chamouni. My +Fors always treated me like that, in affairs of the heart. + +I had begun my studies of Alpine botany just eighteen years before, in +1842, by making a careful drawing of wood-sorrel at Chamouni; and bitterly +sorry I am, now, that the work was interrupted. For I drew, then, very +delicately; and should have made a pretty book if I could have got peace. +Even yet, I can manage my point a little, and would far rather be making +outlines of flowers, than writing; and I meant to have drawn every English +and Scottish wild flower, like this cluster of bog heather +opposite,[4]--back, and profile, and front. But 'Blackwood's {10} +Magazine,' with its insults to Turner, dragged me into controversy; and I +have not had, properly speaking, a day's peace since; so that in 1868 my +botanical studies were advanced only as far as the reader will see in next +chapter; and now, in 1874, must end altogether, I suppose, heavier thoughts +and work coming fast on me. So that, finding among my notebooks, two or +three, full of broken materials for the proposed work on flowers; and, +thinking they may be useful even as fragments, I am going to publish them +in their present state,--only let the reader note that while my other books +endeavour, and claim, so far as they reach, to give trustworthy knowledge +of their subjects, this one only shows how such knowledge may be obtained; +and it is little more than a history of efforts and plans,--but of both, I +believe, made in right methods. + +One part of the book, however, will, I think, be found of permanent value. +Mr. Burgess has engraved on wood, in reduced size, with consummate skill, +some of the excellent old drawings in the Flora Danica, and has +interpreted, and facsimile'd, some of his own and my drawings from nature, +with a vigour and precision unsurpassed in woodcut illustration, which +render these outlines the best exercises in black and white I have yet been +able to {11} prepare for my drawing pupils. The larger engravings by Mr. +Allen may also be used with advantage as copies for drawings with pen or +sepia. + +ROME, _10th May_ (_my father's birthday_). + +I found the loveliest blue asphodel I ever saw in my life, yesterday, in +the fields beyond Monte Mario,--a spire two feet high, of more than two +hundred stars, the stalks of them all deep blue, as well as the flowers. +Heaven send all honest people the gathering of the like, in Elysian fields, +some day! + + * * * * * + +{12} + +CHAPTER I. + +MOSS. + +DENMARK HILL, _3rd November, 1868._ + +1. It is mortifying enough to write,--but I think thus much ought to be +written,--concerning myself, as 'the author of Modern Painters.' In three +months I shall be fifty years old: and I don't at this hour--ten o'clock in +the morning of the two hundred and sixty-eighth day of my forty-ninth +year--know what 'moss' is. + +There is nothing I have more _intended_ to know--some day or other. But the +moss 'would always be there'; and then it was so beautiful, and so +difficult to examine, that one could only do it in some quite separated +time of happy leisure--which came not. I never was like to have less +leisure than now, but I _will_ know what moss is, if possible, forthwith. + +2. To that end I read preparatorily, yesterday, what account I could find +of it in all the botanical books in the house. Out of them all, I get this +general notion of a moss,--that it has a fine fibrous root,--a stem +surrounded with spirally set leaves,--and produces its fruit in a small +case, under a cap. I fasten especially, however, on a {13} sentence of +Louis Figuier's, about the particular species, Hypnum:-- + +"These mosses, which often form little islets of verdure at the feet of +poplars and willows, are robust vegetable organisms, which do not +decay."[5] + +3. "Qui ne pourrissent point." What do they do with themselves, then?--it +immediately occurs to me to ask. And, secondly,--If this immortality +belongs to the Hypnum only? + +It certainly does not, by any means: but, however modified or limited, this +immortality is the first thing we ought to take note of in the mosses. They +are, in some degree, what the "everlasting" is in flowers. Those minute +green leaves of theirs do not decay, nor fall. + +But how do they die, or how stop growing, then?--it is the first thing I +want to know about them. And from all the books in the house, I can't as +yet find out this. Meanwhile I will look at the leaves themselves. + +4. Going out to the garden, I bring in a bit of old brick, emerald green on +its rugged surface,[6] and a thick piece of mossy turf. + +First, for the old brick: To think of the quantity of pleasure one has had +in one's life from that emerald green velvet,--and yet that for the first +time to-day I am verily going to look at it! Doing so, through a pocket +{14} lens of no great power, I find the velvet to be composed of small +star-like groups of smooth, strong, oval leaves,--intensely green, and much +like the young leaves of any other plant, except in this;--they all have a +long brown spike, like a sting, at their ends. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +5. Fastening on that, I take the Flora Danica,[7] and look through its +plates of mosses, for their leaves only; and I find, first, that this +spike, or strong central rib, is characteristic;--secondly, that the said +leaves are apt to be not only spiked, but serrated, and otherwise +angry-looking at the points;--thirdly, that they have a tendency to fold +together in the centre (Fig. 1[8]); and at last, after an hour's work at +them, it strikes me suddenly that they are more like pineapple leaves than +anything else. + +And it occurs to me, very unpleasantly, at the same time, that I don't know +what a pineapple is! + +Stopping to ascertain that, I am told that a pineapple belongs to the +'Bromeliaceĉ'--(can't stop to find out what that means)--nay, that of these +plants "the pineapple is the representative" (Loudon); "their habit is +acid, their leaves rigid, and toothed with spines, their {15} bracteas +often coloured with scarlet, and their flowers either white or blue"--(what +are their flowers like?) But the two sentences that most interest me, are, +that in the damp forests of Carolina, the Tillandsia, which is an +'epiphyte' (_i.e._, a plant growing on other plants,) "forms dense festoons +among the branches of the trees, vegetating among the black mould that +collects upon the bark of trees in hot damp countries; other species are +inhabitants of deep and gloomy forests, and others form, with their spring +leaves, an impenetrable herbage in the Pampas of Brazil." So they really +seem to be a kind of moss, on a vast scale. + +6. Next, I find in Gray,[9] Bromeliaceĉ, and--the very thing I +want--"Tillandsia, the black _moss_, or long moss, which, _like most +Bromelias_, grows on the branches of trees." So the pineapple is really a +moss; only it is a moss that flowers but 'imperfectly.' "The fine fruit is +caused by the consolidation of the imperfect flowers." (I wish we could +consolidate some imperfect English moss-flowers into little pineapples +then,--though they were only as big as filberts.) But we cannot follow that +farther now; nor consider when a flower is perfect, and when it is not, or +we should get into morals, and I don't know where else; we will go back to +the moss I have gathered, for I begin to see my way, a little, to +understanding it. + +{16} + +7. The second piece I have on the table is a cluster--an inch or two +deep--of the moss that grows everywhere, and that the birds use for +nest-building, and we for packing, and the like. It is dry, since +yesterday, and its fibres define themselves against the dark ground in warm +green, touched with a glittering light. Note that burnished lustre of the +minute leaves; they are necessarily always relieved against dark hollows, +and this lustre makes them much clearer and brighter than if they were of +dead green. In that lustre--and it is characteristic of them--they differ +wholly from the dead, aloe-like texture of the pineapple leaf; and remind +me, as I look at them closely, a little of some conditions of chaff, as on +heads of wheat after being threshed. I will hunt down that clue presently; +meantime there is something else to be noticed on the old brick. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.] + +8. Out of its emerald green cushions of minute leaves, there rise, here and +there, thin red threads, each with a little brown cap, or something like a +cap, at the top of it. These red threads shooting up out of the green +tufts, are, I believe, the fructification of the moss; fringing its surface +in the woods, and on the rocks, with the small forests of brown stems, each +carrying its pointed cap or crest--of infinitely varied 'mode,' as we shall +see presently; and, which is one of their most blessed functions, carrying +high the dew in the morning; every spear balancing its own crystal globe. + +9. And now, with my own broken memories of moss {17} and this unbroken, +though unfinished, gift of the noble labour of other people, the Flora +Danica, I can generalize the idea of the precious little plant, for myself, +and for the reader. + +All mosses, I believe, (with such exceptions and collateral groups as we +may afterwards discover, but they are not many,) that is to say, some +thousands of species, are, in their strength of existence, composed of +fibres surrounded by clusters of dry _spinous_ leaves, set close to the +fibre they grow on. Out of this leafy stern descends a fibrous root, and +ascends in its season, a capped seed. + +We must get this very clearly into our heads. Fig. 2, A, is a little tuft +of a common wood moss of Norway,[10] in its fruit season, of its real size; +but at present I want to look at the central fibre and its leaves +accurately, and understand that first. + +10. Pulling it to pieces, we find it composed of seven little +company-keeping fibres, each of which, by itself, appears as in Fig. 2, B: +but as in this, its real size, it {18} is too small, not indeed for our +respect, but for our comprehension, we magnify it, Fig. 2, C, and thereupon +perceive it to be indeed composed of, _a_, the small fibrous root which +sustains the plant; _b_, the leaf-surrounded stem which is the actual +being, and main creature, moss; and, _c_, the aspirant pillar, and cap, of +its fructification. + +11. But there is one minor division yet. You see I have drawn the central +part of the moss plant (_b_, Fig. 2,) half in outline and half in black; +and that, similarly, in the upper group, which is too small to show the +real roots, the base of the cluster is black. And you remember, I doubt +not, how often in gathering what most invited gathering, of deep green, +starry, perfectly soft and living wood-moss, you found it fall asunder in +your hand into multitudes of separate threads, each with its bright green +crest, and long root of blackness. + +That blackness at the root--though only so notable in this wood-moss and +collateral species, is indeed a general character of the mosses, with rare +exceptions. It is their funeral blackness;--that, I perceive, is the way +the moss leaves die. They do not fall--they do not visibly decay. But they +decay _in_visibly, in continual secession, beneath the ascending crest. +They rise to form that crest, all green and bright, and take the light and +air from those out of which they grew;--and those, their ancestors, darken +and die slowly, and at last become a mass of mouldering ground. In fact, as +I perceive farther, their final duty is so to die. The main work of other +leaves is {19} in their life,--but these have to form the earth out of +which all other leaves are to grow. Not to cover the rocks with golden +velvet only, but to fill their crannies with the dark earth, through which +nobler creatures shall one day seek their being. + +12. "Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss." Pope could not have known +the hundredth part of the number of 'sorts' of moss there are; and I +suppose he only chose the word because it was a monosyllable beginning with +m, and the best English general expression for despised and minute +structures of plants. But a fate rules the words of wise men, which makes +their words truer, and worth more, than the men themselves know. No other +plants have so endless variety on so similar a structure as the mosses; and +none teach so well the humility of Death. As for the death of our bodies, +we have learned, wisely, or unwisely, to look the fact of that in the face. +But none of us, I think, yet care to look the fact of the death of our +minds in the face. I do not mean death of our souls, but of our mental +work. So far as it is good _art_, indeed, and done in realistic form, it +may perhaps not die; but so far as it was only good _thought_--good, for +its time, and apparently a great achievement therein--that good, useful +thought may yet in the future become a foolish thought, and then die quite +away,--it, and the memory of it,--when better thought and knowledge come. +But the better thought could not have come if the weaker thought had not +come first, and died in sustaining the {20} better. If we think honestly, +our thoughts will not only live usefully, but even perish usefully--like +the moss--and become dark, not without due service. But if we think +dishonestly, or malignantly, our thoughts will die like evil +fungi,--dripping corrupt dew. + +13. But farther. If you have walked moorlands enough to know the look of +them, you know well those flat spaces or causeways of bright green or +golden ground between the heathy rock masses; which signify winding pools +and inlets of stagnant water caught among the rocks;--pools which the deep +moss that covers them--_blanched_, not black, at the root,--is slowly +filling and making firm; whence generally the unsafe ground in the moorland +gets known by being _mossy_ instead of heathy; and is at last called by its +riders, briefly, 'the Moss': and as it is mainly at these same mossy places +that the riding is difficult, and brings out the gifts of horse and rider, +and discomfits all followers not similarly gifted, the skilled crosser of +them got his name, naturally, of 'moss-rider,' or moss-trooper. In which +manner the moss of Norway and Scotland has been a taskmaster and Maker of +Soldiers, as yet, the strongest known among natural powers. The lightning +may kill a man, or cast down a tower, but these little tender leaves of +moss--they and their progenitors--have trained the Northern Armies. + +14. So much for the human meaning of that decay of the leaves. Now to go +back to the little creatures themselves. It seems that the upper part of +the moss fibre is {21} especially _un_decaying among leaves; and the lower +part, especially decaying. That, in fact, a plant of moss-fibre is a kind +of persistent state of what is, in other plants, annual. Watch the year's +growth of any luxuriant flower. First it comes out of the ground all fresh +and bright; then, as the higher leaves and branches shoot up, those first +leaves near the ground get brown, sickly, earthy,--remain for ever degraded +in the dust, and under the dashed slime in rain, staining, and grieving, +and loading them with obloquy of envious earth, half-killing them,--only +life enough left in them to hold on the stem, and to be guardians of the +rest of the plant from all they suffer;--while, above them, the happier +leaves, for whom they are thus oppressed, bend freely to the sunshine, and +drink the rain pure. + +The moss strengthens on a diminished scale, intensifies, and makes +perpetual, these two states,--bright leaves above that never wither, leaves +beneath that exist only to wither. + +15. I have hitherto spoken only of the fading moss as it is needed for +change into earth. But I am not sure whether a yet more important office, +in its days of age, be not its use as a colour. + +We are all thankful enough--as far as we ever are so--for green moss, and +yellow moss. But we are never enough grateful for black moss. The golden +would be nothing without it, nor even the grey. + +It is true that there are black lichens enough, and {22} brown ones: +nevertheless, the chief use of lichens is for silver and gold colour on +rocks; and it is the dead moss which gives the leopard-like touches of +black. And yet here again--as to a thing I have been looking at and +painting all my life--I am brought to pause, the moment I think of it +carefully. The black moss which gives the precious Velasquez touches, lies, +much of it, flat on the rocks; radiating from its centres--powdering in the +fingers, if one breaks it off, like dry tea. Is it a black species?--or a +black-parched state of other species, perishing for the sake of Velasquez +effects, instead of accumulation of earth? and, if so, does it die of +drought, accidentally, or, in a sere old age, naturally? and how is it +related to the rich green bosses that grow in deep velvet? And there again +is another matter not clear to me. One calls them 'velvet' because they are +all brought to an even surface at the top. Our own velvet is reduced to +such trimness by cutting. But how is the moss trimmed? By what scissors? +Carefullest Elizabethan gardener never shaped his yew hedge more daintily +than the moss fairies smooth these soft rounded surfaces of green and gold. +And just fancy the difference, if they were ragged! If the fibres had every +one of them leave to grow at their own sweet will, and to be long or short +as they liked, or, worse still, urged by fairy prizes into laboriously and +agonizingly trying which could grow longest. Fancy the surface of a spot of +competitive moss! + +16. But how is it that they are subdued into that {23} spherical obedience, +like a crystal of wavellite?[11] Strange--that the vegetable creatures +growing so fondly on rocks should form themselves in that mineral-like +manner. It is true that the tops of all well-grown trees are rounded, on a +large scale, as equally; but that is because they grow from a central stem, +while these mossy mounds are made out of independent filaments, each +growing to exactly his proper height in the sphere--short ones outside, +long in the middle. Stop, though; _is_ that so? I am not even sure of that; +perhaps they are built over a little dome of decayed moss below.[12] I must +find out how every {24} filament grows, separately--from root to cap, +through the spirally set leaves. And meanwhile I don't know very clearly so +much as what a root is--or what a leaf is. Before puzzling myself any +farther in examination either of moss or any other grander vegetable, I had +better define these primal forms of all vegetation, as well as I can--or +rather begin the definition of them, for future completion and correction. +For, as my reader must already sufficiently perceive, this book is +literally to be one of studies--not of statements. Some one said of me +once, very shrewdly, When he wants to work out a subject, he writes a book +on it. That is a very true saying in the main,--I work down or up to my +mark, and let the reader see process and progress, not caring to conceal +them. But this book will be nothing but process. I don't mean to assert +anything positively in it from the first page to the last. Whatever I say, +is to be understood only as a conditional statement--liable to, and +inviting, correction. And this the more because, as on the whole, I am at +war with the botanists, I can't ask them to help me, and then {25} call +them names afterwards. I hope only for a contemptuous heaping of coals on +my head by correction of my errors from them;--in some cases, my scientific +friends will, I know, give me forgiving aid;--but, for many reasons, I am +forced first to print the imperfect statement, as I can independently shape +it; for if once I asked for, or received help, every thought would be +frostbitten into timid expression, and every sentence broken by apology. I +should have to write a dozen of letters before I could print a line, and +the line, at last, would be only like a bit of any other botanical +book--trustworthy, it might be, perhaps; but certainly unreadable. Whereas +now, it will rather put things more forcibly in the reader's mind to have +them retouched and corrected as we go on; and our natural and honest +mistakes will often be suggestive of things we could not have discovered +but by wandering. + +On these guarded conditions, then, I proceed to study, with my reader, the +first general laws of vegetable form. + + * * * * * + +{26} + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ROOT. + +1. Plants in their perfect form consist of four principal parts,--the Root, +Stem, Leaf, and Flower. It is true that the stem and flower are parts, or +remnants, or altered states, of the leaves; and that, speaking with close +accuracy, we might say, a perfect plant consists of leaf and root. But the +division into these four parts is best for practical purposes, and it will +be desirable to note a few general facts about each, before endeavouring to +describe any one kind of plant. Only, because the character of the stem +depends on the nature of the leaf and flower, we must put it last in order +of examination; and trace the development of the plant first in root and +leaf; then in the flower and its fruit; and lastly in the stem. + +2. First, then, the Root. + +Every plant is divided, as I just said, in the main, into two parts, and +these have opposite natures. One part seeks the light; the other hates it. +One part feeds on the air; the other on the dust. + +The part that loves the light is called the Leaf. It is an old Saxon word; +I cannot get at its origin. The part that hates the light is called the +Root. {27} + +In Greek, [Greek: rhiza], Rhiza.[13] + +In Latin, Radix, "the growing thing," which shortens, in French, into Race, +and then they put on the diminutive 'ine,' and get their two words, Race, +and Racine, of which we keep Race for animals, and use for vegetables a +word of our own Saxon (and Dutch) dialect,--'root'; (connected with +Rood--an image of wood; whence at last the Holy Rood, or Tree). + +3. The Root has three great functions: + + 1st. To hold the plant in its place. + 2nd. To nourish it with earth. + 3rd. To receive vital power for it from the earth. + +With this last office is in some degree,--and especially in certain +plants,--connected, that of reproduction. + +But in all plants the root has these three essential functions. + +First, I said, to hold the Plant in its place. The Root is its Fetter. + +You think it, perhaps, a matter of course that a plant is not to be a +crawling thing? It is not a matter of course at all. A vegetable might be +just what it is now, as compared with an animal;--might live on earth and +water instead of on meat,--might be as senseless in life, as calm in death, +and in all its parts and apparent structure {28} unchanged; and yet be a +crawling thing. It is quite as easy to conceive plants moving about like +lizards, putting forward first one root and then another, as it is to think +of them fastened to their place. It might have been well for them, one +would have thought, to have the power of going down to the streams to +drink, in time of drought;--of migrating in winter with grim march from +north to south of Dunsinane Hill side. But that is not their appointed +Fate. They are--at least all the noblest of them, rooted to their spot. +Their honour and use is in giving immoveable shelter,--in remaining +landmarks, or lovemarks, when all else is changed: + + "The cedars wave on Lebanon, + But Judah's statelier maids are gone." + +4. Its root is thus a form of fate to the tree. It condemns, or indulges +it, in its place. These semi-living creatures, come what may, shall abide, +happy, or tormented. No doubt concerning "the position in which Providence +has placed _them_" is to trouble their minds, except so far as they can +mend it by seeking light, or shrinking from wind, or grasping at support, +within certain limits. In the thoughts of men they have thus become twofold +images,--on the one side, of spirits restrained and half destroyed, whence +the fables of transformation into trees; on the other, of spirits patient +and continuing, having root in themselves and in good ground, capable of +all persistent {29} effort and vital stability, both in themselves, and for +the human States they form. + +5. In this function of holding fast, roots have a power of grasp quite +different from that of branches. It is not a grasp, or clutch by +contraction, as that of a bird's claw, or of the small branches we call +'tendrils' in climbing plants. It is a dead, clumsy, but inevitable grasp, +by swelling, _after_ contortion. For there is this main difference between +a branch and root, that a branch cannot grow vividly but in certain +directions and relations to its neighbour branches; but a root can grow +wherever there is earth, and can turn in any direction to avoid an +obstacle.[14] + +6. In thus contriving access for itself where it chooses, a root contorts +itself into more serpent-like writhing than branches can; and when it has +once coiled partly round a rock, or stone, it grasps it tight, necessarily, +merely by swelling. Now a root has force enough sometimes to split rocks, +but not to crush them; so it is compelled to grasp by _flattening_ as it +thickens; and, as it must have room somewhere, it alters its own shape as +if it were made of {30} dough, and holds the rock, not in a claw, but in a +wooden cast or mould, adhering to its surface. And thus it not only finds +its anchorage in the rock, but binds the rocks of its anchorage with a +constrictor cable. + +7. Hence--and this is a most important secondary function--roots bind +together the ragged edges of rocks as a hem does the torn edge of a dress: +they literally stitch the stones together; so that, while it is always +dangerous to pass under a treeless edge of overhanging crag, as soon as it +has become beautiful with trees, it is safe also. The rending power of +roots on rocks has been greatly overrated. Capillary attraction in a willow +wand will indeed split granite, and swelling roots sometimes heave +considerable masses aside, but on the whole, roots, small and great, bind, +and do not rend.[15] The surfaces of mountains are dissolved and +disordered, by rain, and frost, and chemical decomposition, into mere heaps +of loose stones on their desolate summits; but, where the forests grow, +soil accumulates and disintegration ceases. And by cutting down forests on +great mountain slopes, not only is the climate destroyed, but the danger of +superficial landslip fearfully increased. + +8. The second function of roots is to gather for the plant the nourishment +it needs from the ground. This is {31} partly water, mixed with some kinds +of air (ammonia, etc.,) but the plant can get both water and ammonia from +the atmosphere; and, I believe, for the most part does so; though, when it +cannot get water from the air, it will gladly drink by its roots. But the +things it cannot receive from the air at all are certain earthy salts, +essential to it (as iron is essential in our own blood), and of which when +it has quite exhausted the earth, no more such plants can grow in that +ground. On this subject you will find enough in any modern treatise on +agriculture; all that I want you to note here is that this feeding function +of the root is of a very delicate and discriminating kind, needing much +searching and mining among the dust, to find what it wants. If it only +wanted water, it could get most of that by spreading in mere soft senseless +limbs, like sponge, as far, and as far down, as it could--but to get the +_salt_ out of the earth it has to _sift_ all the earth, and taste and touch +every grain of it that it can, with fine fibres. And therefore a root is +not at all a merely passive sponge or absorbing thing, but an infinitely +subtle tongue, or tasting and eating thing. That is why it is always so +fibrous and divided and entangled in the clinging earth. + +9. "Always fibrous and divided"? But many roots are quite hard and solid! + +No; the active part of the root is always, I believe, a fibre. But there is +often a provident and passive part--a savings bank of root--in which +nourishment is laid up for the plant, and which, though it may be +underground, is no {32} more to be considered its real root than the kernel +of a seed is. When you sow a pea, if you take it up in a day or two, you +will find the fibre below, which is root; the shoot above, which is plant; +and the pea as a now partly exhausted storehouse, looking very woful, and +like the granaries of Paris after the fire. So, the round solid root of a +cyclamen, or the conical one which you know so well as a carrot, are not +properly roots, but permanent storehouses,--only the fibres that grow from +them are roots. Then there are other apparent roots which are not even +storehouses, but refuges; houses where the little plant lives in its +infancy, through winter and rough weather. So that it will be best for you +at once to limit your idea of a root to this,--that it is a group of +growing fibres which taste and suck what is good for the plant out of the +ground, and by their united strength hold it in its place; only remember +the thick limbs of roots do not feed, but only the fine fibres at the ends +of them which are something between tongues and sponges, and while they +absorb moisture readily, are yet as particular about getting what they +think nice to eat as any dainty little boy or girl; looking for it +everywhere, and turning angry and sulky if they don't get it. + +10. But the root has, it seems to me, one more function, the most important +of all. I say, it seems to me, for observe, what I have hitherto told you +is all (I believe) ascertained and admitted; this that I am going to tell +you has not yet, as far as I know, been asserted by men of {33} science, +though I believe it to be demonstrable. But you are to examine into it, and +think of it for yourself. + +There are some plants which appear to derive all their food from the +air--which need nothing but a slight grasp of the ground to fix them in +their place. Yet if we were to tie them into that place, in a framework, +and cut them from their roots, they would die. Not only in these, but in +all other plants, the vital power by which they shape and feed themselves, +whatever that power may be, depends, I think, on that slight touch of the +earth, and strange inheritance of its power. It is as essential to the +plant's life as the connection of the head of an animal with its body by +the spine is to the animal. Divide the feeble nervous thread, and all life +ceases. Nay, in the tree the root is even of greater importance. You will +not kill the tree, as you would an animal, by dividing its body or trunk. +The part not severed from the root will shoot again. But in the root, and +its touch of the ground, is the life of it. My own definition of a plant +would be "a living creature whose source of vital energy is in the earth" +(or in the water, as a form of the earth; that is, in inorganic substance). +There is, however, one tribe of plants which seems nearly excepted from +this law. It is a very strange one, having long been noted for the +resemblance of its flowers to different insects; and it has recently been +proved by Mr. Darwin to be dependent on insects for its existence. Doubly +strange therefore, it seems, that in some cases this race of plants all but +reaches the independent life of {34} insects. It rather _settles_ upon +boughs than roots itself in them; half of its roots may wave in the air. + +11. What vital power is, men of science are not a step nearer knowing than +they were four thousand years ago. They are, if anything, farther from +knowing now than then, in that they imagine themselves nearer. But they +know more about its limitations and manifestations than they did. They have +even arrived at something like a proof that there is a fixed quantity of it +flowing out of things and into them. But, for the present, rest content +with the general and sure knowledge that, fixed or flowing, measurable or +immeasurable--one with electricity or heat or light, or quite distinct from +any of them--life is a delightful, and its negative, death, a dreadful +thing, to human creatures; and that you can give or gather a certain +quantity of life into plants, animals, and yourself by wisdom and courage, +and by their reverses can bring upon them any quantity of death you please, +which is a much more serious point for you to consider than what life and +death are. + +12. Now, having got a quite clear idea of a root properly so called, we may +observe what those storehouses, refuges, and ruins are, which we find +connected with roots. The greater number of plants feed and grow at the +same time; but there are some of them which like to feed first and grow +afterwards. For the first year, or, at all events, the first period of +their life, they gather material for their future life out of the ground +and out {35} of the air, and lay it up in a storehouse as bees make combs. +Of these stores--for the most part rounded masses tapering downwards into +the ground--some are as good for human beings as honeycombs are; only not +so sweet. We steal them from the plants, as we do from the bees, and these +conical upside-down hives or treasuries of Atreus, under the names of +carrots, turnips, and radishes, have had important influence on human +fortunes. If we do not steal the store, next year the plant lives upon it, +raises its stem, flowers and seeds out of that abundance, and having +fulfilled its destiny, and provided for its successor, passes away, root +and branch together. + +13. There is a pretty example of patience for us in this; and it would be +well for young people generally to set themselves to grow in a carrotty or +turnippy manner, and lay up secret store, not caring to exhibit it until +the time comes for fruitful display. But they must not, in after-life, +imitate the spendthrift vegetable, and blossom only in the strength of what +they learned long ago; else they soon come to contemptible end. Wise people +live like laurels and cedars, and go on mining in the earth, while they +adorn and embalm the air. + +14. Secondly, Refuges. As flowers growing on trees have to live for some +time, when they are young in their buds, so some flowers growing on the +ground have to live for a while, when they are young, _in_ what we call +their {36} roots. These are mostly among the Drosidĉ[16] and other humble +tribes, loving the ground; and, in their babyhood, liking to live quite +down in it. A baby crocus has literally its own little dome--domus, or +duomo--within which in early spring it lives a delicate convent life of its +own, quite free from all worldly care and dangers, exceedingly ignorant of +things in general, but itself brightly golden and perfectly formed before +it is brought out. These subterranean palaces and vaulted cloisters, which +we call bulbs, are no more roots than the blade of grass is a root, in +which the ear of corn forms before it shoots up. + +15. Thirdly, Ruins. The flowers which have these subterranean homes form +one of many families whose roots, as well as seeds, have the power of +reproduction. The succession of some plants is trusted much to their seeds: +a thistle sows itself by its down, an oak by its acorns; the companies of +flying emigrants settle where they may; and the shadowy tree is content to +cast down its showers of nuts for swines' food with the chance that here +and there one may become a ship's bulwark. But others among plants are less +careless, or less proud. Many are anxious for their children to grow in the +place where they grew themselves, and secure this not merely by letting +their fruit fall at their feet, on the chance of its growing up {37} beside +them, but by closer bond, bud springing forth from root, and the young +plant being animated by the gradually surrendered life of its parent. +Sometimes the young root is formed above the old one, as in the crocus, or +beside it, as in the amaryllis, or beside it in a spiral succession, as in +the orchis; in these cases the old root always perishes wholly when the +young one is formed; but in a far greater number of tribes, one root +connects itself with another by a short piece of intermediate stem; and +this stem does not at once perish when the new root is formed, but grows on +at one end indefinitely, perishing slowly at the other, the scars or ruins +of the past plants being long traceable on its sides. When it grows +entirely underground it is called a root-stock. But there is no essential +distinction between a root-stock and a creeping stem, only the root-stock +may be thought of as a stem which shares the melancholy humour of a root in +loving darkness, while yet it has enough consciousness of better things to +grow towards, or near, the light. In one family it is even fragrant where +the flower is not, and a simple houseleek is called 'rhodiola rosea,' +because its root-stock has the scent of a rose. + +16. There is one very unusual condition of the root-stock which has become +of much importance in economy, though it is of little in botany; the +forming, namely, of knots at the ends of the branches of the underground +stem, where the new roots are to be thrown out. Of these knots, or +'tubers,' (swollen things,) one kind, belonging to {38} the tobacco tribe, +has been singularly harmful, together with its pungent relative, to a +neighbouring country of ours, which perhaps may reach a higher destiny than +any of its friends can conceive for it, if it can ever succeed in living +without either the potato, or the pipe. + +17. Being prepared now to find among plants many things which are like +roots, yet are not; you may simplify and make fast your true idea of a root +as a fibre or group of fibres, which fixes, animates, and partly feeds the +leaf. Then practically, as you examine plants in detail, ask first +respecting them: What kind of root have they? Is it large or small in +proportion to their bulk, and why is it so? What soil does it like, and +what properties does it acquire from it? The endeavour to answer these +questions will soon lead you to a rational inquiry into the plant's +history. You will first ascertain what rock or earth it delights in, and +what climate and circumstances; then you will see how its root is fitted to +sustain it mechanically under given pressures and violences, and to find +for it the necessary sustenance under given difficulties of famine or +drought. Lastly you will consider what chemical actions appear to be going +on in the root, or its store; what processes there are, and elements, which +give pungency to the radish, flavour to the onion, or sweetness to the +liquorice; and of what service each root may be made capable under +cultivation, and by proper subsequent treatment, either to animals or men. + +18. I shall not attempt to do any of this for you; I {39} assume, in giving +this advice, that you wish to pursue the science of botany as your chief +study; I have only broken moments for it, snatched from my chief +occupations, and I have done nothing myself of all this I tell you to do. +But so far as you can work in this manner, even if you only ascertain the +history of one plant, so that you know that accurately, you will have +helped to lay the foundation of a true science of botany, from which the +mass of useless nomenclature,[17] now mistaken for science, will fall away, +as the husk of a poppy falls from the bursting flower. + + * * * * * + +{40} + +CHAPTER III. + +THE LEAF. + +1. In the first of the poems of which the English Government has appointed +a portion to be sung every day for the instruction and pleasure of the +people, there occurs this curious statement respecting any person who will +behave himself rightly: "He shall be like a tree planted by the river side, +that bears its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither; and you +will see that whatever he does will prosper." + +I call it a curious statement, because the conduct to which this prosperity +is promised is not that which the English, as a nation, at present think +conducive to prosperity: but whether the statement be true or not, it will +be easy for you to recollect the two eastern figures under which the +happiness of the man is represented,--that he is like a tree bearing fruit +"in its season;" (not so hastily as that the frost pinch it, nor so late +that no sun ripens it;) and that "his leaf shall not fade." I should like +you to recollect this phrase in the Vulgate--"folium ejus non +defluet"--shall not fall _away_,--that is to say, shall not fall so as to +leave any visible bareness in winter time, but {41} only that others may +come up in its place, and the tree be always green. + +2. Now, you know, the fruit of the tree is either for the continuance of +its race, or for the good, or harm, of other creatures. In no case is it a +good to the tree itself. It is not indeed, properly, a part of the tree at +all, any more than the egg is part of the bird, or the young of any +creature part of the creature itself. But in the leaf is the strength of +the tree itself. Nay, rightly speaking, the leaves _are_ the tree itself. +Its trunk sustains; its fruit burdens and exhausts; but in the leaf it +breathes and lives. And thus also, in the eastern symbolism, the fruit is +the labour of men for others; but the leaf is their own life. "He shall +bring forth fruit, in his time; and his own joy and strength shall be +continual." + +3. Notice next the word 'folium.' In Greek, [Greek: phullon], 'phyllon.' + +"The thing that is born," or "put forth." "When the branch is tender, and +putteth forth her leaves, ye know that summer is nigh." The botanists say, +"The leaf is an expansion of the bark of the stem." More accurately, the +bark is a contraction of the tissue of the leaf. For every leaf is born out +of the earth, and breathes out of the air; and there are many leaves that +have no stems, but only roots. It is 'the springing thing'; this thin film +of life; rising, with its _edge_ out of the ground--infinitely feeble, +infinitely fair. With Folium, in Latin, is rightly associated the word +Flos; for the flower is only a group of {42} singularly happy leaves. From +these two roots come foglio, feuille, feuillage, and fleur;--blume, +blossom, and bloom; our foliage, and the borrowed foil, and the connected +technical groups of words in architecture and the sciences. + +4. This _thin_ film, I said. That is the essential character of a leaf; to +be thin,--widely spread out in proportion to its mass. It is the opening of +the substance of the earth to the air, which is the giver of life. The +Greeks called it, therefore, not only the born or blooming thing, but the +spread or expanded thing--"[Greek: petalon]." Pindar calls the beginnings +of quarrel, "petals of quarrel." Recollect, therefore, this form, Petalos; +and connect it with Petasos, the expanded cap of Mercury. For one great use +of both is to give shade. The root of all these words is said to be [GREEK: +PET] (Pet), which may easily be remembered in Greek, as it sometimes occurs +in no unpleasant sense in English. + +5. But the word 'petalos' is connected in Greek with another word, meaning, +to fly,--so that you may think of a bird as spreading its petals to the +wind; and with another, signifying Fate in its pursuing flight, the +overtaking thing, or overflying Fate. Finally, there is another Greek word +meaning 'wide,' [Greek: platus] (platys); whence at last our 'plate'--a +thing made broad or extended--but especially made broad or 'flat' out of +the solid, as in a lump of clay extended on the wheel, or a lump of metal +extended by the hammer. So the first we call Platter; the second Plate, +when of the precious metals. Then putting _b_ for {43} _p_, and _d_ for +_t_, we get the blade of an oar, and blade of grass. + +6. Now gather a branch of laurel, and look at it carefully. You may read +the history of the being of half the earth in one of those green oval +leaves--the things that the sun and the rivers have made out of dry ground. +Daphne--daughter of Enipeus, and beloved by the Sun,--that fable gives you +at once the two great facts about vegetation. Where warmth is, and +moisture--there, also, the leaf. Where no warmth--there is no leaf; where +there is no dew--no leaf. + +7. Look, then, to the branch you hold in your hand. That you _can_ so hold +it, or make a crown of it, if you choose, is the first thing I want you to +note of it;--the proportion of size, namely, between the leaf and _you_. +Great part of your life and character, as a human creature, has depended on +that. Suppose all leaves had been spacious, like some palm leaves; solid, +like cactus stem; or that trees had grown, as they might of course just as +easily have grown, like mushrooms, all one great cluster of leaf round one +stalk. I do not say that they are divided into small leaves only for your +delight, or your service, as if you were the monarch of everything--even in +this atom of a globe. You are made of your proper size; and the leaves of +theirs: for reasons, and by laws, of which neither the leaves nor you know +anything. Only note the harmony between both, and the joy we may have in +this division and mystery of the frivolous and tremulous petals, {44} which +break the light and the breeze,--compared to what with the frivolous and +tremulous mind which is in us, we could have had out of domes, or +penthouses, or walls of leaf. + +8. Secondly; think awhile of its dark clear green, and the good of it to +you. Scientifically, you know green in leaves is owing to 'chlorophyll,' +or, in English, to 'greenleaf.' It may be very fine to know that; but my +advice to you, on the whole, is to rest content with the general fact that +leaves are green when they do not grow in or near smoky towns; and not by +any means to rest content with the fact that very soon there will not be a +green leaf in England, but only greenish-black ones. And thereon resolve +that you will yourself endeavour to promote the growing of the green wood, +rather than of the black. + +9. Looking at the back of your laurel-leaves, you see how the central rib +or spine of each, and the lateral branchings, strengthen and carry it. I +find much confused use, in botanical works, of the words Vein and Rib. For, +indeed, there are veins _in_ the ribs of leaves, as marrow in bones; and +the projecting bars often gradually depress themselves into a transparent +net of rivers. But the _mechanical_ force of the framework in carrying the +leaf-tissue is the point first to be noticed; it is that which admits, +regulates, or restrains the visible motions of the leaf; while the system +of circulation can only be studied through the microscope. But the ribbed +leaf bears itself to the wind, as the webbed foot of a bird does to the +{45} water, and needs the same kind, though not the same strength, of +support; and its ribs always are partly therefore constituted of strong +woody substance, which is knit out of the tissue; and you can extricate +this skeleton framework, and keep it, after the leaf-tissue is dissolved. +So I shall henceforward speak simply of the leaf and its ribs,--only +specifying the additional veined structure on necessary occasions. + +10. I have just said that the ribs--and might have said, farther, the stalk +that sustains them--are knit out of the _tissue_ of the leaf. But what is +the leaf tissue itself knit out of? One would think that was nearly the +first thing to be discovered, or at least to be thought of, concerning +plants,--namely, how and of what they are made. We say they 'grow.' But you +know that they can't grow out of nothing;--this solid wood and rich tracery +must be made out of some previously existing substance. What is the +substance?--and how is it woven into leaves.--twisted into wood? + +11. Consider how fast this is done, in spring. You walk in February over a +slippery field, where, through hoar-frost and mud, you perhaps hardly see +the small green blades of trampled turf. In twelve weeks you wade through +the same field up to your knees in fresh grass; and in a week or two more, +you mow two or three solid haystacks off it. In winter you walk by your +currant-bush, or your vine. They are shrivelled sticks--like bits of black +tea in the canister. You pass again in May, and {46} the currant-bush looks +like a young sycamore tree; and the vine is a bower: and meanwhile the +forests, all over this side of the round world, have grown their foot or +two in height, with new leaves--so much deeper, so much denser than they +were. Where has it all come from? Cut off the fresh shoots from a single +branch of any tree in May. Weigh them; and then consider that so much +weight has been added to every such living branch, everywhere, this side +the equator, within the last two months. What is all that made of? + +12. Well, this much the botanists really know, and tell us,--It is made +chiefly of the breath of animals: that is to say, of the substance which, +during the past year, animals have breathed into the air; and which, if +they went on breathing, and their breath were not made into trees, would +poison them, or rather suffocate them, as people are suffocated in +uncleansed pits, and dogs in the Grotta del Cane. So that you may look upon +the grass and forests of the earth as a kind of green hoar-frost, frozen +upon it from our breath, as, on the window-panes, the white arborescence of +ice. + +13. But how is it made into wood? + +The substances that have been breathed into the air are charcoal, with +oxygen and hydrogen,--or, more plainly, charcoal and water. Some necessary +earths,--in smaller quantity, but absolutely essential,--the trees get from +the ground; but, I believe all the charcoal they want, and most of the +water, from the air. Now the question is, where and how do they take it in, +and digest it into wood? {47} + +14. You know, in spring, and partly through all the year, except in frost, +a liquid called 'sap' circulates in trees, of which the nature, one should +have thought, might have been ascertained by mankind in the six thousand +years they have been cutting wood. Under the impression always that it _had +been_ ascertained, and that I could at any time know all about it, I have +put off till to-day, 19th October, 1869, when I am past fifty, the knowing +anything about it at all. But I will really endeavour now to ascertain +something, and take to my botanical books, accordingly, in due order. + +(1) Dresser's "Rudiments of Botany." 'Sap' not in the index; only Samara, +and Sarcocarp,--about neither of which I feel the smallest curiosity. (2) +Figuier's "Histoire des Plantes."[18] 'Sêve,' not in index; only Serpolet, +and Sherardia arvensis, which also have no help in them for me. (3) +Balfour's "Manual of Botany." 'Sap,'--yes, at last. "Article 257. Course of +fluids in exogenous stems." I don't care about the course just now: I want +to know where the fluids come from. "If a plant be plunged into a weak +solution of acetate of lead,"--I don't in the least want to know what +happens. "From the minuteness of the tissue, it is not easy to determine +the vessels through which the sap moves." Who said it was? If it had been +easy, I should have done it myself. "Changes take place in the composition +of the {48} sap in its upward course." I dare say; but I don't know yet +what its composition is before it begins going up. "The Elaborated Sap by +Mr. Schultz has been called 'latex.'" I wish Mr. Schultz were in a hogshead +of it, with the top on. "On account of these movements in the latex, the +laticiferous vessels have been denominated cinenchymatous." I do not +venture to print the expressions which I here mentally make use of. + +15. Stay,--here, at last, in Article 264, is something to the purpose: "It +appears then that, in the case of Exogenous plants, the fluid matter in the +soil, containing different substances in solution, is sucked up by the +extremities of the roots." Yes, but how of the pine trees on yonder +rock?--Is there any sap in the rock, or water either? The moisture must be +seized during actual rain on the root, or stored up from the snow; stored +up, any way, in a tranquil, not actively sappy, state, till the time comes +for its change, of which there is no account here. + +16. I have only one chance left now. Lindley's "Introduction to Botany." +'Sap,'--yes,--'General motion of.' II. 325. "The course which is taken by +the sap, after entering a plant, is the first subject for consideration." +My dear doctor, I have learned nearly whatever I know of plant structure +from you, and am grateful; and that it is little, is not your fault, but +mine. But this--let me say it with all sincere respect--is not what you +should have told me here. You know, far better than I, that 'sap' never +does enter a plant at all; but only salt, or earth and water, {49} and that +the roots alone could not make it; and that, therefore, the course of it +must be, in great part, the result or process of the actual making. But I +will read now, patiently; for I know you will tell me much that is worth +hearing, though not perhaps what I want. + +Yes; now that I have read Lindley's statement carefully, I find it is full +of precious things; and this is what, with thinking over it, I can gather +for you. + +17. First, towards the end of January,--as the light enlarges, and the +trees revive from their rest,--there is a general liquefaction of the blood +of St. Januarius in their stems; and I suppose there is really a great deal +of moisture rapidly absorbed from the earth in most cases; and that this +absorption is a great help to the sun in drying the winter's damp out of it +for us: then, with that strange vital power,--which scientific people are +usually as afraid of naming as common people are afraid of naming +Death,--the tree gives the gathered earth and water a changed existence; +and to this new-born liquid an upward motion from the earth, as our blood +has from the heart; for the life of the tree is out of the earth; and this +upward motion has a mechanical power in pushing on the growth. "_Forced +onward_ by the current of sap, the plumule ascends," (Lindley, p. +132,)--this blood of the tree having to supply, exactly as our own blood +has, not only the forming powers of substance, but a continual evaporation, +"approximately seventeen times more than that of the human body," while the +force of motion in the sap "is {50} sometimes five times greater than that +which impels the blood in the crural artery of the horse." + +18. Hence generally, I think we may conclude thus much,--that at every pore +of its surface, under ground and above, the plant in the spring absorbs +moisture, which instantly disperses itself through its whole system "by +means of some permeable quality of the membranes of the cellular tissue +invisible to our eyes even by the most powerful glasses" (p. 326); that in +this way subjected to the vital power of the tree, it becomes sap, properly +so called, which passes downwards through this cellular tissue, slowly and +secretly; and then upwards, through the great vessels of the tree, +violently, stretching out the supple twigs of it as yon see a flaccid +waterpipe swell and move when the cock is turned to fill it. And the tree +becomes literally a fountain, of which the springing streamlets are clothed +with new-woven garments of green tissue, and of which the silver spray +stays in the sky,--a spray, now, of leaves. + +19. That is the gist of the matter; and a very wonderful gist it is, to my +mind. The secret and subtle descent--the violent and exulting resilience of +the tree's blood,--what guides it?--what compels? The creature has no heart +to beat like ours; one cannot take refuge from the mystery in a 'muscular +contraction.' Fountain without supply--playing by its own force, for ever +rising and falling all through the days of Spring, spending itself at last +in gathered clouds of leaves, and iris of blossom. + +Very wonderful; and it seems, for the present, that {51} we know nothing +whatever about its causes;--nay, the strangeness of the reversed arterial +and vein motion, without a heart, does not seem to strike anybody. Perhaps, +however, it may interest you, as I observe it does the botanists, to know +that the cellular tissue through which the motion is effected is called +Parenchym, and the woody tissue, Bothrenchym; and that Parenchym is +divided, by a system of nomenclature which "has some advantages over that +more commonly in use,"[19] into merenchyma, conenchyma, ovenchyma, +atractenchyma, cylindrenchyma, colpenchyma, cladenchyma, and prismenchyma. + +20. Take your laurel branch into your hand again. There are, as you must +well know, innumerable shapes and orders of leaves;--there are some like +claws; some like fingers, and some like feet; there are endlessly cleft +ones, and endlessly clustered ones, and inscrutable divisions within +divisions of the fretted verdure; and wrinkles, and ripples, and +stitchings, and hemmings, and pinchings, and gatherings, and crumplings, +and clippings, and what not. But there is nothing so constantly noble as +the pure leaf of the laurel, bay, orange, and olive; numerable, sequent, +perfect in setting, divinely simple and serene. I shall call these noble +leaves 'Apolline' leaves. They characterize many orders of plants, great +and small,--from the magnolia to the myrtle, and exquisite 'myrtille' {52} +of the hills, (bilberry); but wherever you find them, strong, lustrous, +dark green, simply formed, richly scented or stored,--you have nearly +always kindly and lovely vegetation, in healthy ground and air. + +21. The gradual diminution in rank beneath the Apolline leaf, takes place +in others by the loss of one or more of the qualities above named. The +Apolline leaf, I said, is strong, lustrous, full in its green, rich in +substance, simple in form. The inferior leaves are those which have lost +strength, and become thin, like paper; which have lost lustre, and become +dead by roughness of surface, like the nettle,--(an Apolline leaf may +become dead by _bloom_, like the olive, yet not lose beauty); which have +lost colour and become feeble in green, as in the poplar, or _crudely_ +bright, like rice; which have lost substance and softness, and have nothing +to give in scent or nourishment; or become flinty or spiny; finally, which +have lost simplicity, and become cloven or jagged. Many of these losses are +partly atoned for by gain of some peculiar loveliness. Grass and moss, and +parsley and fern, have each their own delightfulness; yet they are all of +inferior power and honour, compared to the Apolline leaves. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.] + +22. You see, however, that though your laurel leaf has a central stem, and +traces of ribs branching from it, in a vertebrated manner, they are so +faint that we cannot take it for a type of vertebrate structure. But the +two figures of elm and alisma leaf, given in Modern Painters (vol. iii.), +and now here repeated, Fig. 3, will clearly enough {53} show the opposition +between this vertebrate form, branching again usually at the edges, _a_, +and the softly opening lines diffused at the stem, and gathered at the +point of the leaf _b_, which, as you almost without doubt know already are +characteristic of a vast group of plants, including especially all the +lilies, grasses, and palms, which for the most part are the signs of local +or temporary moisture in hot countries;--local, as of fountains and +streams; temporary, as of rain or inundation. + +But temporary, still more definitely in the day, than in the year. When you +go out, delighted, into the dew of the morning, have you ever considered +why it is so rich upon the grass;--why it is _not_ upon the trees? It _is_ +partly on the trees, but yet your memory of it will be always chiefly of +its gleam upon the lawn. On many {54} trees you will find there is none at +all. I cannot follow out here the many inquiries connected with this +subject, but, broadly, remember the branched trees are fed chiefly by +rain,--the unbranched ones by dew, visible or invisible; that is to say, at +all events by moisture which they can gather for themselves out of the air; +or else by streams and springs. Hence the division of the verse of the song +of Moses: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distil as +the dew: as the _small_ rain upon the tender _herb_, and as the showers +upon the grass." + +23. Next, examining the direction of the veins in the leaf of the alisma, +_b_, Fig. 3, you see they all open widely, as soon as they can, towards the +thick part of the leaf; and then taper, apparently with reluctance, pushing +each other outwards, to the point. If the leaf were a lake of the same +shape, and its stem the entering river, the lines of the currents passing +through it would, I believe, be nearly the same as that of the veins in the +aquatic leaf. I have not examined the fluid law accurately, and I do not +suppose there is more real correspondence than may be caused by the leaf's +expanding in every permitted direction, as the water would, with all the +speed it can; but the resemblance is so close as to enable you to fasten +the relation of the unbranched leaves to streams more distinctly in your +mind,--just as the toss of the palm leaves from their stem may, I think, in +their likeness to the springing of a fountain, remind you of their relation +to the desert, and their necessity, therein, to life of man and beast. {55} + +24. And thus, associating these grass and lily leaves always with +fountains, or with dew, I think we may get a pretty general name for them +also. You know that Cora, our Madonna of the flowers, was lost in Sicilian +Fields: you know, also, that the fairest of Greek fountains, lost in +Greece, was thought to rise in a Sicilian islet; and that the real +springing of the noble fountain in that rock was one of the causes which +determined the position of the greatest Greek city of Sicily. So I think, +as we call the fairest branched leaves 'Apolline,' we will call the fairest +flowing ones 'Arethusan.' But remember that the Apolline leaf represents +only the central type of land leaves, and is, within certain limits, of a +fixed form; while the beautiful Arethusan leaves, alike in flowing of their +lines, change their forms indefinitely,--some shaped like round pools, and +some like winding currents, and many like arrows, and many like hearts, and +otherwise varied and variable, as leaves ought to be,--that rise out of the +waters, and float amidst the pausing of their foam. + +25. Brantwood, _Easter Day_, 1875.--I don't like to spoil my pretty +sentence, above; but on reading it over, I suspect I wrote it confusing the +water-lily leaf, and other floating ones of the same kind, with the +Arethusan forms. But the water-lily and water-ranunculus leaves, and such +others, are to the orders of earth-loving leaves what ducks and swans are +to birds; (the swan is the water-lily of birds;) they are _swimming_ +leaves; not properly watery creatures, or able to live under water like +fish, (unless {56} when dormant), but just like birds that pass their lives +on the surface of the waves--though they must breathe in the air. + +And these natant leaves, as they lie on the water surface, do not want +strong ribs to carry them,[20] but have very delicate ones beautifully +branching into the orbed space, to keep the tissue nice and flat; while, on +the other hand, leaves that really have to grow under water, sacrifice +their tissue, and keep only their ribs, like coral animals; ('Ranunculus +heterophyllus,' 'other-leaved Frog-flower,' and its like,) just as, if you +keep your own hands too long in water, they shrivel at the finger-ends. + +26. So that you must not attach any great botanical importance to the +characters of contrasted aspects in leaves, which I wish you to express by +the words 'Apolline' and 'Arethusan'; but their mythic importance is very +great, and your careful observance of it will help you completely to +understand the beautiful Greek fable of Apollo and Daphne. There are indeed +several Daphnes, and the first root of the name is far away in another +field of thought altogether, connected with the Gods of Light. But +etymology, the best of servants, is an unreasonable master; and Professor +Max Müller trusts his deep-reaching knowledge of the first ideas connected +with the names of Athena {57} and Daphne, too implicitly, when he supposes +this idea to be retained in central Greek theology. 'Athena' originally +meant only the dawn, among nations who knew nothing of a Sacred Spirit. But +the Athena who catches Achilles by the hair, and urges the spear of Diomed, +has not, in the mind of Homer, the slightest remaining connection with the +mere beauty of daybreak. Daphne chased by Apollo, may perhaps--though I +doubt even this much of consistence in the earlier myth--have meant the +Dawn pursued by the Sun. But there is no trace whatever of this first idea +left in the fable of Arcadia and Thessaly. + +27. The central Greek Daphne is the daughter of one of the great _river_ +gods of Arcadia; her mother is the Earth. Now Arcadia is the Oberland of +Greece; and the crests of Cyllene, Erymanthus, and Mĉnalus[21] surround it, +like the Swiss forest cantons, with walls of rock, and shadows of pine. And +it divides itself, like the Oberland, into three regions: first, the region +of rock and snow, sacred to Mercury and Apollo, in which Mercury's birth on +Cyllene, his construction of the lyre, and his stealing the oxen of Apollo, +are all expressions of the enchantments of cloud and sound, mingling with +the sunshine, on the cliffs of Cyllene. + + "While the mists + Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes + {58} + And phantoms from the crags and solid earth + As fast as a musician scatters sounds + Out of his instrument." + +Then came the pine region, sacred especially to Pan and Mĉnalus, the son of +Lycaon and brother of Callisto; and you had better remember this +relationship carefully, for the sake of the meaning of the constellations +of Ursa Major and the Mons Mĉnalius, and of their wolf and bear traditions; +(compare also the strong impression on the Greek mind of the wild +leafiness, nourished by snow, of the Boeotian Cithĉron,--"Oh, thou +lake-hollow, full of divine leaves, and of wild creatures, nurse of the +snow, darling of Diana," (Phoenissĉ, 801)). How wild the climate of this +pine region is, you may judge from the pieces in the note below[22] out of +Colonel Leake's diary in {59} crossing the Mĉnalian range in spring. And +then, lastly, you have the laurel and vine region, full of sweetness and +Elysian beauty. + +28. Now as Mercury is the ruling power of the hill enchantment, so Daphne +of the leafy peace. She is, in her first life, the daughter of the mountain +river, the mist of it filling the valley; the Sun, pursuing, and effacing +it, from dell to dell, is, literally, Apollo pursuing Daphne, and _adverse_ +to her; (not, as in the earlier tradition, the Sun pursuing only his own +light). Daphne, thus hunted, cries to her mother, the Earth, which opens, +and receives her, causing the laurel to spring up in her stead. That is to +say, wherever the rocks protect the mist from the sunbeam, and suffer it to +water the earth, there the laurel and other richest vegetation fill the +hollows, giving a better glory to the sun itself. For sunshine, on the +torrent spray, {60} on the grass of its valley, and entangled among the +laurel stems, or glancing from their leaves, became a thousandfold lovelier +and more sacred than the same sunbeams, burning on the leafless +mountain-side. + +And farther, the leaf, in its connection with the river, is typically +expressive, not, as the flower was, of human fading and passing away, but +of the perpetual flow and renewal of human mind and thought, rising "like +the rivers that run among the hills"; therefore it was that the youth of +Greece sacrificed their hair--the sign of their continually renewed +strength,--to the rivers, and to Apollo. Therefore, to commemorate Apollo's +own chief victory over death--over Python, the corrupter,--a laurel branch +was gathered every ninth year in the vale of Tempe; and the laurel leaf +became the reward or crown of all beneficent and enduring work of man--work +of inspiration, born of the strength of the earth, and of the dew of +heaven, and which can never pass away. + +29. You may doubt at first, even because of its grace, this meaning in the +fable of Apollo and Daphne; you will not doubt it, however, when you trace +it back to its first eastern origin. When we speak carelessly of the +traditions respecting the Garden of Eden, (or in Hebrew, remember, Garden +of Delight,) we are apt to confuse Milton's descriptions with those in the +book of Genesis. Milton fills his Paradise with flowers; but no flowers are +spoken of in Genesis. We may indeed conclude that in speaking of every herb +of the field, flowers are included. But they {61} are not named. The things +that are _named_ in the Garden of Delight are trees only. + +The words are, "every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for +food;" and as if to mark the idea more strongly for us in the Septuagint, +even the ordinary Greek word for tree is not used, but the word [Greek: +xulon],--literally, every 'wood,' every piece of _timber_ that was pleasant +or good. They are indeed the "vivi travi,"--living rafters, of Dante's +Apennine. + +Do you remember how those trees were said to be watered? Not by the four +rivers only. The rivers could not supply the place of rain. No rivers do; +for in truth they are the refuse of rain. No storm-clouds were there, nor +hidings of the blue by darkening veil; but there went up a _mist_ from the +earth, and watered the face of the ground,--or, as in Septuagint and +Vulgate, "There went forth a fountain from the earth, and gave the earth to +drink." + +30. And now, lastly, we continually think of that Garden of Delight, as if +it existed, or could exist, no longer; wholly forgetting that it is spoken +of in Scripture as perpetually existent; and some of its fairest trees as +existent also, or only recently destroyed. When Ezekiel is describing to +Pharaoh the greatness of the Assyrians, do you remember what image he gives +of them? "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches; +and his top was among the thick boughs; the waters nourished him, and the +deep brought him up, with her rivers {62} running round about his plants. +Under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; +and under his shadow dwelt all great nations." + +31. Now hear what follows. "The cedars _in the Garden of God_ could not +hide _him_. The fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees +were not like his branches; nor any tree in the Garden of God was like unto +him in beauty." + +So that you see, whenever a nation rises into consistent, vital, and, +through many generations, enduring power, _there_ is still the Garden of +God; still it is the water of life which feeds the roots of it; and still +the succession of its people is imaged by the perennial leafage of trees of +Paradise. Could this be said of Assyria, and shall it not be said of +England? How much more, of lives such as ours should be,--just, laborious, +united in aim, beneficent in fulfilment, may the image be used of the +leaves of the trees of Eden! Other symbols have been given often to show +the evanescence and slightness of our lives--the foam upon the water, the +grass on the housetop, the vapour that vanishes away; yet none of these are +images of true human life. That life, when it is real, is _not_ evanescent; +is _not_ slight; does _not_ vanish away. Every noble life leaves the fibre +of it interwoven for ever in the work of the world; by so much, evermore, +the strength of the human race has gained; more stubborn in the root, +higher towards heaven in the branch; and, "as a teil tree, and as an +oak,--whose substance is in them {63} when they cast their leaves,--so the +holy seed is in the midst thereof." + +32. Only remember on what conditions. In the great Psalm of life, we are +told that everything that a man doeth shall prosper, so only that he +delight in the law of his God, that he hath not walked in the counsel of +the wicked, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. Is it among these leaves +of the perpetual Spring,--helpful leaves for the healing of the +nations,--that we mean to have our part and place, or rather among the +"brown skeletons of leaves that lag, the forest brook along"? For other +leaves there are, and other streams that water them,--not water of life, +but water of Acheron. Autumnal leaves there are that strew the brooks, in +Vallombrosa. Remember you how the name of the place was changed: "Once +called 'Sweet water' (Aqua bella), now, the Shadowy Vale." Portion in one +or other name we must choose, all of us,--with the living olive, by the +living fountains of waters, or with the wild fig trees, whose leafage of +human soul is strewed along the brooks of death, in the eternal +Vallombrosa. + + * * * * * + +{64} + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FLOWER. + +ROME, _Whit Monday, 1874_. + +1. On the quiet road leading from under the Palatine to the little church +of St. Nereo and Achilleo, I met, yesterday morning, group after group of +happy peasants heaped in pyramids on their triumphal carts, in Whit-Sunday +dress, stout and clean, and gay in colour; and the women all with bright +artificial roses in their hair, set with true natural taste, and well +becoming them. This power of arranging wreath or crown of flowers for the +head, remains to the people from classic times. And the thing that struck +me most in the look of it was not so much the cheerfulness, as the +dignity;--in a true sense, the _becomingness_ and decorousness of the +ornament. Among the ruins of the dead city, and the worse desolation of the +work of its modern rebuilders, here was one element at least of honour, and +order;--and, in these, of delight. + +And these are the real significances of the flower itself. It is the utmost +purification of the plant, and the utmost discipline. Where its tissue is +blanched fairest, dyed purest, set in strictest rank, appointed to most +chosen office, {65} there--and created by the fact of this purity and +function--is the flower. + +2. But created, observe, by the purity and order, more than by the +function. The flower exists for its own sake,--not for the fruit's sake. +The production of the fruit is an added honour to it--is a granted +consolation to us for its death. But the flower is the end of the +seed,--not the seed of the flower. You are fond of cherries, perhaps; and +think that the use of cherry blossom is to produce cherries. Not at all. +The use of cherries is to produce cherry blossoms; just as the use of bulbs +is to produce hyacinths,--not of hyacinths to produce bulbs. Nay, that the +flower can multiply by bulb, or root, or slip, as well as by seed, may show +you at once how immaterial the seed-forming function is to the flower's +existence. A flower is to the vegetable substance what a crystal is to the +mineral. "Dust of sapphire," writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me, of the +wood hyacinths of Scotland in the spring. Yes, that is so,--each bud more +beautiful, itself, than perfectest jewel--_this_, indeed, jewel "of purest +ray serene;" but, observe you, the glory is in the purity, the serenity, +the radiance,--not in the mere continuance of the creature. + +3. It is because of its beauty that its continuance is worth Heaven's +while. The glory of it is in being,--not in begetting; and in the spirit +and substance,--not the change. For the earth also has its flesh and +spirit. Every day of spring is the earth's Whit Sunday--Fire {66} Sunday. +The falling fire of the rainbow, with the order of its zones, and the +gladness of its covenant,--you may eat of it, like Esdras; but you feed +upon it only that you may see it. Do you think that flowers were born to +nourish the blind? + +Fasten well in your mind, then, the conception of order, and purity, as the +essence of the flower's being, no less than of the crystal's. A ruby is not +made bright to scatter round it child-rubies; nor a flower, but in +collateral and added honour, to give birth to other flowers. + +Two main facts, then, you have to study in every flower: the symmetry or +order of it, and the perfection of its substance; first, the manner in +which the leaves are placed for beauty of form; then the spinning and +weaving and blanching of their tissue, for the reception of purest colour, +or refining to richest surface. + +4. First, the order: the proportion, and answering to each other, of the +parts; for the study of which it becomes necessary to know what its parts +are; and that a flower consists essentially of--Well, I really don't know +what it consists essentially of. For some flowers have bracts, and stalks, +and toruses, and calices, and corollas, and discs, and stamens, and +pistils, and ever so many odds and ends of things besides, of no use at +all, seemingly; and others have no bracts, and no stalks, and no toruses, +and no calices, and no corollas, and nothing recognizable for stamens or +pistils,--only, when they come to be reduced to this kind of poverty, one +doesn't call {67} them flowers; they get together in knots, and one calls +them catkins, or the like, or forgets their existence altogether;--I +haven't the least idea, for instance, myself, what an oak blossom is like; +only I know its bracts get together and make a cup of themselves +afterwards, which the Italians call, as they do the dome of St. Peter's, +'cupola'; and that it is a great pity, for their own sake as well as the +world's, that they were not content with their ilex cupolas, which were +made to hold something, but took to building these big ones upside-down, +which hold nothing--_less_ than nothing,--large extinguishers of the flame +of Catholic religion. And for farther embarrassment, a flower not only is +without essential consistence of a given number of parts, but it rarely +consists, alone, of _itself_. One talks of a hyacinth as of a flower; but a +hyacinth is any number of flowers. One does not talk of 'a heather'; when +one says 'heath,' one means the whole plant, not the blossom,--because +heath-bells, though they grow together for company's sake, do so in a +voluntary sort of way, and are not fixed in their places; and yet, they +depend on each other for effect, as much as a bunch of grapes. + +5. And this grouping of flowers, more or less waywardly, is the most subtle +part of their order, and the most difficult to represent. Take that cluster +of bog-heather bells, for instance, Line-study 1. You might think at first +there were no lines in it worth study; but look at it more carefully. There +are twelve bells in the {68} cluster. There may be fewer, or more; but the +bog-heath is apt to run into something near that number. They all grow +together as close as they can, and on one side of the supporting branch +only. The natural effect would be to bend the branch down; but the branch +won't have that, and so leans back to carry them. Now you see the use of +drawing the profile in the middle figure: it shows you the exactly balanced +setting of the group,--not drooping, nor erect; but with a disposition to +droop, tossed up by the leaning back of the stem. Then, growing as near as +they can to each other, those in the middle get squeezed. Here is another +quite special character. Some flowers don't like being squeezed at all +(fancy a squeezed convolvulus!); but these heather bells like it, and look +all the prettier for it,--not the squeezed ones exactly, by themselves, but +the cluster altogether, by their patience. + +Then also the outside ones get pushed into a sort of star-shape, and in +front show the colour of all their sides, and at the back the rich green +cluster of sharp leaves that hold them; all this order being as essential +to the plant as any of the more formal structures of the bell itself. + +6. But the bog-heath has usually only one cluster of flowers to arrange on +each branch. Take a spray of ling (Frontispiece), and you will find that +the richest piece of Gothic spire-sculpture would be dull and graceless +beside the grouping of the floral masses in their various life. But it is +difficult to give the accuracy of attention {69} necessary to see their +beauty without drawing them; and still more difficult to draw them in any +approximation to the truth before they change. This is indeed the fatallest +obstacle to all good botanical work. Flowers, or leaves,--and especially +the last,--can only be rightly drawn as they grow. And even then, in their +loveliest spring action, they grow as you draw them, and will not stay +quite the same creatures for half an hour. + +7. I said in my inaugural lectures at Oxford, § 107, that real botany is +not so much the description of plants as their biography. Without entering +at all into the history of its fruitage, the life and death of the blossom +_itself_ is always an eventful romance, which must be completely told, if +well. The grouping given to the various states of form between bud and +flower is always the most important part of the design of the plant; and in +the modes of its death are some of the most touching lessons, or +symbolisms, connected with its existence. The utter loss and far-scattered +ruin of the cistus and wild rose,--the dishonoured and dark contortion of +the convolvulus,--the pale wasting of the crimson heath of Apennine, are +strangely opposed by the quiet closing of the brown bells of the ling, each +making of themselves a little cross as they die; and so enduring into the +days of winter. I have drawn the faded beside the full branch, and know not +which is the more beautiful. + +8. This grouping, then, and way of treating each other in their gathered +company, is the first and most subtle {70} condition of form in flowers; +and, observe, I don't mean, just now, the appointed and disciplined +grouping, but the wayward and accidental. Don't confuse the beautiful +consent of the cluster in these sprays of heath with the legal strictness +of a foxglove,--though that also has its divinity; but of another kind. +That legal order of blossoming--for which we may wisely keep the accepted +name, 'inflorescence,'--is itself quite a separate subject of study, which +we cannot take up until we know the still more strict laws which are set +over the flower itself. + +9. I have in my hand a small red poppy which I gathered on Whit Sunday on +the palace of the Cĉsars. It is an intensely simple, intensely floral, +flower. All silk and flame: a scarlet cup, perfect-edged all round, seen +among the wild grass far away, like a burning coal fallen from Heaven's +altars. You cannot have a more complete, a more stainless, type of flower +absolute; inside and outside, _all_ flower. No sparing of colour +anywhere--no outside coarsenesses--no interior secrecies; open as the +sunshine that creates it; fine-finished on both sides, down to the +extremest point of insertion on its narrow stalk; and robed in the purple +of the Cĉsars. + +Literally so. That poppy scarlet, so far as it could be painted by mortal +hand, for mortal King, stays yet, against the sun, and wind, and rain, on +the walls of the house of Augustus, a hundred yards from the spot where I +gathered the weed of its desolation. + +10. A pure _cup_, you remember it is; that much at least {71} you cannot +but remember, of poppy-form among the cornfields; and it is best, in +beginning, to think of every flower as essentially a cup. There are flat +ones, but you will find that most of these are really groups of flowers, +not single blossoms; and there are out-of-the-way and quaint ones, very +difficult to define as of any shape; but even these have a cup to begin +with, deep down in them. You had better take the idea of a cup or vase, as +the first, simplest, and most general form of true flower. + +The botanists call it a corolla, which means a garland, or a kind of crown; +and the word is a very good one, because it indicates that the flower-cup +is made, as our clay cups are, on a potter's wheel; that it is essentially +a _revolute_ form--a whirl or (botanically) 'whorl' of leaves; in reality +successive round the base of the urn they form. + +11. Perhaps, however, you think poppies in general are not much like cups. +But the flower in my hand is a--poverty-_stricken_ poppy, I was going to +write,--poverty-_strengthened_ poppy, I mean. On richer ground, it would +have gushed into flaunting breadth of untenable purple--flapped its +inconsistent scarlet vaguely to the wind--dropped the pride of its petals +over my hand in an hour after I gathered it. But this little rough-bred +thing, a Campagna pony of a poppy, is as bright and strong to-day as +yesterday. So that I can see exactly where the leaves join or lap over each +other; and when I look down into the cup, find it to be composed of four +leaves altogether,--two smaller, set within two larger. {72} + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.] + +12. Thus far (and somewhat farther) I had written in Rome; but now, putting +my work together in Oxford, a sudden doubt troubles me, whether all poppies +have two petals smaller than the other two. Whereupon I take down an +excellent little school-book on botany--the best I've yet found, thinking +to be told quickly; and I find a great deal about opium; and, apropos of +opium, that the juice of common celandine is of a bright orange colour; and +I pause for a bewildered five minutes, wondering if a celandine is a poppy, +and how many petals _it_ has: going on again--because I must, without +making up my mind, on either question--I am told to "observe the floral +receptacle of the Californian genus Eschscholtzia." Now I can't observe +anything of the sort, and I don't want to; and I wish California and all +that's in it were at the deepest bottom of the Pacific. Next I am told to +compare the poppy and waterlily; and I can't do that, neither--though I +should like to; and there's the end of the article; and it never tells me +whether one pair of petals is always smaller than the other, or not. Only I +see it says the corolla has four petals. Perhaps a celandine may be a +double poppy, and have eight, I know they're tiresome irregular things, and +I mustn't be stopped by them;[23]--at {73} any rate, my Roman poppy knew +what it was about, and had its two couples of leaves in clear +subordination, of which at the time I went on to inquire farther, as +follows. + +13. The next point is, what shape are the petals of? And that is easier +asked than answered; for when you pull them off, you find they won't lie +flat, by any means, but are each of them cups, or rather shells, +themselves; and that it requires as much conchology as would describe a +cockle, before you can properly give account of a single poppy leaf. Or of +a single _any_ leaf--for all leaves are either shells, or boats, (or solid, +if not hollow, masses,) and cannot be represented in flat outline. But, +laying these as flat as they will lie on a sheet of paper, you will find +the piece they hide of the paper they lie on can be drawn; giving +approximately the shape of the outer leaf as at A, that of the inner as at +B, Fig. 4; which you will find very difficult lines to draw, for they are +each composed of two curves, joined, as in Fig. 5; all above the line _a b_ +being the outer edge of the leaf, but joined so subtly to the side that the +least break in drawing the line spoils the form. + +14. Now every flower petal consists essentially of these two parts, +variously proportioned and outlined. It {74} expands from C to _a b_; and +closes in the external line, and for this reason. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.] + +Considering every flower under the type of a cup, the first part of the +petal is that in which it expands from the bottom to the rim; the second +part, that in which it terminates itself on reaching the rim. Thus let the +three circles, A B C, Fig 6., represent the undivided cups of the three +great geometrical orders of flowers--trefoil, quatrefoil and cinquefoil. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.] + +Draw in the first an equilateral triangle, in the second a square, in the +third a pentagon; draw the dark lines from centres to angles; (D E F): then +(_a_) the third part of D; (_b_) the fourth part of E, (_c_) the fifth part +of F, are the normal outline forms of the petals of the three {75} +families; the relations between the developing angle and limiting curve +being varied according to the depth of cup, and the degree of connection +between the petals. Thus a rose folds them over one another, in the bud; a +convolvulus twists them,--the one expanding into a flat cinquefoil of +separate petals, and the other into a deep-welled cinquefoil of connected +ones. + +I find an excellent illustration in Veronica Polita, one of the most +perfectly graceful of field plants because of the light alternate flower +stalks, each with its leaf at the base; the flower itself a quatrefoil, of +which the largest and least petals are uppermost. Pull one off its calyx +(draw, if you can, the outline of the striped blue upper petal with the +jagged edge of pale gold below), and then examine the relative shapes of +the lateral, and least upper {76} petal. Their under surface is very +curious, as if covered with white paint; the blue stripes above, in the +direction of their growth, deepening the more delicate colour with +exquisite insistence. + +A lilac blossom will give you a pretty example of the expansion of the +petals of a quatrefoil above the edge of the cup or tube; but I must get +back to our poppy at present. + +15. What outline its petals really have, however, is little shown in their +crumpled fluttering; but that very crumpling arises from a fine floral +character which we do not enough value in them. We usually think of the +poppy as a coarse flower; but it is the most transparent and delicate of +all the blossoms of the field. The rest--nearly all of them--depend on the +_texture_ of their surfaces for colour. But the poppy is painted _glass_; +it never glows so brightly as when the sun shines through it. Wherever it +is seen--against the light or with the light--always, it is a flame, and +warms the wind like a blown ruby. + +In these two qualities, the accurately balanced form, and the perfectly +infused colour of the petals, you have, as I said, the central being of the +flower. All the other parts of it are necessary, but we must follow them +out in order. + +16. Looking down into the cup, you see the green boss divided by a black +star,--of six rays only,--and surrounded by a few black spots. My +rough-nurtured poppy contents itself with these for its centre; a rich one +would have had the green boss divided by a dozen of rays, and surrounded by +a dark crowd of crested threads. {77} + +This green boss is called by botanists the pistil, which word consists of +the two first syllables of the Latin pistillum, otherwise more familiarly +Englished into 'pestle.' The meaning of the botanical word is of course, +also, that the central part of a flower-cup has to it something of the +relations that a pestle has to a mortar! Practically, however, as this +pestle has no pounding functions, I think the word is misleading as well as +ungraceful; and that we may find a better one after looking a little closer +into the matter. For this pestle is divided generally into three very +distinct parts: there is a storehouse at the bottom of it for the seeds of +the plant; above this, a shaft, often of considerable length in deep cups, +rising to the level of their upper edge, or above it; and at the top of +these shafts an expanded crest. This shaft the botanists call 'style,' from +the Greek word for a pillar; and the crest of it--I do not know +why--stigma, from the Greek word for 'spot.' The storehouse for the seeds +they call the 'ovary,' from the Latin ovum, an egg. So you have two-thirds +of a Latin word, (pistil)--awkwardly and disagreeably edged in between +pestle and pistol--for the whole thing; you have an English-Latin word +(ovary) for the bottom of it; an English-Greek word (style) for the middle; +and a pure Greek word (stigma) for the top. + +17. This is a great mess of language, and all the worse that the words +style and stigma have both of them quite different senses in ordinary and +scholarly English from this forced botanical one. And I will venture +therefore, {78} for my own pupils, to put the four names altogether into +English. Instead of calling the whole thing a pistil, I shall simply call +it the pillar. Instead of 'ovary,' I shall say 'Treasury' (for a seed isn't +an egg, but it _is_ a treasure). The style I shall call the 'Shaft,' and +the stigma the 'Volute.' So you will have your entire pillar divided into +the treasury, at its base, the shaft, and the volute; and I think you will +find these divisions easily remembered, and not unfitted to the sense of +the words in their ordinary use. + +18. Round this central, but, in the poppy, very stumpy, pillar, you find a +cluster of dark threads, with dusty pendants or cups at their ends. For +these the botanists' name 'stamens,' may be conveniently retained, each +consisting of a 'filament,' or thread, and an 'anther,' or blossoming part. + +And in this rich corolla, and pillar, or pillars, with their treasuries, +and surrounding crowd of stamens, the essential flower consists. Fewer than +these several parts, it cannot have, to be a flower at all; of these, the +corolla leads, and is the object of final purpose. The stamens and the +treasuries are only there in order to produce future corollas, though often +themselves decorative in the highest degree. + +These, I repeat, are all the essential parts of a flower. But it would have +been difficult, with any other than the poppy, to have shown you them +alone; for nearly all other flowers keep with them, all their lives, their +nurse {79} or tutor leaves,--the group which, in stronger and humbler +temper, protected them in their first weakness, and formed them to the +first laws of their being. But the poppy casts these tutorial leaves away. +It is the finished picture of impatient and luxury-loving youth,--at first +too severely restrained, then casting all restraint away,--yet retaining to +the end of life unseemly and illiberal signs of its once compelled +submission to laws which were only pain,--not instruction. + +19. Gather a green poppy bud, just when it shows the scarlet line at its +side; break it open and unpack the poppy. The whole flower is there +complete in size and colour,--its stamens full-grown, but all packed so +closely that the fine silk of the petals is crushed into a million of +shapeless wrinkles. When the flower opens, it seems a deliverance from +torture: the two imprisoning green leaves are shaken to the ground; the +aggrieved corolla smooths itself in the sun, and comforts itself as it can; +but remains visibly crushed and hurt to the end of its days. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.] + +20. Not so flowers of gracious breeding. Look at these four stages in the +young life of a primrose, Fig. 7. First confined, as strictly as the poppy +within five pinching green leaves, whose points close over it, the little +thing is content to remain a child, and finds its nursery large enough. The +green leaves unclose their points,--the little yellow ones peep out, like +ducklings. They find the light delicious, and open wide to it; and grow, +and grow, {80} and throw themselves wider at last into their perfect rose. +But they never leave their old nursery for all that; it and they live on +together; and the nursery seems a part of the flower. + +21. Which is so, indeed, in all the loveliest flowers; and, in usual +botanical parlance, a flower is said to consist of its calyx, (or _hiding_ +part--Calypso having rule over it,) and corolla, or garland part, +Proserpina having rule over it. But it is better to think of them always as +separate; for this calyx, very justly so named from its main function of +concealing the flower, in its youth is usually green, not coloured, and +shows its separate nature by pausing, or at least greatly lingering, in its +growth, and modifying itself very slightly, while the corolla is forming +{81} itself through active change. Look at the two, for instance, through +the youth of a pease blossom, Fig. 8. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.] + +The entire cluster at first appears pendent in this manner, the stalk +bending round on purpose to put it into that position. On which all the +little buds, thinking themselves ill-treated, determine not to submit to +anything of the sort, turn their points upward persistently, and determine +that--at any cost of trouble--they will get nearer the sun. Then they begin +to open, and let out their corollas. I give the process of one only (Fig. +9).[24] It chances to be engraved the reverse way from the bud; but that is +of no consequence. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.] + +At first, you see the long lower point of the calyx thought that _it_ was +going to be the head of the family, and curls upwards eagerly. Then the +little corolla steals out; and soon does away with that impression on the +mind of the calyx. The corolla soars up with widening wings, the abashed +calyx retreats beneath; and finally the great upper leaf of corolla--not +pleased at having its back still {82} turned to the light, and its face +down--throws itself entirely back, to look at the sky, and nothing +else;--and your blossom is complete. + +Keeping, therefore, the ideas of calyx and corolla entirely distinct, this +one general point you may note of both: that, as a calyx is originally +folded tight over the flower, and has to open deeply to let it out, it is +nearly always composed of sharp pointed leaves like the segments of a +balloon; while corollas, having to open out as wide as possible to show +themselves, are typically like cups or plates, only cut into their edges +here and there, for ornamentation's sake. + +22. And, finally, though the corolla is essentially the floral group of +leaves, and usually receives the glory of colour for itself only, this +glory and delight may be given to any other part of the group; and, as if +to show us that there is no really dishonoured or degraded membership, the +stalks and leaves in some plants, near the blossom, flush in sympathy with +it, and become themselves a part of the {83} effectively visible +flower;--Eryngo--Jura hyacinth, (comosus,) and the edges of upper stems and +leaves in many plants; while others, (Geranium lucidum,) are made to +delight us with their leaves rather than their blossoms; only I suppose, in +these, the scarlet leaf colour is a kind of early autumnal glow,--a +beautiful hectic, and foretaste, in sacred youth, of sacred death. + +I observe, among the speculations of modern science, several, lately, not +uningenious, and highly industrious, on the subject of the relation of +colour in flowers, to insects--to selective development, etc., etc. There +_are_ such relations, of course. So also, the blush of a girl, when she +first perceives the faltering in her lover's step as he draws near, is +related essentially to the existing state of her stomach; and to the state +of it through all the years of her previous existence. Nevertheless, +neither love, chastity, nor blushing, are merely exponents of digestion. + +All these materialisms, in their unclean stupidity, are essentially the +work of human bats; men of semi-faculty or semi-education, who are more or +less incapable of so much as seeing, much less thinking about, colour; +among whom, for one-sided intensity, even Mr. Darwin must be often ranked, +as in his vespertilian treatise on the ocelli of the Argus pheasant, which +he imagines to be artistically gradated, and perfectly imitative of a ball +and socket. If I had him here in Oxford for a week, and could force him to +try to copy a feather by Bewick, or to draw for himself a boy's thumbed +marble, his notions of feathers, and balls, {84} would be changed for all +the rest of his life. But his ignorance of good art is no excuse for the +acutely illogical simplicity of the rest of his talk of colour in the +"Descent of Man." Peacocks' tails, he thinks, are the result of the +admiration of blue tails in the minds of well-bred peahens,--and similarly, +mandrills' noses the result of the admiration of blue noses in well-bred +baboons. But it never occurs to him to ask why the admiration of blue noses +is healthy in baboons, so that it develops their race properly, while +similar maidenly admiration either of blue noses or red noses in men would +be improper, and develop the race improperly. The word itself 'proper' +being one of which he has never asked, or guessed, the meaning. And when he +imagined the gradation of the cloudings in feathers to represent successive +generation, it never occurred to him to look at the much finer cloudy +gradations in the clouds of dawn themselves; and explain the modes of +sexual preference and selective development which had brought _them_ to +their scarlet glory, before the cock could crow thrice. Putting all these +vespertilian speculations out of our way, the human facts concerning colour +are briefly these. Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and +wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them--in sky, sea, +flowers, and living creatures. + +On the other hand, wherever men are ignoble and sensual, they endure +without pain, and at last even come to like (especially if artists,) +mud-colour and black, and to dislike rose-colour and white. And wherever it +is unhealthy for {85} them to live, the poisonousness of the place is +marked by some ghastly colour in air, earth, or flowers. + +There are, of course, exceptions to all such widely founded laws; there are +poisonous berries of scarlet, and pestilent skies that are fair. But, if we +once honestly compare a venomous wood-fungus, rotting into black +dissolution of dripped slime at its edges, with a spring gentian; or a puff +adder with a salmon trout, or a fog in Bermondsey with a clear sky at +Berne, we shall get hold of the entire question on its right side; and be +able afterwards to study at our leisure, or accept without doubt or +trouble, facts of apparently contrary meaning. And the practical lesson +which I wish to leave with the reader is, that lovely flowers, and green +trees growing in the open air, are the proper guides of men to the places +which their Maker intended them to inhabit; while the flowerless and +treeless deserts--of reed, or sand, or rock,--are meant to be either +heroically invaded and redeemed, or surrendered to the wild creatures which +are appointed for them; happy and wonderful in their wild abodes. + +Nor is the world so small but that we may yet leave in it also unconquered +spaces of beautiful solitude; where the chamois and red deer may wander +fearless,--nor any fire of avarice scorch from the Highlands of Alp, or +Grampian, the rapture of the heath, and the rose. + + * * * * * + +{86} + +CHAPTER V. + +PAPAVER RHOEAS. + +BRANTWOOD, _July 11th, 1875_. + +1. Chancing to take up yesterday a favourite old book, Mavor's British +Tourists, (London, 1798,) I found in its fourth volume a delightful diary +of a journey made in 1782 through various parts of England, by Charles P. +Moritz of Berlin. + +And in the fourteenth page of this diary I find the following passage, +pleasantly complimentary to England:-- + +"The slices of bread and butter which they give you with your tea are as +thin as poppy leaves. But there is another kind of bread and butter usually +eaten with tea, which is toasted by the fire, and is incomparably good. +This is called 'toast.'" + +I wonder how many people, nowadays, whose bread and butter was cut too thin +for them, would think of comparing the slices to poppy leaves? But this was +in the old days of travelling, when people did not whirl themselves past +corn-fields, that they might have more time to walk on paving-stones; and +understood that {87} poppies did not mingle their scarlet among the gold, +without some purpose of the poppy-Maker that they should be looked at. + +Nevertheless, with respect to the good and polite German's +poetically-contemplated, and finely ĉsthetic, tea, may it not be asked +whether poppy leaves themselves, like the bread and butter, are not, if we +may venture an opinion--_too_ thin,--im-_properly_ thin? In the last +chapter, my reader was, I hope, a little anxious to know what I meant by +saying that modern philosophers did not know the meaning of the word +'proper,' and may wish to know what I mean by it myself. And this I think +it needful to explain before going farther. + +2. In our English prayer-book translation, the first verse of the +ninety-third Psalm runs thus: "The Lord is King; and hath put on glorious +apparel." And although, in the future republican world, there are to be no +lords, no kings, and no glorious apparel, it will be found convenient, for +botanical purposes, to remember what such things once were; for when I said +of the poppy, in last chapter, that it was "robed in the purple of the +Cĉsars," the words gave, to any one who had a clear idea of a Cĉsar, and of +his dress, a better, and even _stricter_, account of the flower than if I +had only said, with Mr. Sowerby, "petals bright scarlet;" which might just +as well have been said of a pimpernel, or scarlet geranium;--but of neither +of these latter should I have said "robed in purple of Cĉsars." What I +meant was, first, that the poppy leaf {88} looks dyed through and through, +like glass, or Tyrian tissue; and not merely painted: secondly, that the +splendour of it is proud,--almost insolently so. Augustus, in his glory, +might have been clothed like one of these; and Saul; but not David, nor +Solomon; still less the teacher of Solomon, when He puts on 'glorious +apparel.' + +3. Let us look, however, at the two translations of the same verse. + +In the vulgate it is "Dominus regnavit; decorem indutus est;" He has put on +'becomingness,'--decent apparel, rather than glorious. + +In the Septuagint it is [Greek: euprepeia]--_well_-becomingness; an +expression which, if the reader considers, must imply certainly the +existence of an opposite idea of possible '_ill_-becomingness,'--of an +apparel which should, in just as accurate a sense, belong appropriately to +the creature invested with it, and yet not be glorious, but inglorious, and +not well-becoming, but ill-becoming. The mandrill's blue nose, for +instance, already referred to,--can we rightly speak of this as '[Greek: +euprepeia]'? Or the stings, and minute, colourless blossoming of the +nettle? May we call these a glorious apparel, as we may the glowing of an +alpine rose? + +You will find on reflection, and find more convincingly the more accurately +you reflect, that there is an absolute sense attached to such words as +'decent,' 'honourable,' 'glorious,' or '[Greek: kalos],' contrary to +another absolute sense in the words 'indecent,' 'shameful,' 'vile,' or +'[Greek: aischros].' {89} + +And that there is every degree of these absolute qualities visible in +living creatures; and that the divinity of the Mind of man is in its +essential discernment of what is [Greek: kalon] from what is [Greek: +aischron], and in his preference of the kind of creatures which are decent, +to those which are indecent; and of the kinds of thoughts, in himself, +which are noble, to those which are vile. + +4. When therefore I said that Mr. Darwin, and his school,[25] had no +conception of the real meaning of the word 'proper,' I meant that they +conceived the qualities of things only as their 'properties,' but not as +their becomingnesses;' and seeing that dirt is proper to a swine, malice to +a monkey, poison to a nettle, and folly to a fool, they called a nettle +_but_ a nettle, and the faults of fools but folly; and never saw the +difference between ugliness and beauty absolute, decency and indecency +absolute, glory or shame absolute, and folly or sense absolute. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.] + +Whereas, the perception of beauty, and the power of defining physical +character, are based on moral instinct, and on the power of defining animal +or human character. Nor is it possible to say that one flower is more +highly developed, or one animal of a higher order, than another, without +the assumption of a divine law of perfection to which the one more conforms +than the other. + +5. Thus, for instance. That it should ever have been an open question with +me whether a poppy had always {90} two of its petals less than the other +two, depended wholly on the hurry and imperfection with which the poppy +carries out its plan. It never would have occurred to me to {91} doubt +whether an iris had three of its leaves smaller than the other three, +because an iris always completes itself to its own ideal. Nevertheless, on +examining various poppies, as I have walked, this summer, up and down the +hills between Sheffield and Wakefield, I find the subordination of the +upper and lower petals entirely necessary and normal; and that the result +of it is to give two distinct profiles to the poppy cup, the difference +between which, however, we shall see better in the yellow Welsh poppy, at +present called Meconopsis Cambrica; but which, in the Oxford schools, will +be 'Papaver cruciforme'--'Crosslet Poppy,'--first, because all our +botanical names must be in Latin if possible; Greek only allowed when we +can do no better; secondly, because meconopsis is barbarous Greek; thirdly, +and chiefly, because it is little matter whether this poppy be Welsh or +English; but very needful that we should observe, wherever it grows, that +the petals are arranged in what used to be, in my young days, called a +diamond shape,[26] as at A, Fig. 10, the two narrow inner ones at right +angles to, and projecting farther than, the two outside broad ones; and +that the two broad ones, when the flower is seen in profile, as at B, show +their margins folded back, as indicated by the thicker lines, and have a +profile curve, which is only the softening, or melting away into each +other, of two straight lines. Indeed, when the flower is younger, and quite +strong, both its {92} profiles, A and B, Fig. 11, are nearly +straight-sided; and always, be it young or old, one broader than the other, +so as to give the flower, seen from above, the shape of a contracted cross, +or crosslet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.] + +6. Now I find no notice of this flower in Gerarde; and in Sowerby, out of +eighteen lines of closely printed descriptive text, no notice of its +crosslet form, while the petals are only stated to be "roundish-concave," +terms equally applicable to at least one-half of all flower petals in the +{93} world. The leaves are _said_ to be very deeply pinnately partite; but +_drawn_--as neither pinnate nor partite! + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.] + +And this is your modern cheap science, in ten volumes. Now I haven't a +quiet moment to spare for drawing this morning; but I merely give the main +relations of the petals, A, and blot in the wrinkles of one of the lower +ones, B, Fig. 12; and yet in this rude sketch you will feel, I believe, +there is something specific which could not belong to any other flower. But +all proper description is {94} impossible without careful profiles of each +petal laterally and across it. Which I may not find time to draw for any +poppy whatever, because they none of them have well-becomingness enough to +make it worth my while, being all more or less weedy, and ungracious, and +mingled of good and evil. Whereupon rises before me, ghostly and untenable, +the general question, 'What is a weed?' and, impatient for answer, the +particular question, What is a poppy? I choose, for instance, to call this +yellow flower a poppy, instead of a "likeness to poppy," which the +botanists meant to call it, in their bad Greek. I choose also to call a +poppy, what the botanists have called "glaucous thing," (glaucium). But +where and when shall I stop calling things poppies? This is certainly a +question to be settled at once, with others appertaining to it. + +7. In the first place, then, I mean to call every flower either one thing +or another, and not an 'aceous' thing, only half something or half another. +I mean to call this plant now in my hand, either a poppy or not a poppy; +but not poppaceous. And this other, either a thistle or not a thistle; but +not thistlaceous. And this other, either a nettle or not a nettle; but not +nettlaceous. I know it will be very difficult to carry out this principle +when tribes of plants are much extended and varied in type: I shall persist +in it, however, as far as possible; and when plants change so much that one +cannot with any conscience call them by their family name any more, I shall +put them aside somewhere among families of poor relations, not {95} to be +minded for the present, until we are well acquainted with the better bred +circles; I don't know, for instance, whether I shall call the Burnet +'Grass-rose,' or put it out of court for having no petals; but it certainly +shall not be called rosaceous; and my first point will be to make sure of +my pupils having a clear idea of the central and unquestionable forms of +thistle, grass, or rose, and assigning to them pure Latin, and pretty +English, names,--classical, if possible; and at least intelligible and +decorous. + +8. I return to our present special question, then, What is a poppy? and +return also to a book I gave away long ago, and have just begged back +again, Dr. Lindley's 'Ladies' Botany.' For without at all looking upon +ladies as inferior beings, I dimly hope that what Dr. Lindley considers +likely to be intelligible to _them_, may be also clear to their very humble +servant. + +The poppies, I find, (page 19, vol. i.) differ from crowfeet in being of a +stupifying instead of a burning nature, and in generally having two sepals +and twice two petals; "but as some poppies have three sepals, and twice +three petals, the number of these parts is not sufficiently constant to +form an essential mark." Yes, I know that, for I found a superb six-petaled +poppy, spotted like a cistus, the other day in a friend's garden. But then, +what makes it a poppy still? That it is of a stupifying nature, and itself +so stupid that it does not know how many petals it should have, is surely +not enough distinction? + +9. Returning to Lindley, and working the matter {96} farther out with his +help, I think this definition might stand. "A poppy is a flower which has +either four or six petals, and two or more treasuries, united into one; +containing a milky, stupifying fluid in its stalks and leaves, and always +throwing away its calyx when it blossoms." + +And indeed, every flower which unites all these characters, we shall, in +the Oxford schools, call 'poppy,' and 'Papaver;' but when I get fairly into +work, I hope to fix my definitions into more strict terms. For I wish all +my pupils to form the habit of asking, of every plant, these following four +questions, in order, corresponding to the subject of these opening +chapters, namely, "What root has it? what leaf? what flower? and what +stem?" And, in this definition of poppies, nothing whatever is said about +the root; and not only I don't know myself what a poppy root is like, but +in all Sowerby's poppy section, I find no word whatever about that matter. + +10. Leaving, however, for the present, the root unthought of, and +contenting myself with Dr. Lindley's characteristics, I shall place, at the +head of the whole group, our common European wild poppy, Papaver Rhoeas, +and, with this, arrange the nine following other flowers thus,--opposite. + +I must be content at present with determining the Latin names for the +Oxford schools; the English ones I shall give as they chance to occur to +me, in Gerarde and the classical poets who wrote before the English +revolution. When no satisfactory name is to be found, I must try to invent +one; as, for instance, just now, I don't like Gerarde's 'Corn-rose' for +Papaver Rhoeas, and must coin another; but this can't be done by thinking; +it will come into my head some day, by chance. I might try at it +straightforwardly for a week together, and not do it. + +{97} + + NAME IN OXFORD CATALOGUE. DIOSCORIDES. In present Botany. + 1. Papaver Rhoeas [Greek: mêkôn rhoias] Papaver Rhoeas + 2. P. Hortense [Greek: m. kêpeutê][27] P. Hortense + 3. P. Elatum [Greek: m. thulakitis][28] P. Lamottei + 4. P. Argemone P. Argemone + 5. P. Echinosum P. Hybridum + 6. P. Violaceum Roemeria Hybrida + 7. P. Cruciforme Meconopsis Cambrica + 8. P. Corniculatum [Greek: m. keratitis] Glaucium Corniculatum + 9. P. Littorale [Greek: m. paralios] Glaucium Luteum + 10. P. Chelidonium Chelidonium Majus + +{98} The Latin names must be fixed at once, somehow; and therefore I do the +best I can, keeping as much respect for the old nomenclature as possible, +though this involves the illogical practice of giving the epithet sometimes +from the flower, (violaceum, cruciforme), and sometimes from the seed +vessel, (elatum, echinosum, corniculatum). Guarding this distinction, +however, we may perhaps be content to call the six last of the group, in +English, Urchin Poppy, Violet Poppy, Crosslet Poppy, Horned Poppy, Beach +Poppy, and Welcome Poppy. I don't think the last flower pretty enough to be +connected more directly with the swallow, in its English name. + +11. I shall be well content if my pupils know these ten poppies rightly; +all of them at present wild in our own country, and, I believe, also +European in range: the head and type of all being the common wild poppy of +our cornfields for which the name 'Papaver Rhoeas,' given it by +Dioscorides, Gerarde, and Linnĉus, is entirely authoritative, and we will +therefore at once examine the meaning, and reason, of that name. + +12. Dioscorides says the name belongs to it "[Greek: dia to tacheôs to +anthos apoballein]," "because it casts off its bloom {99} quickly," from +[Greek: rheô,] (rheo) in the sense of shedding.[29] And this indeed it +does,--first calyx, then corolla;--you may translate it 'swiftly ruinous' +poppy, but notice, in connection with this idea, how it droops its head +_before_ blooming; an action which, I doubt not, mingled in Homer's thought +with the image of its depression when filled by rain, in the passage of the +Iliad, which, as I have relieved your memory of three unnecessary names of +poppy families, you have memory to spare for learning. + + "[Greek: mêkôn d' hôs heterôse karê balen, hêt' eni kêpôi] + [Greek: karpôi brithomenê, notiêisi te eiarinêisin] + [Greek: hôs heterôs' êmuse karê pêlêki barunthen.]" + +"And as a poppy lets its head fall aside, which in a garden is loaded with +its fruit, and with the soft rains of spring, so the youth drooped his head +on one side; burdened with the helmet." + +And now you shall compare the translations of this passage, with its +context, by Chapman and Pope--(or the school of Pope), the one being by a +man of pure English temper, and able therefore to understand pure Greek +temper; the other infected with all the faults of the falsely classical +school of the Renaissance. + +First I take Chapman:-- + + "His shaft smit fair Gorgythion of Priam's princely race + Who in Ĉpina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace, + {100} + By Castianeira, that for form was like celestial breed. + And as a crimson poppy-flower, surcharged with his seed, + And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow, + So, a-oneside, his helmet's weight his fainting head did bow." + +Next, Pope:-- + + "He missed the mark; but pierced Gorgythio's heart, + And drenched in royal blood the thirsty dart: + (Fair Castianeira, nymph of form divine, + This offspring added to King Priam's line). + As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain, + Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain, + So sinks the youth: his beauteous head, depressed + Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast." + +13. I give you the two passages in full, trusting that you may so feel the +becomingness of the one, and the gracelessness of the other. But note +farther, in the Homeric passage, one subtlety which cannot enough be marked +even in Chapman's English, that his second word, [Greek: êmuse], is +employed by him both of the stooping of ears of corn, under wind, and of +Troy stooping to its ruin;[30] and otherwise, in good Greek writers, the +word is marked as having such specific sense of men's drooping under +weight; or towards death, under the burden of fortune which they have no +more strength to sustain;[31] compare the passage {101} I quoted from +Plato, ('Crown of Wild Olive,' p. 95): "And bore lightly the burden of gold +and of possessions." {102} And thus you will begin to understand how the +poppy became in the heathen mind the type at once of power, or pride, and +of its loss; and therefore, both why Virgil represents the white nymph +Nais, "pallentes violas, et summa papavera carpens,"--gathering the pale +flags, and the highest poppies,--and the reason for the choice of this +rather than any other flower, in the story of Tarquin's message to his son. + +14. But you are next to remember the word Rhoeas in another sense. Whether +originally intended or afterwards caught at, the resemblance of the word to +'Rhoea,' a pomegranate, mentally connects itself with the resemblance of +the poppy head to the pomegranate fruit. + +And if I allow this flower to be the first we take up for careful study in +Proserpina, on account of its simplicity of form and splendour of colour, I +wish you also to remember, in connection with it, the cause of Proserpine's +eternal captivity--her having tasted a pomegranate seed,--the pomegranate +being in Greek mythology what the apple is in the Mosaic legend; and, in +the whole {103} worship of Demeter, associated with the poppy by a +multitude of ideas which are not definitely expressed, but can only be +gathered out of Greek art and literature, as we learn their symbolism. The +chief character on which these thoughts are founded is the fulness of seed +in the poppy and pomegranate, as an image of life: then the forms of both +became adopted for beads or bosses in ornamental art; the pomegranate +remains more distinctly a Jewish and Christian type, from its use in the +border of Aaron's robe, down to the fruit in the hand of Angelico's and +Botticelli's Infant Christs; while the poppy is gradually confused by the +Byzantine Greeks with grapes; and both of these with palm fruit. The palm, +in the shorthand of their art, gradually becomes a symmetrical branched +ornament with two pendent bosses; this is again confused with the Greek +iris, (Homer's blue iris, and Pindar's water-flag,)--and the Florentines, +in adopting Byzantine ornament, read it into their own Fleur-de-lys; but +insert two poppyheads on each side of the entire foil, in their finest +heraldry. + +15. Meantime the definitely intended poppy, in late Christian Greek art of +the twelfth century, modifies the form of the Acanthus leaf with its own, +until the northern twelfth century workman takes the thistle-head for the +poppy, and the thistle-leaf for acanthus. The true poppy-head remains in +the south, but gets more and more confused with grapes, till the +Renaissance carvers are content with any kind of boss full of seed, but +insist on such boss {104} or bursting globe as some essential part of their +ornament;--the bean-pod for the same reason (not without Pythagorean +notions, and some of republican election) is used by Brunelleschi for main +decoration of the lantern of Florence duomo; and, finally, the +ornamentation gets so shapeless, that M. Violet-le-Duc, in his 'Dictionary +of Ornament,' loses trace of its origin altogether, and fancies the later +forms were derived from the spadix of the arum. + +16. I have no time to enter into farther details; but through all this vast +range of art, note this singular fact, that the wheat-ear, the vine, the +fleur-de-lys, the poppy, and the jagged leaf of the acanthus-weed, or +thistle, occupy the entire thoughts of the decorative workmen trained in +classic schools, to the exclusion of the rose, true lily, and the other +flowers of luxury. And that the deeply underlying reason of this is in the +relation of weeds to corn, or of the adverse powers of nature to the +beneficent ones, expressed for us readers of the Jewish scriptures, +centrally in the verse, "thorns also, and thistles, shall it bring forth to +thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" ([Greek: chortos], grass or +corn), and exquisitely symbolized throughout the fields of Europe by the +presence of the purple 'corn-flag,' or gladiolus, and 'corn-rose' +(Gerarde's name for Papaver Rhoeas), in the midst of carelessly tended +corn; and in the traditions of the art of Europe by the springing of the +acanthus round the basket of the canephora, strictly the basket _for +bread_, the idea of bread {105} including all sacred things carried at the +feasts of Demeter, Bacchus, and the Queen of the Air. And this springing of +the thorny weeds round the basket of reed, distinctly taken up by the +Byzantine Italians in the basketwork capital of the twelfth century, (which +I have already illustrated at length in the 'Stones of Venice,') becomes +the germ of all capitals whatsoever, in the great schools of Gothic, to the +end of Gothic time, and also of all the capitals of the pure and noble +Renaissance architecture of Angelico and Perugino, and all that was learned +from them in the north, while the introduction of the rose, as a primal +element of decoration, only takes place when the luxury of English +decorated Gothic, the result of that licentious spirit in the lords which +brought on the Wars of the Roses, indicates the approach of destruction to +the feudal, artistic, and moral power of the northern nations. + +For which reason, and many others, I must yet delay the following out of +our main subject, till I have answered the other question, which brought me +to pause in the middle of this chapter, namely, 'What is a weed?' + + * * * * * + +{106} + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARABLE OF JOASH. + +1. Some ten or twelve years ago, I bought--three times twelve are +thirty-six--of a delightful little book by Mrs. Gatty, called 'Aunt Judy's +Tales'--whereof to make presents to my little lady friends. I had, at that +happy time, perhaps from four-and-twenty to six-and-thirty--I forget +exactly how many--very particular little lady friends; and greatly wished +Aunt Judy to be the thirty-seventh,--the kindest, wittiest, prettiest girl +one had ever read of, at least in so entirely proper and orthodox +literature. + +2. Not but that it is a suspicious sign of infirmity of faith in our modern +moralists to make their exemplary young people always pretty; and dress +them always in the height of the fashion. One may read Miss Edgeworth's +'Harry and Lucy,' 'Frank and Mary,' 'Fashionable Tales,' or 'Parents' +Assistant,' through, from end to end, with extremest care; and never find +out whether Lucy was tall or short, nor whether Mary was dark or fair, nor +how Miss Annaly was dressed, nor--which was my own chief point of +interest--what was the colour of {107} Rosamond's eyes. Whereas Aunt Judy, +in charming position after position, is shown to have expressed all her +pure evangelical principles with the prettiest of lips; and to have had her +gown, though puritanically plain, made by one of the best modistes in +London. + +3. Nevertheless, the book is wholesome and useful; and the nicest story in +it, as far as I recollect, is an inquiry into the subject which is our +present business, 'What is a weed?'--in which, by many pleasant devices, +Aunt Judy leads her little brothers and sisters to discern that a weed is +'a plant in the wrong place.' + +'Vegetable' in the wrong place, by the way, I think Aunt Judy says, being a +precisely scientific little aunt. But I can't keep it out of my own less +scientific head that 'vegetable' means only something going to be boiled. I +like 'plant' better for general sense, besides that it's shorter. + +Whatever we call them, Aunt Judy is perfectly right about them as far as +she has gone; but, as happens often even to the best of evangelical +instructresses, she has stopped just short of the gist of the whole matter. +It is entirely true that a weed is a plant that has got into a wrong place; +but it never seems to have occurred to Aunt Judy that some plants never +_do_! + +Who ever saw a wood anemone or a heath blossom in the wrong place? Who ever +saw nettle or hemlock in a right one? And yet, the difference between +flower and weed, (I use, for convenience sake, these words in their {108} +familiar opposition,) certainly does not consist merely in the flowers +being innocent, and the weed stinging and venomous. We do not call the +nightshade a weed in our hedges, nor the scarlet agaric in our woods. But +we do the corncockle in our fields. + +4. Had the thoughtful little tutoress gone but one thought farther, and +instead of "a vegetable in a wrong place," (which it may happen to the +innocentest vegetable sometimes to be, without turning into a weed, +therefore,) said, "A vegetable which has an innate disposition to _get_ +into the wrong place," she would have greatly furthered the matter for us; +but then she perhaps would have felt herself to be uncharitably dividing +with vegetables her own little evangelical property of original sin. + +5. This, you will find, nevertheless, to be the very essence of weed +character--in plants, as in men. If you glance through your botanical +books, you will see often added certain names--'a troublesome weed.' It is +not its being venomous, or ugly, but its being impertinent--thrusting +itself where it has no business, and hinders other people's business--that +makes a weed of it. The most accursed of all vegetables, the one that has +destroyed for the present even the possibility of European civilization, is +only called a weed in the slang of its votaries;[32] but in the finest and +truest English we call so the plant which {109} has come to us by chance +from the same country, the type of mere senseless prolific activity, the +American water-plant, choking our streams till the very fish that leap out +of them cannot fall back, but die on the clogged surface; and indeed, for +this unrestrainable, unconquerable insolence of uselessness, what name can +be enough dishonourable? + +6. I pass to vegetation of nobler rank. + +You remember, I was obliged in the last chapter to leave my poppy, for the +present, without an English specific name, because I don't like Gerarde's +'Corn-rose,' and can't yet think of another. Nevertheless, I would have +used Gerarde's name, if the corn-rose were as much a rose as the corn-flag +is a flag. But it isn't. The rose and lily have quite different relations +to the corn. The lily is grass in loveliness, as the corn is grass in use; +and both grow together in peace--gladiolus in the wheat, and narcissus in +the pasture. But the rose is of another and higher order than the corn, and +you never saw a cornfield overrun with sweetbriar or apple-blossom. + +They have no mind, they, to get into the wrong place. + +What is it, then, this temper in some plants--malicious as it +seems--intrusive, at all events, or erring,--which brings them out of their +places--thrusts them where they thwart us and offend? + +7. Primarily, it is mere hardihood and coarseness of make. A plant that can +live anywhere, will often live where it is not wanted. But the delicate and +tender ones {110} keep at home. You have no trouble in 'keeping down' the +spring gentian. It rejoices in its own Alpine home, and makes the earth as +like heaven as it can, but yields as softly as the air, if you want it to +give place. Here in England, it will only grow on the loneliest moors, +above the high force of Tees; its Latin name, for _us_ (I may as well tell +you at once) is to be 'Lucia verna;' and its English one, Lucy of Teesdale. + +8. But a plant may be hardy, and coarse of make, and able to live anywhere, +and yet be no weed. The coltsfoot, so far as I know, is the first of +large-leaved plants to grow afresh on ground that has been disturbed: fall +of Alpine débris, ruin of railroad embankment, waste of drifted slime by +flood, it seeks to heal and redeem; but it does not offend us in our +gardens, nor impoverish us in our fields. + +Nevertheless, mere coarseness of structure, indiscriminate hardihood, is at +least a point of some unworthiness in a plant. That it should have no +choice of home, no love of native land, is ungentle; much more if such +discrimination as it has, be immodest, and incline it, seemingly, to open +and much-traversed places, where it may be continually seen of strangers. +The tormentilla gleams in showers along the mountain turf; her delicate +crosslets are separate, though constellate, as the rubied daisy. But the +king-cup--(blessing be upon it always no less)--crowds itself sometimes +into too burnished flame of inevitable gold. I don't know if there was +anything in the {111} darkness of this last spring to make it brighter in +resistance; but I never saw any spaces of full warm yellow, in natural +colour, so intense as the meadows between Reading and the Thames; nor did I +know perfectly what purple and gold meant, till I saw a field of park land +embroidered a foot deep with king-cup and clover--while I was correcting my +last notes on the spring colours of the Royal Academy--at Aylesbury. + +9. And there are two other questions of extreme subtlety connected with +this main one. What shall we say of the plants whose entire destiny is +parasitic--which are not only sometimes, and _im_pertinently, but always, +and pertinently, out of place; not only out of the right place, but out of +any place of their own? When is mistletoe, for instance, in the right +place, young ladies, think you? On an apple tree, or on a ceiling? When is +ivy in the right place?--when wallflower? The ivy has been torn down from +the towers of Kenilworth; the weeds from the arches of the Coliseum, and +from the steps of the Araceli, irreverently, vilely, and in vain; but how +are we to separate the creatures whose office it is to abate the grief of +ruin by their gentleness, + + "wafting wallflower scents + From out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride, + And chambers of transgression, now forlorn," + +from those which truly resist the toil of men, and conspire against their +fame; which are cunning to consume, and {112} prolific to encumber; and of +whose perverse and unwelcome sowing we know, and can say assuredly, "An +enemy hath done this." + +10. Again. The character of strength which gives prevalence over others to +any common plant, is more or less consistently dependent on woody fibre in +the leaves; giving them strong ribs and great expanding extent; or spinous +edges, and wrinkled or gathered extent. + +Get clearly into your mind the nature of those two conditions. When a leaf +is to be spread wide, like the Burdock, it is supported by a framework of +extending ribs like a Gothic roof. The supporting function of these is +geometrical; every one is constructed like the girders of a bridge, or +beams of a floor, with all manner of science in the distribution of their +substance in the section, for narrow and deep strength; and the shafts are +mostly hollow. But when the extending space of a leaf is to be enriched +with fulness of folds, and become beautiful in wrinkles, this may be done +either by pure undulation as of a liquid current along the leaf edge, or by +sharp 'drawing'--or 'gathering' I believe ladies would call it--and +stitching of the edges together. And this stitching together, if to be done +very strongly, is done round a bit of stick, as a sail is reefed round a +mast; and this bit of stick needs to be compactly, not geometrically +strong; its function is essentially that of starch,--not to hold the leaf +up off the ground against gravity; but to stick the edges out, stiffly, in +a crimped frill. And in beautiful work of {113} this kind, which we are +meant to study, the stays of the leaf--or stay-bones--are finished off very +sharply and exquisitely at the points; and indeed so much so, that they +prick our fingers when we touch them; for they are not at all meant to be +touched, but admired. + +11. To be admired,--with qualification, indeed, always, but with extreme +respect for their endurance and orderliness. Among flowers that pass away, +and leaves that shake as with ague, or shrink like bad cloth,--these, in +their sturdy growth and enduring life, we are bound to honour; and, under +the green holly, remember how much softer friendship was failing, and how +much of other loving, folly. And yet--you are not to confuse the thistle +with the cedar that is in Lebanon; nor to forget--if the spinous nature of +it become too cruel to provoke and offend--the parable of Joash to Amaziah, +and its fulfilment: "There passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and +trode down the thistle." + +12. Then, lastly, if this rudeness and insensitiveness of nature be gifted +with no redeeming beauty; if the boss of the thistle lose its purple, and +the star of the Lion's tooth, its light; and, much more, if service be +perverted as beauty is lost, and the honied tube, and medicinal leaf, +change into mere swollen emptiness, and salt brown membrane, swayed in +nerveless languor by the idle sea,--at last the separation between the two +natures is as great as between the fruitful earth and fruitless ocean; and +between the living hands that tend the Garden of Herbs where {114} Love is, +and those unclasped, that toss with tangle and with shells. + + * * * * * + +13. I had a long bit in my head, that I wanted to write, about St. George +of the Seaweed, but I've no time to do it; and those few words of +Tennyson's are enough, if one thinks of them: only I see, in correcting +press, that I've partly misapplied the idea of 'gathering' in the leaf +edge. It would be more accurate to say it was gathered at the central rib; +but there is nothing in needlework that will represent the actual excess by +lateral growth at the edge, giving three or four inches of edge for one of +centre. But the stiffening of the fold by the thorn which holds it out is +very like the action of a ship's spars on its sails; and absolutely in many +cases like that of the spines in a fish's fin, passing into the various +conditions of serpentine and dracontic crest, connected with all the +terrors and adversities of nature; not to be dealt with in a chapter on +weeds. + +14. Here is a sketch of a crested leaf of less adverse temper, which may as +well be given, together with Plate III., in this number, these two +engravings being meant for examples of two different methods of drawing, +both useful according to character of subject. Plate III. is sketched first +with a finely-pointed pen, and common ink, on white paper; then washed +rapidly with colour, and retouched with the pen to give sharpness and +completion. {115} This method is used because the thistle leaves are full +of complex and sharp sinuosities, and set with intensely sharp spines +passing into hairs, which require many kinds of execution with the fine +point to imitate at all. In the drawing there was more look of the bloom or +woolliness on the stems, but it was useless to try for this in the +mezzotint, and I desired Mr. Allen to leave his work at the stage where it +expressed as much form as I wanted. The leaves are of the common marsh +thistle, of which more anon; and the two long lateral ones are only two +different views of the same leaf, while the central figure is a young leaf +just opening. It beat me, in its delicate bossing, and I had to leave it, +discontentedly enough. + +Plate IV. is much better work, being of an easier subject, adequately +enough rendered by perfectly simple means. Here I had only a succulent and +membranous surface to represent, with definite outlines, and merely +undulating folds; and this is sufficiently done by a careful and firm pen +outline on grey paper, with a slight wash of colour afterwards, reinforced +in the darks; then marking the lights with white. This method is classic +and authoritative, being used by many of the greatest masters, (by Holbein +continually;) and it is much the best which the general student can adopt +for expression of the action and muscular power of plants. + +The goodness or badness of such work depends absolutely on the truth of the +single line. You will find a thousand botanical drawings which will give +you a {116} delicate and deceptive resemblance of the leaf, for one that +will give you the right convexity in its backbone, the right perspective of +its peaks when they foreshorten, or the right relation of depth in the +shading of its dimples. On which, in leaves as in faces, no little +expression of temper depends. + +Meantime we have yet to consider somewhat more touching that temper itself, +in next chapter. + + * * * * * + +{117} + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM. + +1. I do not know if my readers were checked, as I wished them to be, at +least for a moment, in the close of the last chapter, by my talking of +thistles and dandelions changing into seaweed, by gradation of which, +doubtless, Mr. Darwin can furnish us with specious and sufficient +instances. But the two groups will not be contemplated in our Oxford system +as in any parental relations whatsoever. + +We shall, however, find some very notable relations existing between the +two groups of the wild flowers of dry land, which represent, in the widest +extent, and the distinctest opposition, the two characters of material +serviceableness and unserviceableness; the groups which in our English +classification will be easily remembered as those of the Thyme, and the +Daisy. + +The one, scented as with incense--medicinal--and in all gentle and humble +ways, useful. The other, scentless--helpless for ministry to the body; +infinitely dear as the bringer of light, ruby, white and gold; the three +colours of the Day, with no hue of shade in it. Therefore I {118} take it +on the coins of St. George for the symbol of the splendour or light of +heaven, which is dearest where humblest. + +2. Now these great two orders--of which the types are the thyme and the +daisy--you are to remember generally as the 'Herbs' and the 'Sunflowers.' +You are not to call them Lipped flowers, nor Composed flowers; because the +first is a vulgar term; for when you once come to be able to draw a lip, +or, in noble duty, to kiss one, you will know that no other flower in earth +is like that: and the second is an indefinite term; for a foxglove is as +much a 'composed' flower as a daisy; but it is composed in the shape of a +spire, instead of the shape of the sun. And again a thistle, which common +botany calls a composed flower, as well as a daisy, is composed in quite +another shape, being on the whole, bossy instead of flat; and of another +temper, or composition of mind, also, being connected in that respect with +butterburs, and a vast company of rough, knotty, half-black or brown, and +generally unluminous--flowers I can scarcely call them--and weeds I will +not,--creatures, at all events, in nowise to be gathered under the general +name 'Composed,' with the stars that crown Chaucer's Alcestis, when she +returns to the day from the dead. + +But the wilder and stronger blossoms of the Hawk's-eye--again you see I +refuse for them the word weed;--and the waste-loving Chicory, which the +Venetians call "Sponsa solis," are all to be held in one class with the +{119} Sunflowers; but dedicate,--the daisy to Alcestis alone; others to +Clytia, or the Physician Apollo himself: but I can't follow their mythology +yet awhile. + +3. Now in these two families you have typically Use opposed to Beauty in +_wildness_; it is their wildness which is their virtue;--that the thyme is +sweet where it is unthought of, and the daisies red, where the foot +despises them: while, in other orders, wildness is their +crime,--"Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, +brought it forth wild grapes?" But in all of them you must distinguish +between the pure wildness of flowers and their distress. It may not be our +duty to tame them; but it must be, to relieve. + +4. It chanced, as I was arranging the course of these two chapters, that I +had examples given me of distressed and happy wildness, in immediate +contrast. The first, I grieve to say, was in a bit of my own brushwood, +left uncared-for evidently many a year before it became mine. I had to cut +my way into it through a mass of thorny ruin; black, birds-nest like, +entanglement of brittle spray round twisted stems of ill-grown birches +strangling each other, and changing half into roots among the rock clefts; +knotted stumps of never-blossoming blackthorn, and choked stragglings of +holly, all laced and twisted and tethered round with an untouchable, almost +unhewable, thatch, a foot thick, of dead bramble and rose, laid over rotten +ground through which the water soaked ceaselessly, undermining it into +merely unctuous {120} clods and clots, knitted together by mossy sponge. It +was all Nature's free doing! she had had her way with it to the uttermost; +and clearly needed human help and interference in her business; and yet +there was not one plant in the whole ruinous and deathful riot of the +place, whose nature was not in itself wholesome and lovely; but all lost +for want of discipline. + +5. The other piece of wild growth was among the fallen blocks of limestone +under Malham Cove. Sheltered by the cliff above from stress of wind, the +ash and hazel wood spring there in a fair and perfect freedom, without a +diseased bough, or an unwholesome shade. I do not know why mine is all +encumbered with overgrowth, and this so lovely that scarce a branch could +be gathered but with injury;--while underneath, the oxalis, and the two +smallest geraniums (Lucidum and Herb-Robert) and the mossy saxifrage, and +the cross-leaved bed-straw, and the white pansy, wrought themselves into +wreaths among the fallen crags, in which every leaf rejoiced, and was at +rest. + +6. Now between these two states of equally natural growth, the point of +difference that forced itself on me (and practically enough, in the work I +had in my own wood), was not so much the withering and waste of the one, +and the life of the other, as the thorniness and cruelty of the one, and +the softness of the other. In Malham Cove, the stones of the brook were +softer with moss than any silken pillow--the crowded oxalis leaves yielded +to the pressure of the hand, and were not felt--the cloven {121} leaves of +the Herb-Robert and orbed clusters of its companion overflowed every rent +in the rude crags with living balm; there was scarcely a place left by the +tenderness of the happy things, where one might not lay down one's forehead +on their warm softness, and sleep. But in the waste and distressed ground, +the distress had changed itself to cruelty. The leaves had all perished, +and the bending saplings, and the wood of trust;--but the thorns were +there, immortal, and the gnarled and sapless roots, and the dusty +treacheries of decay. + +7. Of which things you will find it good to consider also otherwise than +botanically. For all these lower organisms suffer and perish, or are +gladdened and flourish, under conditions which are in utter precision +symbolical, and in utter fidelity representative, of the conditions which +induce adversity and prosperity in the kingdoms of men: and the Eternal +Demeter,--Mother, and Judge,--brings forth, as the herb yielding seed, so +also the thorn and the thistle, not to herself, but _to thee_. + +8. You have read the words of the great Law often enough;--have you ever +thought enough of them to know the difference between these two appointed +means of Distress? The first, the Thorn, is the type of distress _caused by +crime_, changing the soft and breathing leaf into inflexible and wounding +stubbornness. The second is the distress appointed to be the means and +herald of good,--Thou shalt see the stubborn thistle bursting, into glossy +purple, which outredden, all voluptuous garden roses. {122} + +9. It is strange that, after much hunting, I cannot find authentic note of +the day when Scotland took the thistle for her emblem; and I have no space +(in this chapter at least) for tradition; but, with whatever lightness of +construing we may receive the symbol, it is actually the truest that could +have been found, for some conditions of the Scottish mind. There is no +flower which the Proserpina of our Northern Sicily cherishes more dearly: +and scarcely any of us recognize enough the beautiful power of its +close-set stars, and rooted radiance of ground leaves; yet the stubbornness +and ungraceful rectitude of its stem, and the besetting of its wholesome +substance with that fringe of offence, and the forwardness of it, and +dominance,--I fear to lacess some of my dearest friends if I went on:--let +them rather, with Bailie Jarvie's true conscience,[33] take their Scott +from the inner shelf in their heart's library which all true Scotsmen give +him, and trace, with the swift reading of memory, the characters of Fergus +M'Ivor, Hector M'Intyre, Mause Headrigg, Alison Wilson, Richie {123} +Moniplies, and Andrew Fairservice; and then say, if the faults of all +these, drawn as they are with a precision of touch like a Corinthian +sculptor's of the acanthus leaf, can be found in anything like the same +strength in other races, or if so stubbornly folded and starched moni-plies +of irritating kindliness, selfish friendliness, lowly conceit, and +intolerable fidelity, are native to any other spot of the wild earth of the +habitable globe. + +10. Will you note also--for this is of extreme interest--that these +essential faults are all mean faults;--what we may call ground-growing +faults; conditions of semi-education, of hardly-treated homelife, or of +coarsely-minded and wandering prosperity. How literally may we go back from +the living soul symbolized, to the strangely accurate earthly symbol, in +the prickly weed. For if, with its bravery of endurance, and carelessness +in choice of home, we find also definite faculty and habit of migration, +volant mechanism for choiceless journey, not divinely directed in +pilgrimage to known shrines; but carried at the wind's will by a Spirit +which listeth _not_--it will go hard but that the plant shall become, if +not dreaded, at least despised; and, in its wandering and reckless +splendour, disgrace the garden of the sluggard, and possess the inheritance +of the prodigal: until even its own nature seems contrary to good, and the +invocation of the just man be made to it as the executor of Judgment, "Let +thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." + +11. Yet to be despised--either for men or flowers--may {124} be no +ill-fortune; the real ill-fortune is only to be despicable. These faults of +human character, wherever found, observe, belong to it as +ill-trained--incomplete; confirm themselves only in the vulgar. There is no +base pertinacity, no overweening conceit, in the Black Douglas, or +Claverhouse, or Montrose; in these we find the pure Scottish temper, of +heroic endurance and royal pride; but, when, in the pay, and not deceived, +but purchased, idolatry of Mammon, the Scottish persistence and pride +become knit and vested in the spleuchan, and your stiff Covenanter makes +his covenant with Death, and your Old Mortality deciphers only the +senseless legends of the eternal gravestone,--you get your weed, +earth-grown, in bitter verity, and earth-devastating, in bitter strength. + +12. I have told you, elsewhere, we are always first to study national +character in the highest and purest examples. But if our knowledge is to be +complete, we have to study also the special diseases of national character. +And in exact opposition to the most solemn virtue of Scotland, the domestic +truth and tenderness breathed in all Scottish song, you have this special +disease and mortal cancer, this woody-fibriness, literally, of temper and +thought: the consummation of which into pure lignite, or rather black +Devil's charcoal--the sap of the birks of Aberfeldy become cinder, and the +blessed juices of them, deadly gas,--you may know in its pure blackness +best in the work of the greatest of these ground-growing Scotchmen, Adam +Smith. {125} + +13. No man of like capacity, I believe, born of any other nation, could +have deliberately, and with no momentary shadow of suspicion or question, +formalized the spinous and monstrous fallacy that human commerce and policy +are _naturally_ founded on the desire of every man to possess his +neighbour's goods. + +_This_ is the 'release unto us Barabbas,' with a witness; and the +deliberate systematization of that cry, and choice, for perpetual +repetition and fulfilment in Christian statesmanship, has been, with the +strange precision of natural symbolism and retribution, signed, (as of old, +by strewing of ashes on Kidron,) by strewing of ashes on the brooks of +Scotland; waters once of life, health, music, and divine tradition; but to +whose festering scum you may now set fire with a candle; and of which, +round the once excelling palace of Scotland, modern sanitary science is now +helplessly contending with the poisonous exhalations. + +14. I gave this chapter its heading, because I had it in my mind to work +out the meaning of the fable in the ninth chapter of Judges, from what I +had seen on that thorny ground of mine, where the bramble was king over all +the trees of the wood. But the thoughts are gone from me now; and as I +re-read the chapter of Judges,--now, except in my memory, unread, as it +chances, for many a year,--the sadness of that story of Gideon fastens on +me, and silences me. _This_ the end of his angel visions, and dream-led +victories, the slaughter of all his {126} sons but this youngest,[34]--and +he never again heard of in Israel! + +You Scottish children of the Rock, taught through all your once pastoral +and noble lives by many a sweet miracle of dew on fleece and ground,--once +servants of mighty kings, and keepers of sacred covenant; have you indeed +dealt truly with your warrior kings, and prophet saints, or are these ruins +of their homes, and shrines, dark with the fire that fell from the curse of +Jerubbael? + + * * * * * + +{127} + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STEM. + +1. As I read over again, with a fresh mind, the last chapter, I am struck +by the opposition of states which seem best to fit a weed for a weed's +work,--stubbornness, namely, and flaccidity. On the one hand, a sternness +and a coarseness of structure which changes its stem into a stake, and its +leaf into a spine; on the other, an utter flaccidity and ventosity of +structure, which changes its stem into a riband, and its leaf into a +bubble. And before we go farther--for we are not yet at the end of our +study of these obnoxious things--we had better complete an examination of +the parts of a plant in general, by ascertaining what a Stem proper is; and +what makes it stiffer, or hollower, than we like it;--how, to wit, the +gracious and generous strength of ash differs from the spinous obstinacy of +blackthorn,--and how the geometric and enduring hollowness of a stalk of +wheat differs from the soft fulness of that of a mushroom. To which end, I +will take up a piece of study, not of black, but white, thorn, written last +spring. {128} + +2. I suppose there is no question but that all nice people like hawthorn +blossom. + +I want, if I can, to find out to-day, 25th May, 1875, what it is we like it +so much for: holding these two branches of it in my hand--one full out, the +other in youth. This full one is a mere mass of symmetrically +balanced--snow, one was going vaguely to write, in the first impulse. But +it is nothing of the sort. White,--yes, in a high degree; and pure, +totally; but not at all dazzling in the white, nor pure in an insultingly +rivalless manner, as snow would be; yet pure somehow, certainly; and white, +absolutely, in spite of what might be thought failure,--imperfection--nay, +even distress and loss in it. For every little rose of it has a green +darkness in the centre--not even a pretty green, but a faded, yellowish, +glutinous, unaccomplished green; and round that, all over the surface of +the blossom, whose shell-like petals are themselves deep sunk, with grey +shadows in the hollows of them--all above this already subdued brightness, +are strewn the dark points of the dead stamens--manifest more and more, the +longer one looks, as a kind of grey sand, sprinkled without sparing over +what looked at first unspotted light. And in all the ways of it the lovely +thing is more like the spring frock of some prudent little maid of +fourteen, than a flower;--frock with some little spotty pattern on it to +keep it from showing an unintended and inadvertent spot,--if Fate should +ever inflict such a thing! Undeveloped, thinks Mr. Darwin,--the poor {129} +short-coming, ill-blanched thorn blossom--going to be a Rose, some day +soon; and, what next?--who knows?--perhaps a Pĉony! + +3. Then this next branch, in dawn and delight of youth, set with opening +clusters of yet numerable blossom, four, and five, and seven, edged, and +islanded, and ended, by the sharp leaves of freshest green, deepened under +the flowers, and studded round with bosses, better than pearl beads of St. +Agnes' rosary,--folded, over and over, with the edges of their little +leaves pouting, as the very softest waves do on flat sand where one meets +another; then opening just enough to show the violet colour within--which +yet isn't violet colour, nor even "meno che le rose," but a different +colour from every other lilac that one ever saw;--faint and faded even +before it sees light, as the filmy cup opens over the depth of it, then +broken into purple motes of tired bloom, fading into darkness, as the cup +extends into the perfect rose. + +This, with all its sweet change that one would so fain stay, and soft +effulgence of bud into softly falling flower, one has watched--how often; +but always with the feeling that the blossoms are thrown over the green +depth like white clouds--never with any idea of so much as asking what +holds the cloud there. Have each of the innumerable blossoms a separate +stalk? and, if so, how is it that one never thinks of the stalk, as one +does with currants? + +4. Turn the side of the branch to you;--Nature never meant you to see it +so; but now it is all stalk below, and {130} stamens above,--the petals +nothing, the stalks all tiny trees, always dividing their branches mainly +into three--one in the centre short, and the two lateral, long, with an +intermediate extremely long one, if needed, to fill a gap, so contriving +that the flowers shall all be nearly at the same level, or at least surface +of ball, like a guelder rose. But the cunning with which the tree conceals +its structure till the blossom is fallen, and then--for a little while, we +had best look no more at it, for it is all like grape-stalks with no +grapes. + +These, whether carrying hawthorn blossom and haw, or grape blossom and +grape, or peach blossom and peach, you will simply call the 'stalk,' +whether of flower or fruit. A 'stalk' is essentially round, like a pillar; +and has, for the most part, the power of first developing, and then shaking +off, flower and fruit from its extremities. You can pull the peach from its +stalk, the cherry, the grape. Always at some time of its existence, the +flower-stalk lets fall something of what it sustained, petal or seed. + +In late Latin it is called 'petiolus,' the little foot; because the +expanding piece that holds the grape, or olive, is a little like an +animal's foot. Modern botanists have misapplied the word to the +_leaf_-stalk, which has no resemblance to a foot at all. We must keep the +word to its proper meaning, and, when we want to write Latin, call it +'petiolus;' when we want to write English, call it 'stalk,' meaning always +fruit or flower stalk. {131} + +I cannot find when the word 'stalk' first appears in English:--its +derivation will be given presently. + +5. Gather next a hawthorn leaf. That also has a stalk; but you can't shake +the leaf off it. It, and the leaf, are essentially one; for the sustaining +fibre runs up into every ripple or jag of the leaf's edge: and its section +is different from that of the flower-stalk; it is no more round, but has an +upper and under surface, quite different from each other. It will be +better, however, to take a larger leaf to examine this structure in. +Cabbage, cauliflower, or rhubarb, would any of them be good, but don't grow +wild in the luxuriance I want. So, if you please, we will take a leaf of +burdock, (Arctium Lappa,) the principal business of that plant being +clearly to grow leaves wherewith to adorn fore-grounds.[35] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.] + +6. The outline of it in Sowerby is not an intelligent one, and I have not +time to draw it but in the rudest way myself; Fig. 13, _a_; with +perspectives of the elementary form below, _b_, _c_, and d. By help of +which, if you will construct a burdock leaf in paper, my rude outline (_a_) +may tell the rest of what I want you to see. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.] + +Take a sheet of stout note paper, Fig. 14, A, double it sharply down the +centre, by the dotted line, then give it the two cuts at _a_ and _b_, and +double those pieces sharply back, as at B; then, opening them again, cut +the whole {132} into the form C; and then, pulling up the corners _c d_, +stitch them together with a loose thread so that the points _c_ and _d_ +shall be within half an inch of each other; and you will have a kind of +triangular scoop, or shovel, with a stem, by which you can sufficiently +hold it, D. + +7. And from this easily constructed and tenable model, you may learn at +once these following main facts about all leaves. {133} + +[I.] That they are not flat, but, however slightly, always hollowed into +craters, or raised into hills, in one or another direction; so that any +drawable outline of them does not in the least represent the real extent of +their surfaces; and until you know how to draw a cup, or a mountain, +rightly, you have no chance of drawing a leaf. My simple artist readers of +long ago, when I told them to draw leaves, thought they could do them by +the boughfull, whenever they liked. Alas, except by old William Hunt, and +Burne Jones, I've not seen a leaf painted, since those burdocks of +Turner's; far less sculptured--though one would think at first that was +easier! Of which we shall have talk elsewhere; here I must go on to note +fact number two, concerning leaves. + +{134} + +8. [II.] The strength of their supporting stem consists not merely in the +gathering together of all the fibres, but in gathering them essentially +into the profile of the letter V, which you will see your doubled paper +stem has; and of which you can feel the strength and use, in your hand, as +you hold it. Gather a common plantain leaf, and look at the way it puts its +round ribs together at the base, and you will understand the matter at +once. The arrangement is modified and disguised in every possible way, +according to the leaf's need: in the aspen, the leaf-stalk becomes an +absolute vertical plank; and in the large trees is often almost rounded +into the likeness of a fruit-stalk;--but, in all,[36] the essential +structure is this doubled one; and in all, it opens at the place where the +leaf joins the main stem, into a kind of cup, which holds next year's bud +in the hollow of it. + +9. Now there would be no inconvenience in your simply getting into the +habit of calling the round petiol of the fruit the 'stalk,' and the +contracted channel of the leaf, 'leaf-stalk.' But this way of naming them +would not enforce, nor fasten in your mind, the difference between the two, +so well as if you have an entirely different name for the leaf-stalk. Which +is the more desirable, because the limiting character of the leaf, +botanically, is--(I only learned this from my botanical friend the other +day, just {135} in the very moment I wanted it,)--that it holds the bud of +the new stem in its own hollow, but cannot itself grow in the hollow of +anything else;--or, in botanical language, leaves are never +axillary,--don't grow in armpits, but are themselves armpits; hollows, that +is to say, where they spring from the main stem. + +10. Now there is already a received and useful botanical word, 'cyme' +(which we shall want in a little while.) derived from the Greek [Greek: +kuma], a swelling or rising wave, and used to express a swelling cluster of +foamy blossom. Connected with that word, but in a sort the reverse of it, +you have the Greek '[Greek: kumbê],' the _hollow_ of a cup, or bowl; whence +[Greek: kumbalou], a cymbal,--that is to say, a musical instrument owing +its tone to its _hollowness_. These words become in Latin, cymba, and +cymbalum; and I think you will find it entirely convenient and advantageous +to call the leaf-stalk distinctively the 'cymba,' retaining the mingled +idea of cup and boat, with respect at least to the part of it that holds +the bud; and understanding that it gathers itself into a V-shaped, or even +narrowly vertical, section, as a boat narrows to its bow, for strength to +sustain the leaf. + +With this word you may learn the Virgilian line, that shows the final use +of iron--or iron-darkened--ships: + + "Et ferrugíneâ subvectat corpora cymbâ." + +The "subvectat corpora" will serve to remind you of the office of the leafy +cymba in carrying the bud; and make {136} you thankful that the said leafy +vase is not of iron; and is a ship of Life instead of Death. + +11. Already, not once, nor twice, I have had to use the word 'stem,' of the +main round branch from which both stalk and cymba spring. This word you had +better keep for all growing, or advancing, shoots of trees, whether from +the ground, or from central trunks and branches. I regret that the words +multiply on us; but each that I permit myself to use has its own proper +thought or idea to express, as you will presently perceive; so that true +knowledge multiplies with true words. + +12. The 'stem,' you are to say, then, when you mean the _advancing_ +shoot,--which lengthens annually, while a stalk ends every year in a +blossom, and a cymba in a leaf. A stem is essentially round,[37] square, or +regularly polygonal; though, as a cymba may become exceptionally round, a +stem may become exceptionally flat, or even mimic the shape of a leaf. +Indeed I should have liked to write "a stem is essentially round, and +constructively, on occasion, square,"--but it would have been too grand. +The fact is, however, that a stem is really a roundly minded thing, +throwing off its branches in circles as a trundled mop throws off drops, +though it can always order the branches to fly off in what order it +likes,--two at a time, opposite to each other; or three, or five, in a +spiral coil; or one here and one there, on this side and that; {137} but it +is always twisting, in its own inner mind and force; hence it is especially +proper to use the word 'stem' of it--[Greek: stemma], a twined wreath; +properly, twined round a staff, or sceptre: therefore, learn at once by +heart these lines in the opening Iliad: + + "[Greek: Stemmat' echôn en chersin hekêbolou Apollônos,] + [Greek: Chruseôi ana skêptrôi;]" + +And recollect that a sceptre is properly a staff to lean upon; and that as +a crown or diadem is first a binding thing, a 'sceptre' is first a +_supporting_ thing, and it is in its nobleness, itself made of the stem of +a young tree. You may just as well learn also this: + + "[Greek: Nai ma tode skêptron, to men oupote phulla kai ozous] + [Greek: Phusei, epeidê prôta tomên en oressi leloipen,] + [Greek: Oud' anathêlêsei; peri gar rha he chalkos elepse] + [Greek: Phulla te kai phloion; nun aute min huies Achaiôn] + [Greek: En palamêis phoreousi dikaspoloi, hoi te themistas] + [Greek: Pros Dios eiruatai;]" + + "Now, by this sacred sceptre hear me swear + Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear, + Which, severed from the trunk, (as I from thee,) + On the bare mountains left its parent tree; + This sceptre, formed by tempered steel to prove + An ensign of the delegates of Jove, + From whom the power of laws and justice springs + (Tremendous oath, inviolate to Kings)." + +13. The supporting power in the tree itself is, I doubt not, greatly +increased by this spiral action; and the fine {138} instinct of its being +so, caused the twisted pillar to be used in the Lombardic Gothic,--at +first, merely as a pleasant variety of form, but at last constructively and +universally, by Giotto, and all the architects of his school. Not that the +spiral form actually adds to the strength of a Lombardic pillar, by +imitating contortions of wood, any more than the fluting of a Doric shaft +adds to its strength by imitating the canaliculation of a reed; but the +perfect action of the imagination, which had adopted the encircling +acanthus for the capital, adopted the twining stemma for the shaft; the +pure delight of the eye being the first condition in either case: and it is +inconceivable how much of the pleasure taken both in ornament and in +natural form is founded elementarily on groups of spiral line. The study in +our fifth plate, of the involucre of the waste-thistle,[38] is as good an +example as I can give of the more subtle and concealed conditions of this +structure. + +14. Returning to our present business of nomenclature, we find the Greek +word, 'stemma,' adopted by the Latins, {139} becoming the expression of a +growing and hereditary race; and the branched tree, the natural type, among +all nations, of multiplied families. Hence the entire fitness of the word +for our present purposes; as signifying, "a spiral shoot extending itself +by branches." But since, unless it is spiral, it is not a stem, and unless +it has branches, it is not a stem, we shall still want another word for the +sustaining 'sceptre' of a foxglove, or cowslip. Before determining that, +however, we must see what need there may be of one familiar to our ears +until lately, although now, I understand, falling into disuse. + +15. By our definition, a stem is a spirally bent, essentially living and +growing, shoot of vegetation. But the branch of a tree, in which many such +stems have their origin, is not, except in a very subtle and partial way, +spiral; nor, except in the shoots that spring from it, progressive +forwards; it only receives increase of thickness at its sides. Much more, +what used to be called the _trunk_ of a tree, in which many branches are +united, has ceased to be, except in mere tendency and temper, spiral; and +has so far ceased from growing as to be often in a state of decay in its +interior, while the external layers are still in serviceable strength. + +16. If, however, a trunk were only to be defined as an arrested stem, or a +cluster of arrested stems, we might perhaps refuse, in scientific use, the +popular word. But such a definition does not touch the main idea. Branches +usually begin to assert themselves at a height above the {140} ground +approximately fixed for each species of tree,--low in an oak, high in a +stone pine; but, in both, marked as a point of _structural change in the +direction of growing force_, like the spring of a vault from a pillar; and +as the tree grows old, some of its branches getting torn away by winds or +falling under the weight of their own fruit, or load of snow, or by natural +decay, there remains literally a 'truncated' mass of timber, still bearing +irregular branches here and there, but inevitably suggestive of resemblance +to a human body, after the loss of some of its limbs. + +And to prepare trees for their practical service, what age and storm only +do partially, the first rough process of human art does completely. The +branches are lopped away, leaving literally the 'truncus' as the part of +the tree out of which log and rafter can be cut. And in many trees, it +would appear to be the chief end of their being to produce this part of +their body on a grand scale, and of noble substance; so that, while in +thinking of vegetable life without reference to its use to men or animals, +we should rightly say that the essence of it was in leaf and flower--not in +trunk or fruit; yet for the sake of animals, we find that some plants, like +the vine, are apparently meant chiefly to produce fruit; others, like +laurels, chiefly to produce leaves; others chiefly to produce flowers; and +others to produce permanently serviceable and sculptural wood; or, in some +cases, merely picturesque and monumental masses of vegetable rock, +"intertwisted {141} fibres serpentine,"--of far nobler and more pathetic +use in their places, and their enduring age, than ever they could be for +material purpose in human habitation. For this central mass of the +vegetable organism, then, the English word 'trunk' and French 'tronc' are +always in accurate scholarship to be retained--meaning the part of a tree +which remains when its branches are lopped away. + +17. We have now got distinct ideas of four different kinds of stem, and +simple names for them in Latin and English,--Petiolus, Cymba, Stemma, and +Truncus; Stalk, Leaf-stalk, Stem, and Trunk; and these are all that we +shall commonly need. There is, however, one more that will be sometimes +necessary, though it is ugly and difficult to pronounce, and must be as +little used as we can. + +And here I must ask you to learn with me a little piece of Roman history. I +say, to _learn_ with me, because I don't know any Roman history except the +two first books of Livy, and little bits here and there of the following +six or seven. I only just know enough about it to be able to make out the +bearings and meaning of any fact that I now learn. The greater number of +modern historians know, (if honest enough even for that,) the facts, or +something that may possibly be like the facts, but haven't the least notion +of the meaning of them. So that, though I have to find out everything that +I want in Smith's dictionary, like any schoolboy, I can usually tell you +the {142} significance of what I so find, better than perhaps even Mr. +Smith himself could. + +18. In the 586th page of Mr. Smith's volume, you have it written that +'Calvus,' bald-head, was the name of a family of the Licinia gens; that the +man of whom we hear earliest, as so named, was the first plebeian elected +to military tribuneship in B.C. 400; and that the fourth of whom we hear, +was surnamed 'Stolo,' because he was so particular in pruning away the +Stolons (stolones), or useless young shoots, of his vines. + +We must keep this word 'stolon,' therefore, for these young suckers +springing from an old root. Its derivation is uncertain; but the main idea +meant by it is one of uselessness,--sprouting without occasion or fruit; +and the words 'stolidus' and 'stolid' are really its derivatives, though we +have lost their sense in English by partly confusing them with 'solid' +which they have nothing to do with. A 'stolid' person is essentially a +'useless sucker' of society; frequently very leafy and graceful, but with +no good in him. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.] + +19. Nevertheless, I won't allow our vegetable 'stolons' to be despised. +Some of quite the most beautiful forms of leafage belong to them;--even the +foliage of the olive itself is never seen to the same perfection on the +upper branches as in the young ground-rods in which the dual groups of +leaves crowd themselves in their haste into clusters of three. + +But, for our point of Latin history, remember always {143} that in 400 +B.C., just a year before the death of Socrates at Athens, this family of +Stolid persons manifested themselves at Rome, shooting up from plebeian +roots into places where they had no business; and preparing the way for the +degradation of the entire Roman race under the Empire; their success being +owed, remember also, to the faults of the patricians, for one of the laws +passed by Calvus Stolo was that the Sibylline books should be in custody of +ten men, of whom five should be plebeian, "that no falsifications might be +introduced in favour of the patricians." + +20. All this time, however, we have got no name for the prettiest of all +stems,--that of annual flowers growing high from among their ground leaves, +like lilies of the valley, and saxifrages, and the tall primulas--of which +this pretty type, Fig. 15, was cut for me by Mr. Burgess years ago; +admirable in its light outline of the foamy globe of flowers, supported and +balanced in the meadow breezes on that elastic rod of slenderest life. + +What shall we call it? We had better rest from our study of terms a little, +and do a piece of needful classifying, before we try to name it. + +21. My younger readers will find it easy to learn, and convenient to +remember, for a beginning of their science, {144} the names of twelve great +families of cinquefoiled flowers,[39] of which the first group of three, is +for the most part golden, the second, blue, the third, purple, and the +fourth, red. + +And their names, by simple lips, can be pleasantly said, or sung, in this +order, the two first only being a little difficult to get over. + + 1 2 3 4 + + Roof-foil, Lucy, Pea, Pink, + Rock-foil, Blue-bell, Pansy, Peach, + Primrose. Bindweed. Daisy. Rose. + +Which even in their Latin magniloquence will not be too terrible, namely,-- + + 1 2 3 4 + + Stella, Lucia, Alata, Clarissa, + Francesca, Campanula, Viola, Persica, + Primula. Convoluta. Margarita. Rosa. + +22. I do not care much to assert or debate my reasons for the changes of +nomenclature made in this list. The {145} most gratuitous is that of 'Lucy' +for 'Gentian,' because the King of Macedon, from whom the flower has been +so long named, was by no means a person deserving of so consecrated memory. +I conceive no excuse needed for rejecting Caryophyll, one of the crudest +and absurdest words ever coined by unscholarly men of science; or +Papilionaceĉ, which is unendurably long for pease; and when we are now +writing Latin, in a sentimental temper, and wish to say that we gathered a +daisy, we shall not any more be compelled to write that we gathered a +'Bellidem perennem,' or, an 'Oculum Diei.' + +I take the pure Latin form, Margarita, instead of Margareta, in memory of +Margherita of Cortona,[40] as well as of the great saint: also the tiny +scatterings and sparklings of the daisy on the turf may remind us of the +old use of the word 'Margaritĉ,' for the minute particles of the Host +sprinkled on the patina--"Has particulas [Greek: meridas] vocat +Euchologium, [Greek: margaritas] Liturgia Chrysostomi."[41] My young German +readers will, I hope, call the flower Gretschen,--unless they would uproot +the daisies of the Rhine, lest French girls should also count their +love-lots by the Marguerite. I must be so ungracious to my fair young +readers, however, as to warn them that this trial of their lovers is a very +favourable one, for, in nine blossoms out of {146} ten, the leaves of the +Marguerite are odd, so that, if they are only gracious enough to begin with +the supposition that he loves them, they must needs end in the conviction +of it. + +23. I am concerned, however, for the present, only with my first or golden +order, of which the Roof-foil, or house-leek, is called in present botany, +Sedum, 'the squatter,' because of its way of fastening itself down on +stones, or roof, as close as it can sit. But I think this an ungraceful +notion of its behaviour; and as its blossoms are, of all flowers, the most +sharply and distinctly star-shaped, I shall call it 'Stella' (providing +otherwise, in due time, for the poor little chickweeds;) and the common +stonecrop will therefore be 'Stella domestica.' + +The second tribe, (at present saxifraga,) growing for the most part wild on +rocks, may, I trust, even in Protestant botany, be named Francesca, after +St. Francis of Assisi; not only for its modesty, and love of mountain +ground, and poverty of colour and leaf; but also because the chief element +of its decoration, seen close, will be found in its spots, or stigmata. + +In the nomenclature of the third order I make no change. + +24. Now all this group of golden-blossoming plants agree in general +character of having a rich cluster of radical leaves, from which they throw +up a single stalk bearing clustered blossoms; for which stalk, when +entirely leafless, I intend always to keep the term 'virgula,' the {147} +'little rod'--not painfully caring about it, but being able thus to define +it with precision, if required. And these are connected with the stems of +branching shrubs through infinite varieties of structure, in which the +first steps of transition are made by carrying the cluster of radical +leaves up, and letting them expire gradually from the rising stem: the +changes of form in the leaves as they rise higher from the ground being one +of quite the most interesting specific studies in every plant. I had set +myself once, in a bye-study for foreground drawing, hard on this point; and +began, with Mr. Burgess, a complete analysis of the foliation of annual +stems; of which Line-studies II., III., and IV., are examples; reduced +copies, all, from the beautiful Flora Danica. But after giving two whole +lovely long summer days, under the Giesbach, to the blue scabious, +('Devil's bit,') and getting in that time, only half-way up it, I gave in; +and must leave the work to happier and younger souls. + +25. For these flowering stems, therefore, possessing nearly all the complex +organization of a tree, but not its permanence, we will keep the word +'virga;' and 'virgula' for those that have no leaves. I believe, when we +come to the study of leaf-order, it will be best to begin with these annual +virgĉ, in which the leaf has nothing to do with preparation for a next +year's branch. And now the remaining terms commonly applied to stems may be +for the most part dispensed with; but several are interesting, and must be +examined before dismissal. {148} + +26. Indeed, in the first place, the word we have to use so often, 'stalk,' +has not been got to the roots of, yet. It comes from the Greek [Greek: +stelechos,] (stelechos,) the 'holding part' of a tree, that which is like a +handle to all its branches; 'stock' is another form in which it has come +down to us: with some notion of its being the mother of branches: thus, +when Athena's olive was burnt by the Persians, two days after, a shoot a +cubit long had sprung from the 'stelechos,' of it. + +27. Secondly. Few words are more interesting to the modern scholarly and +professorial mind than 'stipend.' (I have twice a year at present to +consider whether I am worth mine, sent with compliments from the Curators +of the University chest). Now, this word comes from 'stips,' small pay, +which itself comes from 'stipo,' to press together, with the idea of small +coin heaped up in little towers or piles. But with the idea of lateral +pressing together, instead of downward, we get 'stipes,' a solid log; in +Greek, with the same sense, [Greek: stupos,] (stupos,) whence, gradually, +with help from another word meaning to beat, (and a side-glance at beating +of hemp,) we get our 'stupid,' the German stumph, the Scottish sumph, and +the plain English 'stump.' + +Refining on the more delicate sound of stipes, the Latins got 'stipula,' +the thin stem of straw: which rustles and ripples daintily in verse, +associated with spica and spiculum, used of the sharp pointed ear of corn, +and its fine processes of fairy shafts. {149} + +28. There are yet two more names of stalk to be studied, though, except for +particular plants, not needing to be used,--namely, the Latin cau-dex, and +cau-lis, both connected with the Greek [Greek: kaulos], properly meaning a +solid stalk like a handle, passing into the sense of the hilt of a sword, +or quill of a pen. Then, in Latin, caudex passes into the sense of log, and +so, of cut plank or tablet of wood; thus finally becoming the classical +'codex' of writings engraved on such wooden tablets, and therefore +generally used for authoritative manuscripts. + +Lastly, 'caulis,' retained accurately in our cauliflower, contracted in +'colewort,' and refined in 'kail,' softens itself into the French 'chou,' +meaning properly the whole family of thick-stalked eatable salads with +spreading heads; but these being distinguished explicitly by Pliny as +'Capitati,' 'salads with a head,' or 'Captain salads,' the mediĉval French +softened the 'caulis capitatus' into 'chou cabus;'--or, to separate the +round or apple-like mass of leaves from the flowery foam, 'cabus' simply, +by us at last enriched and emphasized into 'cabbage.' + +29. I believe we have now got through the stiffest piece of etymology we +shall have to master in the course of our botany; but I am certain that +young readers will find patient work, in this kind, well rewarded by the +groups of connected thoughts which will thus attach themselves to familiar +names; and their grasp of every language they learn must only be esteemed +by them secure when they recognize its derivatives in these homely +associations, {150} and are as much at ease with the Latin or French +syllables of a word as with the English ones; this familiarity being above +all things needful to cure our young students of their present ludicrous +impression that what is simple, in English, is knowing, in Greek; and that +terms constructed out of a dead language will explain difficulties which +remained insoluble in a living one. But Greek is _not_ yet dead: while if +we carry our unscholarly nomenclature much further, English soon will be; +and then doubtless botanical gentlemen at Athens will for some time think +it fine to describe what we used to call caryophyllaceĉ, as the [Greek: +hedlêphides]. + +30. For indeed we are all of us yet but school-boys, clumsily using alike +our lips and brains; and with all our mastery of instruments and patience +of attention, but few have reached, and those dimly, the first level of +science,--wonder. + +For the first instinct of the stem,--unnamed by us yet--unthought of,--the +instinct of seeking light, as of the root to seek darkness,--what words can +enough speak the wonder of it. + +Look. Here is the little thing, Line-study V. (A), in its first birth to +us: the stem of stems; the one of which we pray that it may bear our daily +bread. The seed has fallen in the ground with the springing germ of it +downwards; with heavenly cunning the taught stem curls round, and seeks the +never-seen light. Veritable 'conversion,' miraculous, called of God. And +here is the oat {151} germ, (B)--after the wheat, most vital of divine +gifts; and assuredly, in days to come, fated to grow on many a naked rock +in hitherto lifeless lands, over which the glancing sheaves of it will +shake sweet treasure of innocent gold. + +And who shall tell us how they grow; and the fashion of their rustling +pillars--bent, and again erect, at every breeze. Fluted shaft or clustered +pier, how poor of art, beside this grass-shaft--built, first to sustain the +food of men, then to be strewn under their feet! + +We must not stay to think of it, yet, or we shall get no farther till +harvest has come and gone again. And having our names of stems now +determined enough, we must in next chapter try a little to understand the +different kinds of them. + +The following notes, among many kindly sent me on the subject of Scottish +Heraldry, seem to be the most trustworthy:-- + + "The earliest known mention of the thistle as the national badge of + Scotland is in the inventory of the effects of James III., who probably + adopted it as an appropriate illustration of the royal motto, _In + defence_. + + "Thistles occur on the coins of James IV., Mary, James V., and James + VI.; and on those of James VI. they are for the first time accompanied + by the motto, _Nemo me impune lacesset_. + + "A collar of thistles appears on the gold bonnet-pieces of James V. of + 1539; and the royal ensigns, as depicted in Sir David Lindsay's + armorial register of 1542, are surrounded by a collar formed entirely + of golden thistles, with an oval badge attached. {152} + + "This collar, however, was a mere device until the institution, or as + it is generally but inaccurately called, the revival, of the order of + the Thistle by James VII. (II. of England), which took place on May 29, + 1687." + + Date of James III.'s reign 1460-1488. + + * * * * * + +{153} + +CHAPTER IX. + +OUTSIDE AND IN. + +1. The elementary study of methods of growth, given in the following +chapter, has been many years written, (the greater part soon after the +fourth volume of 'Modern Painters'); and ought now to be rewritten +entirely; but having no time to do this, I leave it with only a word or two +of modification, because some truth and clearness of incipient notion will +be conveyed by it to young readers, from which I can afterwards lop the +errors, and into which I can graft the finer facts, better than if I had a +less blunt embryo to begin with. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.] + +2. A stem, then, broadly speaking, (I had thus began the old chapter,) is +the channel of communication between the leaf and root; and if the leaf can +grow directly from the root there is no stem: so that it is well first to +conceive of all plants as consisting of leaves and roots only, with the +condition that each leaf must have its own quite particular root[42] +somewhere. {154} Let a b c, Fig. 16, be three leaves, each, as you see, +with its own root, and by no means dependent on other leaves for its daily +bread; and let the horizontal line be the surface of the ground. Then the +plant has no stem, or an underground one. But if the three leaves rise +above the ground, as in Fig. 17, they must reach their roots by elongating +their stalks, and this elongation is the stem of the plant. If the outside +leaves grow last, and are therefore youngest, the plant is said to grow +from the outside. You know that 'ex' means out, and that 'gen' is the first +syllable of Genesis (or creation), therefore the old botanists, putting an +o between the two syllables, called plants whose outside leaves grew last, +Ex-o-gens. If the inside leaf grows last, and is youngest, the plant was +said to grow from the inside, and from the Greek Endon, within, called an +'Endo-gen.' If these names are persisted in, the Greek botanists, to return +the compliment, will of course call Endogens [Greek: Inseidbornides], and +Exogens [Greek: Houtseidbornides]. In the Oxford school, they will be +called simply Inlaid and Outlaid. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.] + +3. You see that if the outside leaves are to grow last, they may +conveniently grow two at a time; which they accordingly do, and exogens +always start with two little {155} leaves from their roots, and may +therefore conveniently be called two-leaved; which, if you please, we will +for our parts call them. The botanists call them 'two-suckered,' and can't +be content to call them _that_ in English; but drag in a long Greek word, +meaning the fleshy sucker of the sea-devil,--'cotyledon,' which, however, I +find is practically getting shortened into 'cot,' and that they will have +to end by calling endogens, monocots, and exogens, bicots. I mean steadily +to call them one-leaved and two-leaved, for this further reason, that they +differ not merely in the single or dual springing of first leaves from the +seed; but in the distinctly single or dual arrangement of leaves afterwards +on the stem; so that, through all the complexity obtained by alternate and +spiral placing, every bicot or two-leaved flower or tree is in reality +composed of dual groups of leaves, separated by a given length of stem; as, +most characteristically in this pure mountain type of the Ragged Robin +(Clarissa laciniosa), Fig. 18; and compare A, and B, Line-study II.; while, +on the other hand, the monocot plants are by close analysis, I think, +always resolvable into successively climbing leaves, sessile on one +another, and sending their roots, {156} or processes, for nourishment, down +through one another, as in Fig. 19. + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.] + +4. Not that I am yet clear, at all, myself; but I do think it's more the +botanists' fault than mine, what 'cotyledonous' structure there may be at +the outer base of each successive bud; and still less, how the intervenient +length of stem, in the bicots, is related to their power, or law, of +branching. For not only the two-leaved tree is outlaid, and the one-leaved +inlaid, but the two-leaved tree is branched, and the one-leaved tree is not +branched. This is a most vital and important distinction, which I state to +you in very bold terms, for though there are some apparent exceptions to +the law, there are, I believe, no real ones, if we define a branch rightly. +Thus, the head of a palm tree is merely a cluster of large leaves; and the +spike of a grass, a clustered blossom. The stem, in both, is unbranched; +and we should be able in this respect to classify plants very simply +indeed, but for a provoking species of intermediate creatures whose +branching is always in the manner of corals, or sponges, or arborescent +minerals, irregular and accidental, and essentially, therefore, +distinguished from the systematic anatomy of a truly branched tree. Of +these presently; we must go on by very short steps: and I find no step can +be taken without check from existing generalizations. Sowerby's definition +of Monocotyledons, in his ninth volume, begins thus: "Herbs, (or rarely, +and only in exotic genera,) trees, in which the wood, pith, and bark are +indistinguishable." {157} Now if there be one plant more than another in +which the pith is defined, it is the common Rush; while the nobler families +of true herbs derive their principal character from being pithless +altogether! We cannot advance too slowly. + +5. In the families of one-leaved plants in which the young leaves grow +directly out of the old ones, it becomes a grave question for them whether +the old ones are to lie flat or edgeways, and whether they must therefore +grow out of their faces or their edges. And we must at once understand the +way they contrive it, in either case. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.] + +Among the many forms taken by the Arethusan leaf, one of the commonest is +long and gradually tapering,--much broader at the base than the point. We +will take such an one for examination, and suppose that it is growing on +the ground as in Fig. 20, with a root to its every fibre. Cut out a piece +of strong paper roughly into the shape of this Arethusan leaf, a, Fig. 21. +Now suppose the next young leaf has to spring out of the front of this one, +at about the middle of its height. Give it two nicks with the scissors at b +b; then roll up the lower part into a cylinder, (it will overlap a good +deal at the bottom,) and tie it fast with a fine thread: so, you will get +the form at c. Then bend the top of it back, so that, seen sideways, it +appears as at d, and you see you have made quite a little flower-pot to +plant your {158} new leaf in, and perhaps it may occur to you that you have +seen something like this before. Now make another, a little less wide, but +with the part for the cylinder twice as long, roll it up in the same way, +and slip it inside the other, with the flat part turned the other way, e. +Surely this reminds you now of something you have seen? Or must I draw the +something (Fig. 22)? + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.] + +6. All grasses are thus constructed, and have their leaves set thus, +opposite, on the sides of their tubular stems, alternately, as they ascend. +But in most of them there is also a peculiar construction, by which, at the +base of the sheath, or enclosing tube, each leaf articulates itself with +the rest of the stem at a ringed knot, or joint. {159} + +[Illustration: FIG. 22.] + +Before examining these, remember there are mainly two sorts of joints in +the framework of the bodies of animals. One is that in which the bone is +thick at the joints and thin between them, (see the bone of the next +chicken leg you eat), the other is that of animals that have shells or +horny coats, in which characteristically the shell is thin at the joints, +and thick between them (look at the next lobster's claw you can see, +without eating). You know, also, that though the crustaceous are titled +only from their crusts, the name 'insect' is given to the whole insect +tribe, because they are farther jointed almost into _sect_ions: it is +easily remembered, also, that the projecting joint means strength and +elasticity in the creature, and that all its limbs are useful to it, and +cannot conveniently be parted with; and that the incised, sectional, or +insectile joint means more or less weakness,[43] and necklace-like laxity +or license in the creature's make; and an ignoble power of shaking off its +legs or arms on occasion, coupled also with modes of growth involving +occasionally quite astonishing transformations, and beginnings of new life +under new circumstances; so that, until very lately, no mortal knew what a +crab was like in its youth, the very existence {160} of the creature, as +well as its legs, being jointed, as it were and made in separate pieces +with the narrowest possible thread of connection between them; and its +principal, or stomachic, period of life, connected with its sentimental +period by as thin a thread as a wasp's stomach is with its thorax. + +7. Now in plants, as in animals, there are just the same opposed aspects of +joint, with this specialty of difference in function, that the animal's +limb bends at the joints, but the vegetable limb stiffens. And when the +articulation projects, as in the joint of a cane, it means not only that +the strength of the plant is well carried through the junction, but is +carried farther and more safely than it could be without it: a cane is +stronger, and can stand higher than it could otherwise, because of its +joints. Also, this structure implies that the plant has a will of its own, +and a position which on the whole it will keep, however it may now and then +be bent out of it; and that it has a continual battle, of a healthy and +humanlike kind, to wage with surrounding elements. + +But the crabby, or insect-like, joint, which you get in seaweeds and cacti, +means either that the plant is to be dragged and wagged here and there at +the will of waves, and to have no spring nor mind of its own; or else that +it has at least no springy intention and elasticity of purpose, but only a +knobby, knotty, prickly, malignant stubbornness, and incoherent +opiniativeness; crawling about, and coggling, and grovelling, and +aggregating {161} anyhow, like the minds of so many people whom one knows! + +8. Returning then to our grasses, in which the real rooting and junction of +the leaves with each other is at these joints; we find that therefore every +leaf of grass may be thought of as consisting of two main parts, for which +we shall want two separate names. The lowest part, which wraps itself round +to become strong, we will call the 'staff,' and for the free-floating outer +part we will take specially the name given at present carelessly to a large +number of the plants themselves, 'flag.' This will give a more clear +meaning to the words 'rod' (virga), and 'staff' (baculus), when they occur +together, as in the 23rd Psalm; and remember the distinction is that a rod +bends like a switch, but a staff is stiff. I keep the well-known name +'blade' for grass-leaves in their fresh green state. + +9. You felt, as you were bending down the paper into the form d, Fig. 21, +the difficulty and awkwardness of the transition from the tubular form of +the staff to the flat one of the flag. The mode in which this change is +effected is one of the most interesting features in plants, for you will +find presently that the leaf-stalk in ordinary leaves is only a means of +accomplishing the same change from round to flat. But you know I said just +now that some leaves were not flat, but set upright, edgeways. It is not a +common position in two-leaved trees; but if you can run out and look at an +arbor vitĉ, it may interest you {162} to see its hatchet-shaped vertically +crested cluster of leaves transforming themselves gradually downwards into +branches; and in one-leaved trees the vertically edged group is of great +importance. + +[Illustration: FIG. 23.] + +10. Cut out another piece of paper like a in Fig. 21, but now, instead of +merely giving it nicks at a, b, cut it into the shape A, Fig. 23. Roll the +lower part up as before, but instead of pulling the upper part down, pinch +its back at the dotted line, and bring the two points, a and b, forward, so +that they may touch each other. B shows the look of the thing half-done, +before the points a and b have quite met. Pinch them close, and stitch the +two edges neatly together, all the way from a to the point c; then roll and +tie up the lower part as before. You will find then that the back or spinal +line of the whole leaf is bent forward, as at B. Now go out to the garden +and gather the green leaf of a fleur-de-lys, and look at it and your piece +of disciplined paper together; and I fancy you will probably find out +several things for yourself that I want you to know. + +11. You see, for one thing, at once, how _strong_ the fleur-de-lys leaf is, +and that it is just twice as strong as a blade of grass, for it is the +substance of the staff, with its sides flattened together, while the grass +blade is a staff cut {163} open and flattened out. And you see that as a +grass blade necessarily flaps down, the fleur-de-lys leaf as necessarily +curves up, owing to that inevitable bend in its back. And you see, with its +keen edge, and long curve, and sharp point, how like a sword it is. The +botanists would for once have given a really good and right name to the +plants which have this kind of leaf, 'Ensatĉ,' from the Latin 'ensis,' a +sword; if only sata had been properly formed from sis. We can't let the +rude Latin stand, but you may remember that the fleur-de-lys, which is the +flower of chivalry, has a sword for its leaf, and a lily for its heart. + +12. In case you cannot gather a fleur-de-lys leaf, I have drawn for you, in +Plate VI., a cluster of such leaves, which are as pretty as any, and so +small that, missing the points of a few, I can draw them of their actual +size. You see the pretty alternate interlacing at the bottom, and if you +can draw at all, and will try to outline their curves, you will find what +subtle lines they are. I did not know this name for the strong-edged grass +leaves when I wrote the pieces about shield and sword leaves in 'Modern +Painters'; I wish I had chanced in those passages on some other similitude, +but I can't alter them now, and my trustful pupils may avoid all confusion +of thought by putting gladius for ensis, and translating it by the word +'scymitar,' which is also more accurate in expressing the curvature blade. +So we will call the ensatĉ, instead, 'gladiolĉ,' translating, +'scymitar-grasses.' And having {164} now got at some clear idea of the +distinction between outlaid and inlaid growth in the stem, the reader will +find the elementary analysis of forms resulting from outlaid growth in +'Modern Painters'; and I mean to republish it in the sequel of this book, +but must go on to other matters here. The growth of the inlaid stem we will +follow as far as we need, for English plants, in examining the glasses. + +FLORENCE, _11th September, 1874_. + +As I correct this chapter for press, I find it is too imperfect to be let +go without a word or two more. In the first place, I have not enough, in +distinguishing the nature of the living yearly shoot, with its cluster of +fresh leafage, from that of the accumulated mass of perennial trees, taken +notice of the similar power even of the annual shoot, to obtain some manner +of immortality for itself, or at least of usefulness, _after_ death. A +Tuscan woman stopped me on the path up to Fiesole last night, to beg me to +buy her plaited straw. I wonder how long straw lasts, if one takes care of +it? A Leghorn bonnet, (if now such things are,) carefully put away,--even +properly taken care of when it is worn,--how long will it last, young +ladies? + +I have just been reading the fifth chapter of II. Esdras, and am fain to +say, with less discomfort than otherwise I might have felt, (the example +being set me by the archangel Uriel,) "I am not sent to tell thee, for I do +not know." How old is the oldest straw known? the oldest {165} linen? the +oldest hemp? We have mummy wheat,--cloth of papyrus, which is a kind of +straw. The paper reeds by the brooks, the flax-flower in the field, leave +such imperishable frame behind them. And Ponte-della-Paglia, in Venice; and +Straw Street, of Paris, remembered in Heaven,--there is no occasion to +change their names, as one may have to change 'Waterloo Bridge,' or the +'Rue de l'Impératrice.' Poor Empress! Had she but known that her true +dominion was in the straw streets of her fields; not in the stone streets +of her cities! + +But think how wonderful this imperishableness of the stem of many plants +is, even in their annual work: how much more in their perennial work! The +noble stability between death and life, of a piece of perfect wood? It +cannot grow, but will not decay; keeps record of its years of life, but +surrenders them to become a constantly serviceable thing: which may be +sailed in, on the sea, built with, on the land, carved by Donatello, +painted on by Fra Angelico. And it is not the wood's fault, but the fault +of Florence in not taking proper care of it, that the panel of Sandro +Botticelli's loveliest picture has cracked, (not with heat, I believe, but +blighting frost), a quarter of an inch wide through the Madonna's face. + +But what is this strange state of undecaying wood? What sort of latent life +has it, which it only finally parts with when it rots? + +Nay, what is the law by which its natural life is measured? What makes a +tree 'old'? One sees the {166} Spanish-chesnut trunks among the Apennines +growing into caves, instead of logs. Vast hollows, confused among the +recessed darknesses of the marble crags, surrounded by mere laths of living +stem, each with its coronal of glorious green leaves. Why can't the tree go +on, and on,--hollowing itself into a Fairy--no--a Dryad, Ring,--till it +becomes a perfect Stonehenge of a tree? Truly, "I am not sent to tell thee, +for I do not know." + +The worst of it is, however, that I don't know one thing which I ought very +thoroughly to have known at least thirty years ago, namely, the true +difference in the way of building the trunk in outlaid and inlaid wood. I +have an idea that the stem of a palm-tree is only a heap of leaf-roots +built up like a tower of bricks, year by year, and that the palm tree +really grows on the top of it, like a bunch of fern; but I've no books +here, and no time to read them if I had. If only I were a strong giant, +instead of a thin old gentleman of fifty-five, how I should like to pull up +one of those little palm-trees by the roots--(by the way, what are the +roots of a palm like? and, how does it stand in sand, where it is wanted to +stand, mostly? Fancy, not knowing that, at fifty-five!)--that grow all +along the Riviera; and snap its stem in two, and cut it down the middle. +But I suppose there are sections enough now in our grand botanical +collections, and you can find it all out for yourself. That you should be +able to ask a question clearly, is two-thirds of the way to getting it +answered; and I think this chapter of mine will at {167} least enable you +to ask some questions about the stem, though what a stem is, truly, "I am +not sent to tell thee, for I do not know." + +KNARESBOROUGH, _30th April, 1876_. + +I see by the date of last paragraph that this chapter has been in my good +Aylesbury printer's type for more than a year and a half. At this rate, +Proserpina has a distant chance of being finished in the spirit-land, with +more accurate information derived from the archangel Uriel himself, (not +that he is likely to know much about the matter, if he keeps on letting +himself be prevented from ever seeing foliage in spring-time by the black +demon-winds,) about the year 2000. In the meantime, feeling that perhaps I +_am_ sent to tell my readers a little more than is above told, I have had +recourse to my botanical friend, good Mr. Oliver of Kew, who has taught me, +first, of palms, that they actually stitch themselves into the ground, with +a long dipping loop, up and down, of the root fibres, concerning which +sempstress-work I shall have a month's puzzlement before I can report on +it; secondly, that all the increment of tree stem is, by division and +multiplication of the cells of the wood, a process not in the least to be +described as 'sending down roots from the leaf to the ground.' I suspected +as much in beginning to revise this chapter; but hold to my judgment in not +cancelling it. For this multiplication of the cells is at least compelled +by an influence which passes from the leaf to the ground, and vice versa; +and which is at present best {168} conceivable to me by imagining the +continual and invisible descent of lightning from electric cloud by a +conducting rod, endowed with the power of softly splitting the rod into two +rods, each as thick as the original one. Studying microscopically, we +should then see the molecules of copper, as we see the cells of the wood, +dividing and increasing, each one of them into two. But the visible result, +and mechanical conditions of growth, would still be the same as if the leaf +actually sent down a new root fibre; and, more than this, the currents of +accumulating substance, marked by the grain of the wood, are, I think, +quite plainly and absolutely those of streams flowing only from the leaves +downwards; never from the root up, nor of mere lateral increase. I must +look over all my drawings again, and at tree stems again, with more +separate study of the bark and pith in those museum sections, before I can +assert this; but there will be no real difficulty in the investigation. If +the increase of the wood is lateral only, the currents round the knots will +be compressed at the sides, and open above and below; but if downwards, +compressed above the knot and open below it. The nature of the force +itself, and the manner of its ordinances in direction, remain, and must for +ever remain, inscrutable as our own passions, in the hand of the God of all +Spirits, and of all Flesh. + + "Drunk is each ridge, of thy cup drinking, + Each clod relenteth at thy dressing, + {169} + Thy cloud-borne waters inly sinking, + Fair spring sproutes forth, blest with thy blessing; + The fertile year is with thy bounty crouned, + And where thou go'st, thy goings fat the ground. + + Plenty bedews the desert places, + A hedge of mirth the hills encloseth. + The fields with flockes have hid their faces, + A robe of corn the valleys clotheth. + Deserts and hills and fields and valleys all, + Rejoice, shout, sing, and on thy name do call." + + * * * * * + +{170} + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BARK. + +1. Philologists are continually collecting instances, like our friend the +French critic of Virgil, of the beauty of finished language, or the origin +of unfinished, in the imitation of natural sounds. But such collections +give an entirely false idea of the real power of language, unless they are +balanced by an opponent list of the words which signally fail of any such +imitative virtue, and whose sound, if one dwelt upon it, is destructive of +their meaning. + +2. For instance. Few sounds are more distinct in their kind, or one would +think more likely to be vocally reproduced in the word which signified +them, than that of a swift rent in strongly woven cloth; and the English +word 'rag' and ragged, with the Greek [Greek: rhêgnumi], do indeed in a +measure recall the tormenting effect upon the ear. But it is curious that +the verb which is meant to express the actual origination of rags, should +rhyme with two words entirely musical and peaceful--words, indeed, which I +always reserve for final resource in passages which I want to be soothing +as well as pretty,--'fair,' and {171} 'air;' while, in its orthography, it +is identical with the word representing the bodily sign of tenderest +passion, and grouped with a multitude of others,[44] in which the mere +insertion of a consonant makes such wide difference of sentiment as between +'dear' and 'drear,' or 'pear' and 'spear.' The Greek root, on the other +hand, has persisted in retaining some vestige of its excellent dissonance, +even where it has parted with the last vestige of the idea it was meant to +convey; and when Burns did his best,--and his best was above most men's--to +gather pleasant liquid and labial syllabling, round gentle meaning, in + + "Bonnie lassie, will ye go, + Will ye go, will ye go, + Bonnie lassie, will ye go, + To the birks of Aberfeldy?" + +he certainly had little thought that the delicately crisp final k, in birk, +was the remnant of a magnificent Greek effort to express the rending of the +earth by earthquake, in the wars of the giants. In the middle of that word +'esmarag[=e]se,' we get our own beggar's 'rag' for a pure root, which +afterwards, through the Latin frango, softens into our 'break,' and +'bark,'--the 'broken thing'; that idea of its rending around the tree's +stem having been, in the very earliest human efforts at botanical +description, {172} attached to it by the pure Aryan race, watching the +strips of rosy satin break from the birch stems, in the Aberfeldys of +Imaus. + +3. That this tree should have been the only one which "the Aryans, coming +as conquerors from the North, were able to recognize in Hindustan,"[45] and +should therefore also be "the only one whose name is common to Sanskrit, +and to the languages of Europe," delighted me greatly, for two reasons: the +first, for its proof that in spite of the development of species, the sweet +gleaming of birch stem has never changed its argent and sable for any +unchequered heraldry; and the second, that it gave proof of a much more +important fact, the keenly accurate observation of Aryan foresters at that +early date; for the fact is that the breaking of the thin-beaten silver of +the birch trunk is so delicate, and its smoothness so graceful, that until +I painted it with care, I was not altogether clear-headed myself about the +way in which the chequering was done: nor until Fors today brought me to +the house of one of my father's friends at Carshalton, and gave me three +birch stems to look at just outside the window, did I perceive it to be a +primal question about them, what it is that blanches that dainty dress of +theirs, or, anticipatorily, weaves. What difference is there between the +making of the corky excrescence of other {173} trees, and of this almost +transparent fine white linen? I perceive that the older it is, within +limits, the finer and whiter; hoary tissue, instead of hoary +hair--honouring the tree's aged body; the outer sprays have no silvery +light on their youth. Does the membrane thin itself into whiteness merely +by stretching, or produce an outer film of new substance?[46] + +4. And secondly, this investiture, why is it transverse to the +trunk,--swathing it, as it were, in bands? Above all,--when it breaks,--why +does it break round the tree instead of down? All other bark breaks as +anything would, naturally, round a swelling rod, but this, as if the stem +were growing longer; until, indeed, it reaches farthest heroic old age, +when the whiteness passes away again, and the rending is like that of other +trees, downwards. So that, as it were in a changing language, we have the +great botanical fact twice taught us, by this tree of Eden, that the skins +of trees differ from the skins of the higher animals in that, for the most +part, they won't stretch, and must be worn torn. + +So that in fact the most popular arrangement of vegetative adult costume is +Irish; a normal investiture in honourable rags; and decorousness of +tattering, as of a banner borne in splendid ruin through storms of war. + +5. Now therefore, if we think of it, we have five {174} distinct orders of +investiture for organic creatures; first, mere secretion of mineral +substance, chiefly lime, into a hard shell, which, if broken, can only be +mended, like china--by sticking it together; secondly, organic substance of +armour which grows into its proper shape at once for good and all, and +can't be mended at all, if broken, (as of insects); thirdly, organic +substance of skin, which stretches, as the creatures grows, by cracking, +over a fresh skin which is supplied beneath it, as in bark of trees; +fourthly, organic substance of skin cracked symmetrically into plates or +scales which can increase all round their edges, and are connected by +softer skin, below, as in fish and reptiles, (divided with exquisite lustre +and flexibility, in feathers of birds); and lastly, true elastic skin, +extended in soft unison with the creature's growth,--blushing with its +blood, fading with its fear; breathing with its breath, and guarding its +life with sentinel beneficence of pain. + +6. It is notable, in this higher and lower range of organic beauty, that +the decoration, by pattern and colour, which is almost universal in the +protective coverings of the middle ranks of animals, should be reserved in +vegetables for the most living part of them, the flower only; and that +among animals, few but the malignant and senseless are permitted, in the +corrugation of their armour, to resemble the half-dead trunk of the tree, +as they float beside it in the tropical river. I must, however, leave the +scale patterns of the palms and other inlaid tropical {175} stems for +after-examination,--content, at present, with the general idea of the bark +of an outlaid tree as the successive accumulation of the annual protecting +film, rent into ravines of slowly increasing depth, and coloured, like the +rock, whose stability it begins to emulate, with the grey or gold of +clinging lichen and embroidering moss. + + * * * * * + +{176} + +CHAPTER XI. + +GENEALOGY. + +1. Returning, after more than a year's sorrowful interval, to my Sicilian +fields,--not incognisant, now, of some of the darker realms of Proserpina; +and with feebler heart, and, it may be, feebler wits, for wandering in her +brighter ones,--I find what I had written by way of sequel to the last +chapter, somewhat difficult, and extremely tiresome. Not the less, after +giving fair notice of the difficulty, and asking due pardon for the +tiresomeness, I am minded to let it stand; trusting to end, with it, once +for all, investigations of the kind. But in finishing this first volume of +my School Botany, I must try to give the reader some notion of the plan of +the book, as it now, during the time for thinking over it which illness +left me, has got itself arranged in my mind, within limits of possible +execution. And this the rather, because I wish also to state, somewhat more +gravely than I have yet done, the grounds on which I venture here to reject +many of the received names of plants; and to substitute others for them, +relating to entirely different attributes {177} from those on which their +present nomenclature is confusedly edified. + +I have already in some measure given the reasons for this change;[47] but I +feel that, for the sake of those among my scholars who have laboriously +learned the accepted names, I ought now also to explain its method more +completely. + +2. I call the present system of nomenclature _confusedly_ edified, because +it introduces,--without, apparently, any consciousness of the +inconsistency, and certainly with no apology for it,--names founded +sometimes on the history of plants, sometimes on their qualities, sometimes +on their forms, sometimes on their products, and sometimes on their +poetical associations. + +On their history--as 'Gentian' from King Gentius, and Funkia from Dr. Funk. + +On their qualities--as 'Scrophularia' from its (quite uncertified) use in +scrofula. + +On their forms--as the 'Caryophylls' from having petals like husks of nuts. + +On their products--as 'Cocos nucifera' from its nuts. + +And on their poetical associations,--as the Star of Bethlehem from its +imagined resemblance to the light of that seen by the Magi. + +3. Now, this variety of grounds for nomenclature might patiently, and even +with advantage, be permitted, {178} provided the grounds themselves were +separately firm, and the inconsistency of method advisedly allowed, and, in +each case, justified. If the histories of King Gentius and Dr. Funk are +indeed important branches of human knowledge;--if the Scrophulariaceĉ do +indeed cure King's Evil;--if pinks be best described in their likeness to +nuts;--and the Star of Bethlehem verily remind us of Christ's Nativity,--by +all means let these and other such names be evermore retained. But if Dr. +Funk be not a person in any special manner needing either stellification or +florification; if neither herb nor flower can avail, more than the touch of +monarchs, against hereditary pain; if it be no better account of a pink to +say it is nut-leaved, than of a nut to say it is pink-leaved; and if the +modern mind, incurious respecting the journeys of wise men, has already +confused, in its Bradshaw's Bible, the station of Bethlehem with that of +Bethel,[48] it is certainly time to take some order with the partly false, +partly useless, and partly forgotten literature of the Fields; and, before +we bow our children's memories to the burden of it, ensure that there shall +be matter worth carriage in the load. + +4. And farther, in attempting such a change, we must be clear in our own +minds whether we wish our nomenclature to tell us something about the plant +itself, or only to tell us the place it holds in relation to other plants: +as, for instance, in the Herb-Robert, would it be well to {179} christen +it, shortly, 'Rob Roy,' because it is pre-eminently red, and so have done +with it;--or rather to dwell on its family connections, and call it +'Macgregoraceous'? + +5. Before we can wisely decide this point, we must resolve whether our +botany is intended mainly to be useful to the vulgar, or satisfactory to +the scientific élite. For if we give names characterizing individuals, the +circle of plants which any country possesses may be easily made known to +the children who live in it: but if we give names founded on the connexion +between these and others at the Antipodes, the parish school-master will +certainly have double work; and it may be doubted greatly whether the +parish school-boy, at the end of the lecture, will have half as many ideas. + +6. Nevertheless, when the features of any great order of plants are +constant, and, on the whole, represented with great clearness both in cold +and warm climates, it may be desirable to express this their citizenship of +the world in definite nomenclature. But my own method, so far as hitherto +developed, consists essentially in fastening the thoughts of the pupil on +the special character of the plant, in the place where he is likely to see +it; and therefore, in expressing the power of its race and order in the +wider world, rather by reference to mythological associations than to +botanical structure. + +7. For instance, Plate VII. represents, of its real size, an ordinary +spring flower in our English mountain fields. It is an average +example,--not one of rare size under rare {180} conditions,--rather smaller +than the average, indeed, that I might get it well into my plate. It is one +of the flowers whose names I think good to change; but I look carefully +through the existing titles belonging to it and its fellows, that I may +keep all I expediently can. I find, in the first place, that Linnĉus called +one group of its relations, Ophryds, from Ophrys,--Greek for the +eyebrow,--on account of their resemblance to the brow of an animal +frowning, or to the overshadowing casque of a helmet. I perceive this to be +really a very general aspect of the flower; and therefore, no less than in +respect to Linnĉus, I adopt this for the total name of the order, and call +them 'Ophrydĉ,' or, shortly, 'Ophryds.' + +8. Secondly: so far as I know these flowers myself, I perceive them to fall +practically into three divisions,--one, growing in English meadows and +Alpine pastures, and always adding to their beauty; another, growing in all +sorts of places, very ugly itself, and adding to the ugliness of its +indiscriminated haunts; and a third, growing mostly up in the air, with as +little root as possible, and of gracefully fantastic forms, such as this +kind of nativity and habitation might presuppose. For the present, I am +satisfied to give names to these three groups only. There may be plenty of +others which I do not know, and which other people may name, according to +their knowledge. But in all these three kinds known to me, I perceive one +constant characteristic to be _some_ manner of _distortion_ and I desire +that fact,--marking a {181} spiritual (in my sense of the word) character +of extreme mystery,--to be the first enforced on the mind of the young +learner. It is exhibited to the English child, primarily, in the form of +the stalk of each flower, attaching it to the central virga. This stalk is +always twisted once and a half round, as if somebody had been trying to +wring the blossom off; and the name of the family, in Proserpina, will +therefore be 'Contorta'[49] in Latin, and 'Wreathe-wort' in English. + +Farther: the beautiful power of the one I have drawn in its spring life, is +in the opposition of its dark purple to the primrose in England, and the +pale yellow anemone in the Alps. And its individual name will be, +therefore, 'Contorta purpurea'--_Purple_ Wreathe-wort. + +And in drawing it, I take care to dwell on this strength of its color, and +to show thoroughly that it is a _dark_ blossom,[50] before I trouble myself +about its minor characters. + +9. The second group of this kind of flowers live, as I said, in all sorts +of places; but mostly, I think, in disagreeable ones,--torn and irregular +ground, under alternations of unwholesome heat and shade, and among swarms +of nasty insects. I cannot yet venture on any bold general statement about +them, but I think that is mostly their way; and at all events, they +themselves are in the {182} habit of dressing in livid and unpleasant +colors; and are distinguished from all other flowers by twisting, not only +their stalks, but one of their petals, not once and a half only, but two or +three times round, and putting it far out at the same time, as a foul +jester would put out his tongue: while also the singular power of grotesque +mimicry, which, though strong also in the other groups of their race, seems +in the others more or less playful, is, in these, definitely degraded, and, +in aspect, malicious. + +10. Now I find the Latin name 'Satyrium' attached already to one sort of +these flowers; and we cannot possibly have a better one for all of them. It +is true that, in its first Greek form, Dioscorides attaches it to a white, +not a livid, flower; and I dare say there are some white ones of the breed: +but, in its full sense, the term is exactly right for the entire group of +ugly blossoms of which the characteristic is the spiral curve and +protraction of their central petal: and every other form of Satyric +ugliness which I find among the Ophryds, whatever its color, will be +grouped with them. And I make them central, because this humour runs +through the whole order, and is, indeed, their distinguishing sign. + +11. Then the third group, living actually in the air, and only holding fast +by, without nourishing itself from, the ground, rock, or tree-trunk on +which it is rooted, may of course most naturally and accurately be called +'Aeria,' as it has long been popularly known in English by the name of +Air-plant. {183} + +Thus we have one general name for all these creatures, 'Ophryd'; and three +family or group names, Contorta, Satyrium, and Aeria,--every one of these +titles containing as much accurate fact about the thing named as I can +possibly get packed into their syllables: and I will trouble my young +readers with no more divisions of the order. And if their parents, tutors, +or governors, after this fair warning, choose to make them learn, instead, +the seventy-seven different names with which botanist-heraldries have +beautifully ennobled the family,--all I can say is, let them at least begin +by learning them themselves. They will be found in due order in pages 1084, +1085 of Loudon's Cyclopĉdia.[51] + +12. But now, farther: the student will observe that the name of the total +order is Greek; while the three family ones are Latin, although the central +one is originally Greek also. + +I adopt this as far as possible for a law through my whole plant +nomenclature. + +13. Farther: the terminations of the Latin family names will be, for the +most part, of the masculine, {184} feminine, and neuter forms, us, a, um, +with these following attached conditions. + +(I.) Those terminating in 'us,' though often of feminine words, as the +central Arbor, will indicate either real masculine strength (quereus, +laurus), or conditions of dominant majesty (cedrus), of stubbornness and +enduring force (crataegus), or of peasant-like commonalty and hardship +(juncus); softened, as it may sometimes happen, into gentleness and +beneficence (thymus). The occasional forms in 'er' and 'il' will have +similar power (acer, basil). + +(II.) Names with the feminine termination 'a,' if they are real names of +girls, will always mean flowers that are perfectly pretty and perfectly +good (Lucia, Viola, Margarita, Clarissa). Names terminating in 'a' which +are not also accepted names of girls, may sometimes be none the less +honourable, (Primula, Campanula,) but for the most part will signify either +plants that are only good and worthy in a nursy sort of way, (Salvia,) or +that are good without being pretty, (Lavandula,) or pretty without being +good, (Kalmia). But no name terminating in 'a' will be attached to a plant +that is neither good nor pretty. + +(III.) The neuter names terminating in 'um' will always indicate some power +either of active or suggestive evil, (Conîum, Solanum, Satyrium,) or a +relation, more or less definite, to death; but this relation to death may +sometimes be noble, or pathetic,--"which {185} to-day is, and to-morrow is +cast into the oven,"--Lilium. + +But the leading position of these neuters in the plant's double name must +be noticed by students unacquainted with Latin, in order to distinguish +them from plural genitives, which will always, of course, be the second +word, (Francesca Fontium, Francesca of the Springs.) + +14. Names terminating in 'is' and 'e,' if definitely names of women, (Iris, +Amaryllis, Alcestis, Daphne,) will always signify flowers of great beauty, +and noble historic association. If not definitely names of women, they will +yet indicate some specialty of sensitiveness, or association with legend +(Berberis, Clematis). No neuters in 'e' will be admitted. + +15. Participial terminations (Impatiens), with neuters in 'en' (Cyclamen), +will always be descriptive of some special quality or form,--leaving it +indeterminate if good or bad, until explained. It will be manifestly +impossible to limit either these neuters, or the feminines in 'is' to Latin +forms; but we shall always know by their termination that they cannot be +generic names, if we are strict in forming these last on a given method. + +16. How little method there is in our present formation of them, I am +myself more and more surprised as I consider. A child is shown a rose, and +told that he is to call every flower like that, 'Rosaceous';[52] he is next +{186} shown a lily, and told that he is to call every flower like that, +'Liliaceous';--so far well; but he is next shown a daisy, and is not at all +allowed to call every flower like that, 'Daisaceous,' but he must call it, +like the fifth order of architecture, 'Composite'; and being next shown a +pink, he is not allowed to call other pinks 'Pinkaceous,' but 'Nut-leafed'; +and being next shown a pease-blossom, he is not allowed to call other +pease-blossoms 'Peasaceous,' but, in a brilliant burst of botanical +imagination, he is incited to call it by two names instead of one, +'Butterfly-aceous' from its flower, and 'Pod-aceous' from its seed;--the +inconsistency of the terms thus enforced upon him being perfected in their +inaccuracy, for a daisy is not one whit more composite than Queen of the +meadow, or Jura Jacinth;[53] and 'legumen' is not Latin for a pod, but +'siliqua,'--so that no good scholar could remember Virgil's 'siliqua +quassante legumen,' without overthrowing all his Pisan nomenclature. + +17. Farther. If we ground our names of the higher orders on the distinctive +characters of _form_ in plants, these are so many, and so subtle, that we +are at once involved in more investigations than a young learner has ever +time to follow successfully, and they must be at all times liable to +dislocations and rearrangements on the discovery of any new link in the +infinitely entangled {187} chain. But if we found our higher nomenclature +at once on historic fact, and relative conditions of climate and character, +rather than of form, we may at once distribute our flora into unalterable +groups, to which we may add at our pleasure, but which will never need +disturbance; far less, reconstruction. + +18. For instance,--and to begin,--it is an historical fact that for many +centuries the English nation believed that the Founder of its religion, +spiritually, by the mouth of the King who spake of all herbs, had likened +himself to two flowers,--the Rose of Sharon, and Lily of the Valley. The +fact of this belief is one of the most important in the history of +England,--that is to say, of the mind or heart of England: and it is +connected solemnly with the heart of Italy also, by the closing cantos of +the Paradiso. + +I think it well therefore that our two first generic, or at least +commandant, names heading the out-laid and in-laid divisions of plants, +should be of the rose and lily, with such meaning in them as may remind us +of this fact in the history of human mind. + +It is also historical that the personal appearing of this Master of our +religion was spoken of by our chief religious teacher in these terms: "The +Grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men." And it +is a constant fact that this 'grace' or 'favor' of God is spoken of as +"giving us to eat of the Tree of Life." + +19. Now, comparing the botanical facts I have to express, with these +historical ones, I find that the rose tribe {188} has been formed among +flowers, not in distant and monstrous geologic ĉras, but in the human +epoch;--that its 'grace' or favor has been in all countries so felt as to +cause its acceptance everywhere for the most perfect physical type of +womanhood;--and that the characteristic fruit of the tribe is so sweet, +that it has become symbolic at once of the subtlest temptation, and the +kindest ministry to the earthly passion of the human race. "Comfort me with +apples, for I am sick of love." + +20. Therefore I shall call the entire order of these flowers 'Charites,' +(Graces,) and they will be divided into these five genera, Rosa, Persica, +Pomum, Rubra, and Fragaria. Which sequence of names I do not think the +young learner will have difficulty in remembering; nor in understanding why +I distinguish the central group by the fruit instead of the flower. And if +he once clearly master the structure and relations of these five genera, he +will have no difficulty in attaching to them, in a satellitic or +subordinate manner, such inferior groups as that of the Silver-weed, or the +Tormentilla; but all he will have to learn by heart and rote, will be these +six names; the Greek Master-name, Charites, and the five generic names, in +each case belonging to plants, as he will soon find, of extreme personal +interest to him. + +21. I have used the word 'Order' as the name of our widest groups, in +preference to 'Class,' because these widest groups will not always include +flowers like each other in form, or equal to each other in vegetative rank; +{189} but they will be 'Orders,' literally like those of any religious or +chivalric association, having some common link rather intellectual than +national,--the Charites, for instance, linked by their kindness,--the +Oreiades, by their mountain seclusion, as Sisters of Charity or Monks of +the Chartreuse, irrespective of ties of relationship. Then beneath these +orders will come, what may be rightly called, either as above in Greek +derivation, 'Genera,' or in Latin, 'Gentes,' for which, however, I choose +the Latin word, because Genus is disagreeably liable to be confused on the +ear with 'genius'; but Gens, never; and also 'nomen gentile' is a clearer +and better expression than 'nomen generosum,' and I will not coin the +barbarous one, 'genericum.' The name of the Gens, (as 'Lucia,') with an +attached epithet, as 'Verna,' will, in most cases, be enough to +characterize the individual flower; but if farther subdivision be +necessary, the third order will be that of Families, indicated by a 'nomen +familiare' added in the third place of nomenclature, as Lucia +Verna,--Borealis; and no farther subdivision will ever be admitted. I avoid +the word 'species'--originally a bad one, and lately vulgarized beyond +endurance--altogether. And varieties belonging to narrow localities, or +induced by horticulture, may be named as they please by the people living +near the spot, or by the gardener who grows them; but will not be +acknowledged by Proserpina. Nevertheless, the arbitrary reduction under +Ordines, Gentes, and Familiĉ, {190} is always to be remembered as one of +massive practical convenience only; and the more subtle arborescence of the +infinitely varying structures may be followed, like a human genealogy, as +far as we please, afterwards; when once we have got our common plants +clearly arranged and intelligibly named. + +22. But now we find ourselves in the presence of a new difficulty, the +greatest we have to deal with in the whole matter. + +One new nomenclature, to be thoroughly good, must be acceptable to scholars +in the five great languages, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and English; +and it must be acceptable by them in teaching the native children of each +country. I shall not be satisfied, unless I can feel that the little maids +who gather their first violets under the Acropolis rock, may receive for +them Ĉschylean words again with joy. I shall not be content, unless the +mothers watching their children at play in the Ceramicus of Paris, under +the scarred ruins of her Kings' palace, may yet teach them there to know +the flowers which the Maid of Orleans gathered at Domremy. I shall not be +satisfied unless every word I ask from the lips of the children of Florence +and Rome, may enable them better to praise the flowers that are chosen by +the hand of Matilda,[54] and bloom around the tomb of Virgil. + +{191} + +23. Now in this first example of nomenclature, the Master-name, being +_pure_ Greek, may easily be accepted by Greek children, remembering that +certain also of their own poets, if they did not call the flower a Grace +itself, at least thought of it as giving gladness to the Three in their +dances.[55] But for French children the word 'Grâce' has been doubly and +trebly corrupted; first, by entirely false theological scholarship, +mistaking the 'Favor' or Grace done by God to good men, for the +'Misericordia,' or mercy, shown by Him to bad ones; and so, in practical +life, finally substituting 'Grâce' as a word of extreme and mortal prayer, +for 'Merci,' and of late using 'Merci' in a totally ridiculous and +perverted power, for the giving of thanks (or refusal of offered good): +while the literally derived word 'Charite' has become, in the modern mind, +a gift, whether from God or man, only to the wretched, never to the happy: +and lastly, 'Grâce' in its physical sense has been perverted, by their +social vulgarity, into an idea, whether with respect to form or motion, +commending itself rather to the ballet-master than either to the painter or +the priest. + +For these reasons, the Master name of this family, for my French pupils, +must be simply 'Rhodiades,' which will bring, for them, the entire group of +names into easily remembered symmetry; and the English form of {192} the +same name, Rhodiad, is to be used by English scholars also for all tribes +of this group except the five principal ones. + +24. Farther, in every gens of plants, one will be chosen as the +representative, which, if any, will be that examined and described in the +course of this work, if I have opportunity of doing so. + +This representative flower will always be a wild one, and of the simplest +form which completely expresses the character of the plant; existing +divinely and unchangeably from age to age, ungrieved by man's neglect, and +inflexible by his power. + +And this divine character will be expressed by the epithet 'Sacred,' taking +the sense in which we attach it to a dominant and christened majesty, when +it belongs to the central type of any forceful order;--'Quercus sacra,' +'Laurus sacra,' etc.,--the word 'Benedicta,' or 'Benedictus,' being used +instead, if the plant be too humble to bear, without some discrepancy and +unbecomingness, the higher title; as 'Carduus Benedictus,' Holy Thistle. + +25. Among the gentes of flowers bearing girls' names, the dominant one will +be simply called the Queen, 'Rose Regina,' 'Rose the Queen' (the English +wild rose); 'Clarissa Regina,' 'Clarissa the Queen' (Mountain Pink); 'Lucia +Regina,' 'Lucy the Queen' (Spring Gentian), or in simpler English, 'Lucy of +Teesdale,' as 'Harry of Monmouth.' The ruling flowers of groups {193} which +bear names not yet accepted for names of girls, will be called simply +'Domina,' or shortly 'Donna.' 'Rubra domina' (wild raspberry): the wild +strawberry, because of her use in heraldry, will bear a name of her own, +exceptional, 'Cora coronalis.' + +26. These main points being understood, and concessions made, we may first +arrange the greater orders of land plants in a group of twelve, easily +remembered, and with very little forcing. There must be _some_ forcing +always to get things into quite easily tenable form, for Nature always has +her ins and outs. But it is curious how fitly and frequently the number of +twelve may be used for memoria technica; and in this instance the Greek +derivative names fall at once into harmony with the most beautiful parts of +Greek mythology, leading on to early Christian tradition. + +27. Their series will be, therefore, as follows: the principal subordinate +groups being at once placed under each of the great ones. The reasons for +occasional appearance of inconsistency will be afterwards explained, and +the English and French forms given in each case are the terms which would +be used in answering the rapid question, 'Of what order is this flower?' +the answer being, It is a 'Cyllenid,' a 'Pleiad,' or a 'Vestal,' as one +would answer of a person, he is a Knight of St. John or Monk of St. +Benedict; while to the question, of what gens, we answer, a Stella or an +Erica, as one would answer of a person, a Stuart or Plantagenet. {194} + + I. CHARITES. + ENG. CHARIS. FR. RHODIADE. + Rosa. Persica. Pomum. Rubra. Fragaria. + + II. URANIDES. + ENG. URANID. FR. URANIDE. + Lucia. Campanula. Convoluta. + + III. CYLLENIDES. + ENG. CYLLENID. FR. NEPHELIDE. + Stella. Francesca. Primula. + + IV. OREIADES. + ENG. OREIAD. FR. OREADE. + Erica. Myrtilla. Aurora. + + V. PLEIADES. + ENG. PLEIAD. FR. PLEIADE. + Silvia. Anemone. + + VI. ARTEMIDES. + ENG. ARTEMID. FR. ARTEMIDE. + Clarissa. Lychnis. Scintilla. Mica. + + VII. VESTALES. + ENG. VESTAL. FR. VESTALE. + Mentha. Melitta. Basil. Salvia. Lavandula. Thymus. + + VIII. CYTHERIDES. + ENG. CYTHERID. FR. CYTHERIDE. + Viola. Veronica. Giulietta. + {195} + + IX. HELIADES. + ENG. ALCESTID. FR. HELIADE. + Clytia. Margarita. Alcestis. Falconia. Carduus. + + X. DELPHIDES. + ENG. DELPHID. FR. DELPHIDE. + Laurus. Granata. Myrtus. + + XI. HESPERIDES. + ENG. HESPERID. FR. HESPERIDE. + Aurantia. Aglee. + + XII. ATHENAIDES. + ENG. ATHENAID. FR. ATHENAIDE. + Olea. Fraxinus. + +I will shortly note the changes of name in their twelve orders, and the +reasons for them. + +I. CHARITES.--The only change made in the nomenclature of this order is the +slight one of 'rubra' for 'rubus': partly to express true sisterhood with +the other Charites; partly to enforce the idea of redness, as +characteristic of the race, both in the lovely purple and russet of their +winter leafage, and in the exquisite bloom of scarlet on the stems in +strong young shoots. They have every right to be placed among the Charites, +first because the raspberry is really a more important fruit in domestic +economy than the strawberry; and, secondly, because the wild bramble is +often in its wandering sprays even more graceful than the rose; and in +blossom and {196} fruit the best autumnal gift that English Nature has +appointed for her village children. + +II. URANIDES.--Not merely because they are all of the color of the sky, but +also sacred to Urania in their divine purity. 'Convoluta' instead of +'convolvulus,' chiefly for the sake of euphony; but also because pervinca +is to be included in this group. + +III. CYLLENIDES.--Named from Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, because the three +races included in the order alike delight in rocky ground, and in the cold +or moist air of mountain-clouds. + +IV. OREIADES.--Described in next chapter. + +V. PLEIADES.--From the habit of the flowers belonging to this order to get +into bright local clusters. Silvia, for the wood-sorrel, will I hope be an +acceptable change to my girl-readers. + +VI. ARTEMIDES.--Dedicate to Artemis for their expression of energy, no less +than purity. This character was rightly felt in them by whoever gave the +name 'Dianthus' to their leading race; a name which I should have retained +if it had not been bad Greek. I wish them, by their name 'Clarissa' to +recall the memory of St. Clare, as 'Francesca' that of St. Francis.[56] The +{197} 'issa,' not without honour to the greatest of our English moral +story-tellers, is added for the practical reason, that I think the sound +will fasten in the minds of children the essential characteristic of the +race, the cutting of the outer edge of the petal as if with scissors. + +VII. VESTALES.--I allow this Latin form, because Hestiades would have been +confused with Heliades. The order is named 'of the hearth,' from its +manifold domestic use, and modest blossoming. + +VIII. CYTHERIDES.--Dedicate to Venus, but in all purity and peace of +thought. Giulietta, for the coarse, and more than ordinarily false, +Polygala. + +IX. HELIADES.--The sun-flowers.[57] In English, Alcestid, in honour to +Chaucer and the Daisy. + +X. DELPHIDES.--Sacred to Apollo. Granata, changed from Punica, in honor to +Granada and the Moors. + +XI. HESPERIDES.--Already a name given to the order. {198} Aegle, prettier +and more classic than Limonia, includes the idea of brightness in the +blossom. + +XII. ATHENAIDES.--I take Fraxinus into this group, because the mountain +ash, in its hawthorn-scented flower, scarletest of berries, and exquisitely +formed and finished leafage, belongs wholly to the floral decoration of our +native rocks, and is associated with their human interests, though lightly, +not less spiritually, than the olive with the mind of Greece. + +28. The remaining groups are in great part natural; but I separate for +subsequent study five orders of supreme domestic utility, the Mallows, +Currants, Pease,[58] Cresses, and Cranesbills, from those which, either in +fruit or blossom, are for finer pleasure or higher beauty. I think it will +be generally interesting for children to learn those five names as an easy +lesson, and gradually discover, wondering, the world that they include. I +will give their terminology at length, separately. + +29. One cannot, in all groups, have all the divisions of equal importance; +the Mallows are only placed with the other four for their great value in +decoration of cottage gardens in autumn: and their softly healing {199} +qualities as a tribe. They will mentally connect the whole useful group +with the three great Ĉsculapiadĉ, Cinchona, Coffea, and Camellia. + +30. Taking next the water-plants, crowned in the DROSIDĈ, which include the +five great families, Juncus, Jacinthus, Amaryllis, Iris, and Lilium, and +are masculine in their Greek name because their two first groups, Juncus +and Jacinthus, are masculine, I gather together the three orders of +TRITONIDES, which are notably trefoil; the NAIADES, notably quatrefoil, but +for which I keep their present pretty name; and the BATRACHIDES,[59] +notably cinqfoil, for which I keep their present ugly one, only changing it +from Latin into Greek. + +31. I am not sure of being forgiven so readily for putting the Grasses, +Sedges, Mosses, and Lichens together, under the great general head of +Demetridĉ. But it seems to me the mosses and lichens belong no less +definitely to Demeter, in being the first gatherers of earth on rock, and +the first coverers of its sterile surface, than the grass which at last +prepares it to the foot and to the food of man. And with the mosses I shall +take all the especially moss-plants which otherwise are homeless or +companionless, Drosera, and the like, and as a connecting link with the +flowers belonging to the Dark {200} Kora, the two strange orders of the +Ophryds and Agarics. + +32. Lastly will come the orders of flowers which may be thought of as +belonging for the most part to the Dark Kora of the lower world,--having at +least the power of death, if not its terror, given them, together with +offices of comfort and healing in sleep, or of strengthening, if not too +prolonged, action on the nervous power of life. Of these, the first will be +the DIONYSIDĈ,--Hedera, Vitis, Liana; then the DRACONIDĈ,--Atropa, +Digitalis, Linaria; and, lastly, the MOIRIDĈ,--Conîum, Papaver, Solanum, +Arum, and Nerium. + +33. As I see this scheme now drawn out, simple as it is, the scope of it +seems not only far too great for adequate completion by my own labour, but +larger than the time likely to be given to botany by average scholars would +enable them intelligently to grasp: and yet it includes, I suppose, not the +tenth part of the varieties of plants respecting which, in competitive +examination, a student of physical science is now expected to know, or at +least assert on hearsay, _something_. + +So far as I have influence with the young, myself, I would pray them to be +assured that it is better to know the habits of one plant than the names of +a thousand; and wiser to be happily familiar with those that grow in the +nearest field, than arduously cognisant of all that plume the isles of the +Pacific, or illumine the Mountains of the Moon. {201} + +Nevertheless, I believe that when once the general form of this system in +Proserpina has been well learned, much other knowledge may be easily +attached to it, or sheltered under the eaves of it: and in its own +development, I believe everything may be included that the student will +find useful, or may wisely desire to investigate, of properly European +botany. But I am convinced that the best results of his study will be +reached by a resolved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal idea, and +primal nomenclature. + +34. I do not think the need of revisal of our present scientific +classification could be more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that +laurels and roses are confused, even by Dr. Lindley, in the mind of his +feminine readers; the English word laurel, in the index to his first volume +of Ladies' Botany, referring them to the cherries, under which the common +laurel is placed as 'Prunus Laurocerasus,' while the true laurel, 'Laurus +nobilis,' must be found in the index of the second volume, under the Latin +form 'Laurus.' + +This accident, however, illustrates another, and a most important point to +be remembered, in all arrangements whether of plants, minerals, or animals. +No single classification can possibly be perfect, or anything _like_ +perfect. It must be, at its best, a ground, or _warp_ of arrangement only, +through which, or over which, the cross threads of another,--yes, and of +many others,--must be woven in our minds. Thus the almond, though in {202} +the form and colour of its flower, and method of its fruit, rightly +associated with the roses, yet by the richness and sweetness of its kernel +must be held mentally connected with all plants that bear nuts. These +assuredly must have something in their structure common, justifying their +being gathered into a conceived or conceivable group of 'Nuciferĉ,' in +which the almond, hazel, walnut, cocoa-nut, and such others would be +considered as having relationship, at least in their power of secreting a +crisp and sweet substance which is not wood, nor bark, nor pulp, nor +seed-pabulum reducible to softness by boiling;--but quite separate +substance, for which I do not know that there at present exists any +botanical name,--of which, hitherto, I find no general account, and can +only myself give so much, on reflection, as that it is crisp and close in +texture, and always contains some kind of oil or milk. + +35. Again, suppose the arrangement of plants could, with respect to their +flowers and fruits, be made approximately complete, they must instantly be +broken and reformed by comparison of their stems and leaves. The three +_creeping_ families of the Charites,--Rosa, Rubra, and Fragaria,--must then +be frankly separated from the elastic Persica and knotty Pomum; of which +one wild and lovely species, the hawthorn, is no less notable for the +massive accumulation of wood in the stubborn stem of it, than the wild rose +for her lovely power of wreathing her garlands at pleasure wherever they +are {203} fairest, the stem following them and sustaining, where they will. + +36. Thus, as we examine successively each part of any plant, new +sisterhoods, and unthought-of fellowships, will be found between the most +distant orders; and ravines of unexpected separation open between those +otherwise closely allied. Few botanical characters are more definite than +the leaf structure illustrated in Plate VI., which has given to one group +of the Drosidĉ the descriptive name of Ensatĉ, (see above, Chapter IX., § +11,) but this conformation would not be wisely permitted to interfere in +the least with the arrangement founded on the much more decisive floral +aspects of the Iris and Lily. So, in the fifth volume of 'Modern Painters,' +the sword-like, or rather rapier-like, leaves of the pine are opposed, for +the sake of more vivid realization, to the shield-like leaves of the +greater number of inland trees; but it would be absurd to allow this +difference any share in botanical arrangement,--else we should find +ourselves thrown into sudden discomfiture by the wide-waving and opening +foliage of the palms and ferns. + +37. But through all the defeats by which insolent endeavors to sum the +orders of Creation must be reproved, and in the midst of the successes by +which patient insight will be surprised, the fact of the _confirmation_ of +species in plants and animals must remain always a miraculous one. What +outstretched sign of constant Omnipotence can be more awful, than that the +susceptibility to {204} external influences, with the reciprocal power of +transformation, in the organs of the plant; and the infinite powers of +moral training and mental conception over the nativity of animals, should +be so restrained within impassable limits, and by inconceivable laws, that +from generation to generation, under all the clouds and revolutions of +heaven with its stars, and among all the calamities and convulsions of the +Earth with her passions, the numbers and the names of her Kindred may still +be counted for her in unfailing truth;--still the fifth sweet leaf unfold +for the Rose, and the sixth spring for the Lily; and yet the wolf rave +tameless round the folds of the pastoral mountains, and yet the tiger flame +through the forests of the night. + + * * * * * + +{205} + +CHAPTER XII. + +CORA AND KRONOS. + +1. Of all the lovely wild plants--and few, mountain-bred, in Britain, are +other than lovely,--that fill the clefts and crest the ridges of my +Brantwood rock, the dearest to me, by far, are the clusters of whortleberry +which divide possession of the lower slopes with the wood hyacinth and +pervenche. They are personally and specially dear to me for their +association in my mind with the woods of Montanvert; but the plant itself, +irrespective of all accidental feeling, is indeed so beautiful in all its +ways--so delicately strong in the spring of its leafage, so modestly +wonderful in the formation of its fruit, and so pure in choice of its +haunts, not capriciously or unfamiliarly, but growing in luxuriance through +all the healthiest and sweetest seclusion of mountain territory throughout +Europe,--that I think I may without any sharp remonstrance be permitted to +express for this once only, personal feeling in my nomenclature, calling it +in Latin 'Myrtilla Cara,' and in French 'Myrtille Chérie,' but retaining +for it in English its simply classic name, 'Blue Whortle.' {206} + +2. It is the most common representative of the group of Myrtillĉ, which, on +reference to our classification, will be found central between the Ericĉ +and Aurorĉ. The distinctions between these three families may be easily +remembered, and had better be learned before going farther; but first let +us note their fellowship. They are all Oreiades, mountain plants; in +specialty, they are all strong in stem, low in stature, and the Ericĉ and +Aurorĉ glorious in the flush of their infinitely exulting flowers, ("the +rapture of the heath"--above spoken of, p. 96.) But all the essential +loveliness of the Myrtillĉ is in their leaves and fruit: the first always +exquisitely finished and grouped like the most precious decorative work of +sacred painting; the second, red or purple, like beads of coral or +amethyst. Their minute flowers have rarely any general part or power in the +colors of mountain ground; but, examined closely, they are one of the chief +joys of the traveller's rest among the Alps; and full of exquisiteness +unspeakable, in their several bearings and miens of blossom, so to speak. +Plate VIII. represents, however feebly, the proud bending back of her head +by Myrtilla Regina:[60] an action as beautiful in _her_ as it is terrible +in the Kingly Serpent of Egypt. + +3. The formal differences between these three families are trenchant and +easily remembered. The Ericĉ {207} are all quatrefoils, and quatrefoils of +the most studied and accomplished symmetry; and they bear no berries, but +only dry seeds. The Myrtillĉ and Aurorĉ are both Cinqfoil; but the Myrtillĉ +are symmetrical in their blossom, and the Aurorĉ unsymmetrical. Farther, +the Myrtillĉ are not absolutely determinate in the number of their foils, +(this being essentially a characteristic of flowers exposed to much +hardship,) and are thus sometimes quatrefoil, in sympathy with the Ericĉ. +But the Aurorĉ are strictly cinqfoil. These last are the only European form +of a larger group, well named 'Azalea' from the Greek [Greek: aza], +dryness, and its adjective [Greek: azalea], dry or parched; and _this_ name +must be kept for the world-wide group, (including under it Rhododendron, +but not Kalmia,) because there is an under-meaning in the word Aza, +enabling it to be applied to the substance of dry earth, and indicating one +of the great functions of the Oreiades, in common with the mosses,--the +collection of earth upon rocks. + +4. Neither the Ericĉ, as I have just said, nor Aurorĉ bear useful fruit; +and the Ericĉ are named from their consequent worthlessness in the eyes of +the Greek farmer; they were the plants he 'tore up' for his bed, or +signal-fire, his word for them including a farther sense of crushing or +bruising into a heap. The Westmoreland shepherds now, alas! burn them +remorselessly on the ground, (and a year since had nearly set the copse of +Brantwood on fire just above the house.) The sense of {208} parched and +fruitless existence is given to the heaths, with beautiful application of +the context, in our English translation of Jeremiah xvii. 6; but I find the +plant there named is, in the Septuagint, Wild Tamarisk; the mountains of +Palestine being, I suppose, in that latitude, too low for heath, unless in +the Lebanon. + +5. But I have drawn the reader's thoughts to this great race of the +Oreiades at present, because they place for us in the clearest light a +question which I have finally to answer before closing the first volume of +Proserpina; namely, what is the real difference between the three ranks of +Vegetative Humility, and Noblesse--the Herb, the Shrub, and the Tree? + +6. Between the herb, which perishes annually, and the plants which +construct year after year an increasing stem, there is, of course, no +difficulty of discernment; but between the plants which, like these +Oreiades, construct for themselves richest intricacy of supporting stem, +yet scarcely rise a fathom's height above the earth they gather and +adorn,--between these, and the trees that lift cathedral aisles of colossal +shade on Andes and Lebanon,--where is the limit of kind to be truly set? + +7. We have the three orders given, as no botanist could, in twelve lines by +Milton:-- + + "Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd + Op'ning their various colours, and made gay + Her bosom smelling sweet; and, these scarce blown, + Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept + {209} + The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed + Embattel'd in her field; and th' _humble shrub,_ + _And bush with frizzled hair implicit_: last + Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread + Their branches hung with copious fruits, or gemm'd + Their blossoms; with high woods the hills were crown'd; + With tufts the valleys and each fountain side; + With borders long the rivers." + +Only to learn, and be made to understand, these twelve lines thoroughly +would teach a youth more of true botany than an entire Cyclopĉdia of modern +nomenclature and description: they are, like all Milton's work, perfect in +accuracy of epithet, while consummate in concentration. Exquisite in touch, +as infinite in breadth, they gather into their unbroken clause of melodious +compass the conception at once of the Columbian prairie, the English +cornfield, the Syrian vineyard, and the Indian grove. But even Milton has +left untold, and for the instant perhaps unthought of, the most solemn +difference of rank between the low and lofty trees, not in magnitude only, +nor in grace, but in duration. + +8. Yet let us pause before passing to this greater subject, to dwell more +closely on what he has told us so clearly,--the difference in Grace, +namely, between the trees that rise 'as in dance,' and 'the bush with +frizzled hair.' For the bush form is essentially one taken by vegetation in +some kind of distress; scorched by heat, discouraged by darkness, or bitten +by frost; it is the form in which isolated knots of earnest plant life stay +{210} the flux of fiery sands, bind the rents of tottering crags, purge the +stagnant air of cave or chasm, and fringe with sudden hues of unhoped +spring the Arctic edge of retreating desolation. + +On the other hand, the trees which, as in sacred dance, make the borders of +the rivers glad with their procession, and the mountain ridges statelier +with their pride, are all expressions of the vegetative power in its +accomplished felicities; gathering themselves into graceful companionship +with the fairest arts and serenest life of man; and providing not only the +sustenance and the instruments, but also the lessons and the delights, of +that life, in perfectness of order, and unblighted fruition of season and +time. + +9. 'Interitura'--yet these not to-day, nor to-morrow, nor with the decline +of the summer's sun. We describe a plant as small or great; and think we +have given account enough of its nature and being. But the chief question +for the plant, as for the human creature, is the Number of its days; for to +the tree, as to its master, the words are forever true--"As thy Day is, so +shall thy Strength be." + +10. I am astonished hourly, more and more, at the apathy and stupidity +which have prevented me hitherto from learning the most simple facts at the +base of this question! Here is this myrtille bush in my hand--its cluster +of some fifteen or twenty delicate green branches knitting themselves +downwards into the stubborn brown {211} of a stem on which my knife makes +little impression. I have not the slightest idea how old it is, still less +how old it might one day have been if I had not gathered it; and, less than +the least, what hinders it from becoming as old as it likes! What doom is +there over these bright green sprays, that they may never win to any height +or space of verdure, nor persist beyond their narrow scope of years? + +11. And the more I think the more I bewilder myself; for these bushes, +which are pruned and clipped by the deathless Gardener into these lowly +thickets of bloom, do not strew the ground with fallen branches and faded +clippings in any wise,--it is the pining umbrage of the patriarchal trees +that tinges the ground and betrays the foot beneath them: but, under the +heather and the Alpine rose.--Well, what _is_ under them, then? I never +saw, nor thought of looking,--will look presently under my own bosquets and +beds of lingering heather-blossom: beds indeed they were only a month +since, a foot deep in flowers, and close in tufted cushions, and the +mountain air that floated over them rich in honey like a draught of +metheglin. + +12. Not clipped, nor pruned, I think, after all,--nor dwarfed in the +gardener's sense; but pausing in perpetual youth and strength, ordained out +of their lips of roseate infancy. Rose-trees--the botanists have falsely +called the proudest of them; yet not trees in any wise, they, nor doomed to +know the edge of axe at their {212} roots, nor the hoary waste of time, or +searing thunderstroke, on sapless branches. Continual morning for them, and +_in_ them; they themselves an Aurora, purple and cloudless, stayed on all +the happy hills. That shall be our name for them, in the flushed Phoenician +colour of their height, in calm or tempest of the heavenly sea; how much +holier than the depth of the Tyrian! And the queen of them on our own Alps +shall be 'Aurora Alpium.'[61] + +13. There is one word in the Miltonian painting of them which I must lean +on specially; for the accurate English of it hides deep morality no less +than botany. 'With hair _implicit_.' The interweaving of complex band, +which knits the masses of heath or of Alpine rose into their dense tufts +and spheres of flower, is to be noted both in these, and in stem structure +of a higher order like that of the stone pine, for an expression of the +instinct of the plant gathering itself into protective unity, whether +against cold or heat, while the forms of the trees which have no hardship +to sustain are uniformly based on the effort of each spray to _separate_ +itself from its fellows to the utmost, and obtain around its own leaves the +utmost space of air. + +In vulgar modern English, the term 'implicit' used of Trust or Faith, has +come to signify only its serenity. But the Miltonian word gives the +_reason_ of serenity: {213} the root and branch intricacy of closest +knowledge and fellowship. + +14. I have said that Milton has told us more in these few lines than any +botanist could. I will prove my saying by placing in comparison with them +two passages of description by the most imaginative and generally +well-trained scientific man since Linnĉus--Humboldt--which, containing much +that is at this moment of special use to us, are curious also in the +confusion even of the two orders of annual and perennial plants, and show, +therefore, the extreme need of most careful initial work in this +distinction of the reign of Cora from that of Kronos. + +"The disk of the setting sun appeared like a globe of fire suspended over +the savannah; and its last rays, as they swept the earth, illumined the +extremities of the grass, strongly agitated by the evening breeze. In the +low and humid places of the equinoxial zone, even when the gramineous +plants and reeds present the aspect of a meadow, of turf, a rich decoration +of the picture is usually wanting. I mean that variety of wild flowers +which, scarcely rising above the grass, seem to lie upon a smooth bed of +verdure. Between the tropics, the strength and luxury of vegetation give +such a development to plants, that the smallest of the dicotyledonous +family become shrubs.[62] It would seem as if the {214} liliaceous plants, +mingled with the gramina, assumed the place of the flowers of our meadows. +Their form is indeed striking; they dazzle by the variety and splendor of +their colours; but, too high above the soil, they disturb that harmonious +relation which exists among the plants that compose our meadows and our +turf. Nature, in her beneficence, has given the landscape under every zone +its peculiar type of beauty. + +"After proceeding four hours across the savannahs, we entered into a little +wood composed of shrubs and small trees, which is called El Pejual; no +doubt because of the great abundance of the 'Pejoa' (Gaultheria odorata,) a +plant with very odoriferous leaves. The steepness of the mountain became +less considerable, and we felt an indescribable pleasure in examining the +plants of this region. Nowhere, perhaps, can be found collected together in +so small a space of ground, productions so beautiful, and so remarkable in +regard to the geography of plants. At the height of a thousand toises, the +lofty savannahs of the hills terminate in a zone of shrubs, which by their +appearance, their tortuous branches, their stiff leaves, and the dimensions +and beauty of their purple flowers, remind us of what is called in the +Cordilleras of the Andes the vegetation of the _paramos_[63] and the +_punas_. We find there the {215} family of the Alpine rhododendrons, the +thibaudias, the andromedas, the vacciniums, and those befarias[64] with +resinous leaves, which we have several times compared to the rhododendron +of our European Alps. + +"Even when nature does not produce the same species in analogous climates, +either in the plains of isothermal parallels, or on table-lands the +temperature of which resembles that of places nearer the poles, we still +remark a striking resemblance of appearance and physiognomy in the +vegetation of the most distant countries. This phenomenon is one of the +most curious in the history of organic forms. I say the history; for in +vain would reason forbid man to form hypotheses on the origin of things: he +is not the less tormented with these insoluble problems of the distribution +of beings." + +15. Insoluble--yes, assuredly, poor little beaten phantasms of palpitating +clay that we are--and who asked us to solve it? Even this Humboldt, +quiet-hearted and modest watcher of the ways of Heaven, in the real make of +him, came at last to be so far puffed up by his vain science in declining +years that he must needs write a Kosmos of things in the Universe, +forsooth, as if he knew all about them! when he was not able meanwhile, +(and does not seem even to have desired the ability,) to put the slightest +Kosmos into his own 'Personal Narrative'; but leaves one to gather what one +wants out of {216} its wild growth; or rather, to wash or winnow what may +be useful out of its débris, without any vestige either of reference or +index; and I must look for these fragmentary sketches of heath and grass +through chapter after chapter about the races of the Indian and religion of +the Spaniard,--these also of great intrinsic value, but made useless to the +general reader by interspersed experiment on the drifts of the wind and the +depths of the sea. + +16. But one more fragment out of a note (vol. iii., p. 494) I must give, +with reference to an order of the Rhododendrons as yet wholly unknown to +me. + +"The name of vine tree, 'uvas camaronas' (Shrimp grapes?) is given in the +Andes to plants of the genus Thibaudia on account of their _large succulent +fruit_. Thus the ancient botanists give the name of Bear's vine, 'Uva +Ursi,' and vine of Mount Ida, 'Vitis Idea,' to an Arbutus and Myrtillus +which belong, like the Thibaudiĉ, to the family of the Ericineĉ." + +Now, though I have one entire bookcase and half of another, and a large +cabinet besides, or about fifteen feet square of books on botany beside me +here, and a quantity more at Oxford, I have no means whatever, in all the +heap, of finding out what a Thibaudia is like. Loudon's Cyclopĉdia, the +only general book I have, tells me only that it will grow well in camellia +houses, that its flowers develope at Christmas, and that they are +beautifully varied like a fritillary: whereupon I am very anxious to see +them, and taste their fruit, and be able to {217} tell my pupils something +intelligible of them,--a new order, as it seems to me, among my Oreiades. +But for the present I can make no room for them, and must be content, for +England and the Alps, with my single class, Myrtilla, including all the +fruit-bearing and (more or less) myrtle-leaved kinds; and Azalea for the +fruitless flushing of the loftier tribes; taking the special name 'Aurora' +for the red and purple ones of Europe, and resigning the already accepted +'Rhodora' to those of the Andes and Himalaya. + +17. Of which also, with help of earnest Indian botanists, I hope +nevertheless to add some little history to that of our own Oreiades; but +shall set myself on the most familiar of them first, as I partly hinted in +taking for the frontispiece of this volume two unchecked shoots of our +commonest heath, in their state of full lustre and decline. And now I must +go out and see and think--and for the first time in my life--what becomes +of all these fallen blossoms, and where my own mountain Cora hides herself +in winter; and where her sweet body is laid in its death. + +Think of it with me, for a moment before I go. That harvest of amethyst +bells, over all Scottish and Irish and Cumberland hill and moorland; what +substance is there in it, yearly gathered out of the mountain +winds,--stayed there, as if the morning and evening clouds had been caught +out of them and woven into flowers; 'Ropes of sea-sand'--but that is +child's magic {218} merely, compared to the weaving of the Heath out of the +cloud. And once woven, how much of it is forever worn by the Earth? What +weight of that transparent tissue, half crystal and half comb of honey, +lies strewn every year dead under the snow? + +I must go and look, and can write no more to-day; nor to-morrow neither. I +must gather slowly what I see, and remember; and meantime leaving, to be +dealt with afterwards, the difficult and quite separate question of the +production of _wood_, I will close this first volume of Proserpina with +some necessary statements respecting the operations, serviceable to other +creatures than themselves, in which the lives of the noblest plants are +ended: honourable in this service equally, though evanescent, some,--in the +passing of a breeze--or the dying of a day;--and patient some, of storm and +time, serene in fruitful sanctity, through all the uncounted ages which Man +has polluted with his tears. + + * * * * * + +{219} + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE SEED AND HUSK. + +1. Not the least sorrowful, nor least absurd of the confusions brought on +us by unscholarly botanists, blundering into foreign languages, when they +do not know how to use their own, is that which has followed on their +practice of calling the seed-vessels of flowers 'egg-vessels,'[65] in +Latin; thus involving total loss of the power of the good old English word +'husk,' and the good old French one, 'cosse.' For all the treasuries of +plants (see Chapter IV., § 17) may be best conceived, and described, +generally, as consisting of 'seed' and 'husk,'--for the most part two or +more seeds, in a husk composed of two or more parts, as pease in their +shell, pips in an orange, or kernels in a walnut; but whatever their +number, or the method of their enclosure, let the student keep clear in his +mind, for the base of all study of fructification, the broad distinction +between the seed, as one thing, and the husk as another: the seed, +essential to the continuance of the plant's race; and the husk, {220} +adapted, primarily, to its guard and dissemination; but secondarily, to +quite other and far more important functions. + +2. For on this distinction follows another practical one of great +importance. A seed may serve, and many do mightily serve, for the food of +man, when boiled, crushed, or otherwise industriously prepared by man +himself, for his mere _sustenance_. But the _husk_ of the seed is prepared +in many cases for the delight of his eyes, and the pleasure of his palate, +by Nature herself, and is then called a 'fruit.' + +3. The varieties of structure both in seed and husk, and yet more, the +manner in which the one is contained, and distributed by, the other, are +infinite; and in some cases the husk is apparently wanting, or takes some +unrecognizable form. But in far the plurality of instances the two parts of +the plant's treasury are easily distinguishable, and must be separately +studied, whatever their apparent closeness of relation, or, (as in all +natural things,) the equivocation sometimes taking place between the one +and the other. To me, the especially curious point in this matter is that, +while I find the most elaborate accounts given by botanists of the stages +of growth in each of these parts of the treasury, they never say of what +use the guardian is to the guarded part, irrespective of its service to +man. The mechanical action of the husk in containing and scattering the +seeds, they indeed often notice and insist on; but they do not tell {221} +us of what, if any, nutritious or fostering use the rind is to a chestnut, +or an orange's pulp to its pips, or a peach's juice to its stone. + +4. Putting aside this deeper question for the moment, let us make sure we +understand well, and define safely, the separate parts themselves. A seed +consists essentially of a store, or sack, containing substance to nourish a +germ of life, which is surrounded by such substance, and in the process of +growth is first fed by it. The germ of life itself rises into two portions, +and not more than two, in the seeds of two-leaved plants; but this +symmetrical dualism must not be allowed to confuse the student's +conception, of the _three_ organically separate parts,--the tough skin of a +bean, for instance; the softer contents of it which we boil to eat; and the +small germ from which the root springs when it is sown. A bean is the best +type of the whole structure. An almond out of its shell, a peach-kernel, +and an apple-pip are also clear and perfect, though varied types. + +5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect simplicity of type in the +pod of a bean, or the globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers in +which it is absent or imperfect; and when it contains only one seed, it may +be so small and closely united with the seed it contains, that both will be +naturally thought of as one thing only. Thus, in a dandelion, the little +brown grains, which may be blown away, each with its silken parachute, are +every one of them a complete husk and {222} seed together. But the majority +of instances (and those of plants the most serviceable to man) in which the +seed-vessel has entirely a separate structure and mechanical power, justify +us in giving it the normal term 'husk,' as the most widely applicable and +intelligible. + +6. The change of green, hard, and tasteless vegetable substance into +beautifully coloured, soft, and delicious substance, which produces what we +call a fruit, is, in most cases, of the husk only; in others, of the part +of the stalk which immediately sustains the seed; and in a very few +instances, not properly a change, but a distinct formation, of fruity +substance between the husk and seed. Normally, however, the husk, like the +seed, consists always of three parts; it has an outer skin, a central +substance of peculiar nature, and an inner skin, which holds the seed. The +main difficulty, in describing or thinking of the completely ripened +product of any plant, is to discern clearly which is the inner skin of the +husk, and which the outer skin of the seed. The peach is in this respect +the best general type,--the woolly skin being the outer one of the husk; +the part we eat, the central substance of the husk; and the hard shell of +the stone, the inner skin of the husk. The bitter kernel within is the +seed. + +7. In this case, and in the plum and cherry, the two parts under present +examination--husk and seed--separate naturally; the fruity part, which is +the body of the husk, adhering firmly to the shell, which is its inner +{223} coat. But in the walnut and almond, the two outer parts of the husk +separate from the interior one, which becomes an apparently independent +'shell.' So that when first I approached this subject I divided the general +structure of a treasury into _three_ parts--husk, shell, and kernel; and +this division, when we once have mastered the main one, will be often +useful. But at first let the student keep steadily to his conception of the +two constant parts, husk and seed, reserving the idea of shells and kernels +for one group of plants only. + +8. It will not be always without difficulty that he maintains the +distinction, when the tree pretends to have changed it. Thus, in the +chestnut, the inner coat of the husk becomes brown, adheres to the seed, +and seems part of it; and we naturally call only the thick, green, prickly +coat, the husk. But this is only one of the deceiving tricks of Nature, to +compel our attention more closely. The real place of separation, to _her_ +mind, is between the mahogany-coloured shell and the nut itself, and that +more or less silky and flossy coating within the brown shell is the true +lining of the entire 'husk.' The paler brown skin, following the rugosities +of the nut, is the true sack or skin of the seed. Similarly in the walnut +and almond. + +9. But, in the apple, two new tricks are played us. First, in the brown +skin of the ripe pip, we might imagine we saw the part correspondent to the +mahogany skin of the chestnut, and therefore the inner coat of the {224} +husk. But it is not so. The brown skin of the pips belongs to them +properly, and is all their own. It is the true skin or sack of the seed. +The inner coat of the husk is the smooth, white, scaly part of the core +that holds them. + +Then,--for trick number two. We should as naturally imagine the skin of the +apple, which we peel off, to be correspondent to the skin of the peach; and +therefore, to be the outer part of the husk. But not at all. The outer part +of the husk in the apple is melted away into the fruity mass of it, and the +red skin outside is the skin of its _stalk_, not of its seed-vessel at all! + +10. I say 'of its stalk,'--that is to say, of the part of the stalk +immediately sustaining the seed, commonly called the torus, and expanding +into the calyx. In the apple, this torus incorporates itself with the husk +completely; then refines its own external skin, and colours _that_ +variously and beautifully, like the true skin of the husk in the peach, +while the withered leaves of the calyx remain in the 'eye' of the apple. + +But in the 'hip' of the rose, the incorporation with the husk of the seed +does not take place. The torus, or,--as in this flower from its peculiar +form it is called,--the tube of the calyx, alone forms the frutescent part +of the hip; and the complete seeds, husk and all, (the firm triangular husk +enclosing an almond-shaped kernel,) are grouped closely in its interior +cavity, while the calyx remains on the top in a large and scarcely +withering star. {225} In the nut, the calyx remains green and beautiful, +forming what we call the husk of a filbert; and again we find Nature +amusing herself by trying to make us think that this strict envelope, +almost closing over the single seed, is the same thing to the nut that its +green shell is to a walnut! + +11. With still more capricious masquing, she varies and hides the structure +of her 'berries.' + +The strawberry is a hip turned inside-out, the frutescent receptacle +changed into a scarlet ball, or cone, of crystalline and delicious coral, +in the outside of which the separate seeds, husk and all, are imbedded. In +the raspberry and blackberry, the interior mound remains sapless; and the +rubied translucency of dulcet substance is formed round each separate seed, +_upon_ its husk; not a part of the husk, but now an entirely independent +and added portion of the plant's bodily form. + +12. What is thus done for each seed, on the _out_side of the receptacle, in +the raspberry, is done for each seed, _in_side the calyx, in a pomegranate; +which is a hip in which the seeds have become surrounded with a radiant +juice, richer than claret wine; while the seed itself, within the generous +jewel, is succulent also, and spoken of by Tournefort as a "baie +succulente." The tube of the calyx, brown-russet like a large hip, +externally, is yet otherwise divided, and separated wholly from the +cinque-foiled, and cinque-celled rose, both in number of petal and division +of treasuries; the calyx has eight points, and nine cells. {226} + +13. Lastly, in the orange, the fount of fragrant juice is interposed +between the seed and the husk. It is wholly independent of both; the +Aurantine rind, with its white lining and divided compartments, is the true +husk; the orange pips are the true seeds; and the eatable part of the fruit +is formed between them, in clusters of delicate little flasks, as if a +fairy's store of scented wine had been laid up by her in the hollow of a +chestnut shell, between the nut and rind; and then the green changed to +gold. + +14. I have said '_lastly_'--of the orange, for fear of the reader's +weariness only; not as having yet represented, far less exhausted, the +variety of frutescent form. But these are the most important types of it; +and before I can explain the relation between these, and another, too often +confounded with them--the _granular_ form of the seed of grasses.--I must +give some account of what, to man, is far more important than the form--the +gift to him in fruit-food; and trial, in fruit-temptation. + + * * * * * + +{227} + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE FRUIT GIFT. + +1. In the course of the preceding chapter, I hope that the reader has +obtained, or may by a little patience both obtain and secure, the idea of a +great natural Ordinance, which, in the protection given to the part of +plants necessary to prolong their race, provides, for happier living +creatures, food delightful to their taste, and forms either amusing or +beautiful to their eyes. Whether in receptacle, calyx, or true husk,--in +the cup of the acorn, the fringe of the filbert, the down of the apricot, +or bloom of the plum, the powers of Nature consult quite other ends than +the mere continuance of oaks and plum trees on the earth; and must be +regarded always with gratitude more deep than wonder, when they are indeed +seen with human eyes and human intellect. + +2. But in one family of plants, the _contents_ also of the seed, not the +envelope of it merely, are prepared for the support of the higher animal +life; and their grain, filled with the substance which, for universally +understood name, may best keep the Latin one of Farina,--becoming in +French, 'Farine,' and in English, 'Flour,'--both in the perfectly +nourishing elements of it, and its {228} easy and abundant +multiplicability, becomes the primal treasure of human economy. + +3. It has been the practice of botanists of all nations to consider the +seeds of the grasses together with those of roses and pease, as if all +could be described on the same principles, and with the same nomenclature +of parts. But the grain of corn is a quite distinct thing from the seed of +pease. In _it_, the husk and the seed envelope have become inextricably +one. All the exocarps, endocarps, epicarps, mesocarps, shells, husks, +sacks, and skins, are woven at once together into the brown bran; and +inside of that, a new substance is collected for us, which is not what we +boil in pease, or poach in eggs, or munch in nuts, or grind in coffee;--but +a thing which, mixed with water and then baked, has given to all the +nations of the world their prime word for food, in thought and +prayer,--Bread; their prime conception of the man's and woman's labor in +preparing it--("whoso putteth hand to the _plough_"--two women shall be +grinding at the _mill_)--their prime notion of the means of cooking by +fire--("which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the _oven_"), and their +prime notion of culinary office--the "chief _baker_," cook, or +pastrycook,--(compare Bedreddin Hassan in the Arabian Nights): and, +finally, to modern civilization, the Saxon word 'lady,' with whatever it +imports. + +4. It has also been the practice of botanists to confuse all the ripened +products of plants under the general term {229} 'fruit.' But the essential +and separate fruit-gift is of two substances, quite distinct from flour, +namely, oil and wine, under the last term including for the moment all +kinds of juice which will produce alcohol by fermentation. Of these, oil +may be produced either in the kernels of nuts, as in almonds, or in the +substance of berries, as in the olive, date, and coffee-berry. But the +sweet juice which will become medicinal in wine, can only be developed in +the husk, or in the receptacle. + +5. The office of the Chief Butler, as opposed to that of the Chief Baker, +and the office of the Good Samaritan, pouring in oil and wine, refer both +to the total fruit-gift in both kinds: but in the study of plants, we must +primarily separate our notion of their gifts to men into the three +elements, flour, oil, and wine; and have instantly and always intelligible +names for them in Latin, French, and English. + +And I think it best not to confuse our ideas of pure vegetable substance +with the possible process of fermentation:--so that rather than 'wine,' for +a constant specific term, I will take 'Nectar,'--this term more rightly +including the juices of the peach, nectarine, and plum, as well as those of +the grape, currant, and apple. + +Our three separate substances will then be easily named in all three +languages: + + Farina. Oleum. Nectar. + Farine. Huile. Nectare. + Flour. Oil. Nectar. + +{230} + +There is this farther advantage in keeping the third common term, that it +leaves us the words Succus, Jus, Juice, for other liquid products of +plants, watery, milky, sugary, or resinous,--often indeed important to man, +but often also without either agreeable flavor or nutritious power; and it +is therefore to be observed with care that we may use the word 'juice,' of +a liquid produced by any part of a plant, but 'nectar,' only of the juices +produced in its fruit. + +6. But the good and pleasure of fruit is not in the juice only;--in some +kinds, and those not the least valuable, (as the date,) it is not in the +juice at all. We still stand absolutely in want of a word to express the +more or less firm _substance_ of fruit, as distinguished from all other +products of a plant. And with the usual ill-luck,--(I advisedly think of it +as demoniacal misfortune)--of botanical science, no other name has been yet +used for such substance than the entirely false and ugly one of +'Flesh,'--Fr., 'Chair,' with its still more painful derivation 'Charnu,' +and in England the monstrous scientific term, 'Sarco-carp.' + +But, under the housewifery of Proserpina, since we are to call the juice of +fruit, Nectar, its substance will be as naturally and easily called +Ambrosia; and I have no doubt that this, with the other names defined in +this chapter, will not only be found practically more convenient than the +phrases in common use, but will more securely fix in the student's mind a +true conception of {231} the essential differences in substance, which, +ultimately, depend wholly on their pleasantness to human perception, and +offices for human good; and not at all on any otherwise explicable +structure or faculty. It is of no use to determine, by microscope or +retort, that cinnamon is made of cells with so many walls, or grape-juice +of molecules with so many sides;--we are just as far as ever from +understanding why these particular interstices should be aromatic, and +these special parallelopipeds exhilarating, as we were in the savagely +unscientific days when we could only see with our eyes, and smell with our +noses. But to call each of these separate substances by a name rightly +belonging to it through all the past variations of the language of educated +man, will probably enable us often to discern powers in the thing itself, +of affecting the human body and mind, which are indeed qualities infinitely +more its _own_, than any which can possibly be extracted by the point of a +knife, or brayed out with a mortar and pestle. + +7. Thus, to take merely instance in the three main elements of which we +have just determined the names,--flour, oil, and ambrosia;--the differences +in the kinds of pleasure which the tongue received from the powderiness of +oat-cake, or a well-boiled potato--(in the days when oat-cake and potatoes +were!)--from the glossily-softened crispness of a well-made salad, and from +the cool and fragrant amber of an apricot, are indeed distinctions between +the essential virtues of things which {232} were made to be _tasted_, much +more than to be eaten; and in their various methods of ministry to, and +temptation of, human appetites, have their part in the history, not of +elements merely, but of souls; and of the soul-virtues, which from the +beginning of the world have bade the barrel of meal not waste, nor the +cruse of oil fail; and have planted, by waters of comfort, the fruits which +are for the healing of nations. + +8. And, again, therefore, I must repeat, with insistance, the claim I have +made for the limitation of language to the use made of it by educated men. +The word 'carp' could never have multiplied itself into the absurdities of +endo-carps and epi-carps, but in the mouths of men who scarcely ever read +it in its original letters, and therefore never recognized it as meaning +precisely the same thing as 'fructus,' which word, being a little more +familiar with, they would have scarcely abused to the same extent; they +would not have called a walnut shell an intra-fruct--or a grape skin an +extra-fruct; but again, because, though they are accustomed to the English +'fructify,' 'frugivorous'--and 'usufruct,' they are unaccustomed to the +Latin 'fruor,' and unconscious therefore that the derivative 'fructus' must +always, in right use, mean an _enjoyed_ thing, they generalize every mature +vegetable product under the term; and we find Dr. Gray coolly telling us +that there is no fruit so "likely to be mistaken for a seed," as a grain of +corn! a grain, whether of corn, or any other {233} grass, being precisely +the vegetable structure to which frutescent change is forever forbidden! +and to which the word _seed_ is primarily and perfectly applicable!--the +thing to be _sown_, not grafted. + +9. But to mark this total incapability of frutescent change, and connect +the form of the seed more definitely with its dusty treasure, it is better +to reserve, when we are speaking with precision, the term 'grain' for the +seeds of the grasses: the difficulty is greater in French than in English: +because they have no monosyllabic word for the constantly granular 'seed'; +but for us the terms are all simple, and already in right use, only not +quite clearly enough understood; and there remains only one real difficulty +now in our system of nomenclature, that having taken the word 'husk' for +the seed-vessel, we are left without a general word for the true fringe of +a filbert, or the chaff of a grass. I don't know whether the French +'frange' could be used by them in this sense, if we took it in English +botany. But for the present, we can manage well enough without it, one +general term, 'chaff,' serving for all the grasses, 'cup' for acorns, and +'fringe' for nuts. + +10. But I call this a _real_ difficulty, because I suppose, among the +myriads of plants of which I know nothing, there may be forms of the +envelope of fruits or seeds which may, for comfort of speech, require some +common generic name. One _un_real difficulty, or shadow of difficulty, +remains in our having no entirely comprehensive {234} name for seed and +seed-vessel together than that the botanists now use, 'fruit.' But +practically, even now, people feel that they can't gather figs of thistles, +and never speak of the fructification of a thistle, or of the fruit of a +dandelion. And, re-assembling now, in one view, the words we have +determined on, they will be found enough for all practical service, and in +such service always accurate, and, usually, suggestive. I repeat them in +brief order, with such farther explanation as they need. + +11. All ripe products of the life of flowers consist essentially of the +Seed and Husk,--these being, in certain cases, sustained, surrounded, or +provided with means of motion, by other parts of the plant; or by +developments of their own form which require in each case distinct names. +Thus the white cushion of the dandelion to which its brown seeds are +attached, and the personal parachutes which belong to each, must be +separately described for that species of plants; it is the little brown +thing they sustain and carry away on the wind, which must be examined as +the essential product of the floret;--the 'seed and husk.' + +12. Every seed has a husk, holding either that seed alone, or other seeds +with it. + +Every perfect seed consists of an embryo, and the substance which first +nourishes that embryo; the whole enclosed in a sack or other sufficient +envelope. Three essential parts altogether. {235} + +Every perfect husk, vulgarly pericarp, or 'round-fruit,'--(as periwig, +'round-wig,')--consists of a shell, (vulgarly endocarp,) rind, (vulgarly +mesocarp,) and skin, (vulgarly epicarp); three essential parts altogether. +But one or more of these parts may be effaced, or confused with another; +and in the seeds of grasses they all concentrate themselves into bran. + +13. When a husk consists of two or more parts, each of which has a separate +shaft and volute, uniting in the pillar and volute of the flower, each +separate piece of the husk is called a 'carpel.' The name was first given +by De Candolle, and must be retained. But it continually happens that a +simple husk divides into two parts corresponding to the two leaves of the +embryo, as in the peach, or symmetrically holding alternate seeds, as in +the pea. The beautiful drawing of the pea-shell with its seeds, in +Rousseau's botany, is the only one I have seen which rightly shows and +expresses this arrangement. + +14. A Fruit is either the husk, receptacle, petal, or other part of a +flower _external to the seed_, in which chemical changes have taken place, +fitting it for the most part to become pleasant and healthful food for man, +or other living animals; but in some cases making it bitter or poisonous to +them, and the enjoyment of it depraved or deadly. But, as far as we know, +it is without any definite office to the seed it contains; and the change +takes {236} place entirely to fit the plant to the service of animals.[66] + +In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to a temperate zone, of which +the polar limit is marked by the strawberry, and the equatorial by the +orange. The more arctic regions produce even the smallest kinds of fruit +with difficulty; and the more equatorial, in coarse, oleaginous, or +over-luscious masses. + +15. All the most perfect fruits are developed _from exquisite forms either +of foliage or flower_. The vine leaf, in its generally decorative power, is +the most important, both in life and in art, of all that shade the +habitations of men. The olive leaf is, without any rival, the most +beautiful of the leaves of timber trees; and its blossom, though minute, of +extreme beauty. The apple is essentially the fruit of the rose, and the +peach of her only rival in her own colour. The cherry and orange blossom +are the two types of floral snow. + +16. And, lastly, let my readers be assured, the economy of blossom and +fruit, with the distribution of water, {237} will be found hereafter the +most accurate test of wise national government. + +For example of the action of a national government, rightly so called, in +these matters, I refer the student to the Mariegolas of Venice, translated +in Fors Clavigera; and I close this chapter, and this first volume of +Proserpina, not without pride, in the words I wrote on this same matter +eighteen years ago. "So far as the labourer's immediate profit is +concerned, it matters not an iron filing whether I employ him in growing a +peach, or in forging a bombshell. But the difference to him is final, +whether, when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage, and give it the +peach,--or drop the shell down his chimney, and blow his roof off." + + * * * * * + +{238} + +INDEX I. + +DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE. + +Plants in perfect form are said, at page 26, to consist of four principal +parts: root, stem, leaf, and flower. (Compare Chapter V., § 2.) The reader +may have been surprised at the omission of the fruit from this list. But a +plant which has borne fruit is no longer of 'perfect' form. Its flower is +dead. And, observe, it is further said, at page 65, (and compare Chapter +III., § 2,) that the use of the fruit is to produce the flower: not of the +flower to produce the fruit. Therefore, the plant in perfect blossom, is +itself perfect. Nevertheless, the formation of the fruit, practically, is +included in the flower, and so spoken of in the fifteenth line of the same +page. + +Each of these four main parts of a plant consist normally of a certain +series of minor parts, to which it is well to attach easily remembered +names. In this section of my index I will not admit the confusion of idea +involved by alphabetical arrangement of these names, but will sacrifice +facility of reference to clearness of explanation, and taking the four +great parts of the plant in {239} succession, I will give the list of the +minor and constituent parts, with their names as determined in Proserpina, +and reference to the pages where the reasons for such determination are +given, endeavouring to supply, at the same time, any deficiencies which I +find in the body of the text. + +I. THE ROOT. + + PAGE + + Origin of the word Root 27 + + The offices of the root are threefold: namely, + Tenure, Nourishment, and Animation 27-34 + + The essential parts of a Root are two: the Limbs + and Fibres 33 + + I. THE LIMB is the gathered mass of fibres, or at + least of fibrous substance, which extends itself + in search of nourishment 32 + + II. THE FIBRE is the organ by which the nourishment + is received 32 + + The inessential or accidental parts of roots, which + are attached to the roots of some plants, but + not to those of others, (and are, indeed, for the + most part absent,) are three: namely, Store-Houses, + Refuges, and Ruins 34 + + III. Store-houses contain the food of the future + plant 34 + + {240} + + IV. REFUGES shelter the future plant itself for a + time 35 + + V. RUINS form a basis for the growth of the future + plant in its proper order 36 + + Root-Stocks, the accumulation of such ruins in a vital + order 37 + + General questions relating to the office and chemical + power of roots 38 + + /# + The nomenclature of Roots will not be extended, in + Proserpina, beyond the five simple terms here given: + though the ordinary botanical ones--corm, bulb, tuber, + etc.--will be severally explained in connection with the + plants which they specially characterize. + #/ + +II. THE STEM. + + Derivation of word 137 + + The channel of communication between leaf and + root 153 + + In a perfect plant it consists of three parts: + + I. THE STEM (STEMMA) proper.--A growing or advancing + shoot which sustains all the other + organs of the plant 136 + + It may grow by adding thickness to its sides without + advancing; but its essential characteristic is + the vital power of Advance 136 + {241} + + It may be round, square, or polygonal, but is always + roundly minded 136 + + Its structural power is Spiral 137 + + It is essentially branched; having subordinate leaf-stalks + and flower-stalks, if not larger branches 139 + + It developes the buds, leaves, and flowers of the + plant. + + This power is not yet properly defined, or explained; + and referred to only incidentally throughout + the eighth chapter 134-138 + + II. THE LEAF-STALK (CYMBA) sustains, and expands + itself into, the Leaf 133, 134 + + It is essentially furrowed above, and convex below 134 + + It is to be called in Latin, the Cymba; in English, + the Leaf-Stalk 135 + + III. THE FLOWER-STALK (PETIOLUS): + + It is essentially round 130 + + It is usually separated distinctly at its termination + from the flower 130, 131 + + It is to be called in Latin, Petiolus; in English, + Flower-stalk 130 + + These three are the essential parts of a stem. But + {242} + besides these, it has, when largely developed, a + permanent form: namely, + + IV. THE TRUNK.--A non-advancing mass of collected + stem, arrested at a given height from the + ground 139 + + /# + The stems of annual plants are either leafy, as of a + thistle, or bare, sustaining the flower or flower-cluster at + a certain height above the ground. Receiving therefore + these following names:--- + #/ + + V. THE VIRGA.--The leafy stem of an annual plant, + not a grass, yet growing upright 147 + + VI. THE VIRGULA.--The leafless flower-stem of an + annual plant, not a grass, as of a primrose or + dandelion 147 + + VII. THE FILUM.--The running stem of a creeping + plant + + /# + It is not specified in the text for use; but will be necessary; + so also, perhaps, the Stelechos, or stalk proper (26), + the branched stem of an annual plant, not a grass; one + cannot well talk of the Virga of hemlock. The 'Stolon' + is explained in its classical sense at page 158, but I believe + botanists use it otherwise. I shall have occasion + to refer to, and complete its explanation, in speaking of + bulbous plants. + #/ + + VIII. THE CAUDEX.--The essentially ligneous and + compact part of a stem 149 + + {243} + + /# + This equivocal word is not specified for use in the text, + but I mean to keep it for the accumulated stems of inlaid + plants, palms, and the like; for which otherwise we have + no separate term. + #/ + + IX. THE AVENA.--Not specified in the text at all; + but it will be prettier than 'baculus,' which is + that I had proposed, for the 'staff' of grasses. + See page 179. + + /# + These ten names are all that the student need remember; + but he will find some interesting particulars respecting + the following three, noticed in the text:--- + #/ + + STIPS.--The origin of stipend, stupid, and stump 148 + + STIPULA.--The subtlest Latin term for straw 148 + + CAULIS (Kale).--The peculiar stem of branched eatable + vegetables 149 + + CANNA.--Not noticed in the text; but likely to be + sometimes useful for the stronger stems of + grasses. + +III. THE LEAF. + + Derivation of word 26 + + The Latin form 'folium' 41 + + The Greek form 'petalos' 42 + + Veins and ribs of leaves, to be usually summed under + the term 'rib' 44 + + Chemistry of leaves 46 + {244} + + /# + The nomenclature of the leaf consists, in botanical + books, of little more than barbarous, and, for the general + reader, totally useless attempts to describe their + forms in Latin. But their forms are infinite and indescribable + except by the pencil. I will give central types of + form in the next volume of Proserpina; which, so that + the reader sees and remembers, he may _call_ anything he + likes. But it is necessary that names should be assigned + to certain classes of leaves which are essentially different + from each other in character and tissue, not merely + in form. Of these the two main divisions have been + already given: but I will now add the less important + ones which yet require distinct names. + #/ + + I. APOLLINE.--Typically represented by the laurel 51 + + II. ARETHUSAN.--Represented by the alisma 52 + + /# + It ought to have been noticed that the character of serration, + within reserved limits, is essential to an Apolline + leaf, and absolutely refused by an Arethusan one. + #/ + + III. DRYAD.--Of the ordinary leaf tissue, neither + manifestly strong, nor admirably tender, but + serviceably consistent, which we find generally + to be the substance of the leaves of forest trees. + Typically represented by those of the oak. + + IV. ABIETINE.--Shaft or sword-shape, as the leaves + of firs and pines. + + V. CRESSIC.--Delicate and light, with smooth tissue, + as the leaves of cresses, and clover. + {245} + + VI. SALVIAN.--Soft and woolly, like miniature + blankets, easily folded, as the leaves of sage. + + VII. CAULINE.--Softly succulent, with thick central + ribs, as of the cabbage. + + VIII. ALOEINE.--Inflexibly succulent, as of the + aloe or houseleek. + + /# + No rigid application of these terms must ever be attempted; + but they direct the attention to important general + conditions, and will often be found to save time and + trouble in description. + #/ + +IV. THE FLOWER. + + Its general nature and function 65 + + Consists essentially of Corolla and Treasury 78 + + Has in perfect form the following parts:-- + + I. THE TORUS.--Not yet enough described in the + text. It is the expansion of the extremity of + the flower-stalk, in preparation for the support + of the expanding flower 66, 224 + + II. THE INVOLUCRUM.--Any kind of wrapping or + propping condition of leafage at the base of a + flower may properly come under this head; but + the manner of prop or protection differs in different + kinds, and I will not at present give generic + names to these peculiar forms. + + {246} + III. THE CALYX (The Hiding-place).--The outer + whorl of leaves, under the protection of which + the real flower is brought to maturity. Its separate + leaves are called SEPALS 80 + + IV. THE COROLLA (The Cup).--The inner whorl of + leaves, forming the flower itself. Its separate + leaves are called PETALS 71 + + V. THE TREASURY.--The part of the flower that + contains its seeds. + + VI. THE PILLAR.--The part of the flower above its + treasury, by which the power of the pollen is + carried down to the seeds 78 + + It consists usually of two parts--the SHAFT and + VOLUTE 78 + + When the pillar is composed of two or more shafts, + attached to separate treasury-cells, each cell + with its shaft is called a CARPEL 235 + + VII. THE STAMENS.--The parts of the flower which + secrete its pollen 78 + + They consist usually of two parts, the FILAMENT and + ANTHER, not yet described. + + VIII. THE NECTARY.--The part of the flower containing + its honey, or any other special product + of its inflorescence. The name has often been + {247} + given to certain forms of petals of which the + use is not yet known. No notice has yet been + taken of this part of the flower in Proserpina. + + /# + These being all the essential parts of the flower itself, + other forms and substances are developed in the seed as it + ripens, which, I believe, may most conveniently be arranged + in a separate section, though not logically to be + considered as separable from the flower, but only as + mature states of certain parts of it. + #/ + +V. THE SEED. + +I must once more desire the reader to take notice that, under the four +sections already defined, the morphology of the plant is to be considered +as complete, and that we are now only to examine and name, farther, its +_product_; and that not so much as the germ of its own future descendant +flower, but as a separate substance which it is appointed to form, partly +to its own detriment, for the sake of higher creatures. This product +consists essentially of two parts: the Seed and its Husk. + + I. THE SEED.--Defined 220 + + It consists, in its perfect form, of three parts 222 + + /# + These three parts are not yet determinately named in + the text: but I give now the names which will be usually + attached to them. + #/ + + A. _The Sacque_.--The outside skin of a seed 221 + + {248} + + B. _The Nutrine_.--A word which I coin, for general + applicability, whether to the farina of + corn, the substance of a nut, or the parts that + become the first leaves in a bean 221 + + C. _The Germ_.--The origin of the root 221 + + II. THE HUSK.--Defined 222 + + Consists, like the seed when in perfect form, of + three parts. + + A. _The Skin_.--The outer envelope of all the + seed structures 222 + + B. _The Rind_.--The central body of the Husk. 222-235 + + C. _The Shell_.--Not always shelly, yet best described + by this general term; and becoming + a shell, so called, in nuts, peaches, dates, and + other such kernel-fruits 222 + + The products of the Seed and Husk of Plants, for + the use of animals, are practically to be massed + under the three heads of BREAD, OIL, and FRUIT. + But the substance of which bread is made is + more accurately described as Farina; and the + pleasantness of fruit to the taste depends on two + elements in its substance: the juice, and the + pulp containing it, which may properly be + called Nectar and Ambrosia. We have therefore + in all four essential products of the Seed + and Husk-- + + {249} + A. Farina. Flour 227 + + B. Oleum. Oil 229 + + C. Nectar. Fruit-juice 229 + + D. Ambrosia. Fruit-substance 230 + + +Besides these all-important products of the seed, others are formed in the +stems and leaves of plants, of which no account hitherto has been given in +Proserpina. I delay any extended description of these until we have +examined the structure of wood itself more closely; this intricate and +difficult task having been remitted (p. 195) to the days of coming spring; +and I am well pleased that my younger readers should at first be vexed with +no more names to be learned than those of the vegetable productions with +which they are most pleasantly acquainted: but for older ones, I think it +well, before closing the present volume, to indicate, with warning, some of +the obscurities, and probable fallacies, with which this vanity of science +encumbers the chemistry, no less than the morphology, of plants. + +Looking back to one of the first books in which our new knowledge of +organic chemistry began to be displayed, thirty years ago, I find that even +at that period the organic elements which the cuisine of the laboratory had +already detected in simple Indigo, were the following:-- {250} + + Isatine, Bromisatine, Bidromisatine; + Chlorisatine, Bichlorisatine; + Chlorisatyde, Bichlorisatyde; + Chlorindine, Chlorindoptene, Chlorindatmit; + Chloranile, Chloranilam, and, Chloranilammon. + +And yet, with all this practical skill in decoction, and accumulative +industry in observation and nomenclature, so far are our scientific men +from arriving, by any decoctive process of their own knowledge, at general +results useful to ordinary human creatures, that when I wish now to +separate, for young scholars, in first massive arrangement of vegetable +productions, the Substances of Plants from their Essences; that is to say, +the weighable and measurable body of the plant from its practically +immeasurable, if not imponderable, spirit, I find in my three volumes of +close-printed chemistry, no information what ever respecting the quality of +volatility in matter, except this one sentence:-- + +"The disposition of various substances to yield vapour is very different: +and the difference depends doubtless on the relative power of cohesion with +which they are endowed."[67] + +Even in this not extremely pregnant, though extremely {251} cautious, +sentence, two conditions of matter are confused, no notice being taken of +the difference in manner of dissolution between a vitally fragrant and a +mortally putrid substance. + +It is still more curious that when I look for more definite instruction on +such points to the higher ranks of botanists, I find in the index to Dr. +Lindley's 'Introduction to Botany'--seven hundred pages of close print--not +one of the four words 'Volatile,' 'Essence,' 'Scent,' or 'Perfume.' I +examine the index to Gray's 'Structural and Systematic Botany,' with +precisely the same success. I next consult Professors Balfour and Grindon, +and am met by the same dignified silence. Finally, I think over the +possible chances in French, and try in Figuier's indices to the 'Histoire +des Plantes' for 'Odeur'--no such word! 'Parfum'--no such word. +'Essence'--no such word. 'Encens'--no such word. I try at last 'Pois de +Senteur,' at a venture, and am referred to a page which describes their +going to sleep. + +Left thus to my own resources, I must be content for the present to bring +the subject at least under safe laws of nomenclature. It is possible that +modern chemistry may be entirely right in alleging the absolute identity of +substances such as albumen, or fibrine, whether they occur in the animal or +vegetable economies. But I do not choose to assume this identity in my +nomenclature. It may, perhaps, be very fine and very instructive to {252} +inform the pupils preparing for competitive examination that the main +element of Milk is Milkine, and of Cheese, Cheesine. But for the practical +purposes of life, all that I think it necessary for the pupil to know is +that in order to get either milk or cheese, he must address himself to a +Cow, and not to a Pump; and that what a chemist can produce for him out of +dandelions or cocoanuts, however milky or cheesy it may look, may more +safely be called by some name of its own. + +This distinctness of language becomes every day more desirable, in the face +of the refinements of chemical art which now enable the ingenious +confectioner to meet the demands of an unscientific person for (suppose) a +lemon drop, with a mixture of nitric acid, sulphur, and stewed bones. It is +better, whatever the chemical identity of the products may be, that each +should receive a distinctive epithet, and be asked for and supplied, in +vulgar English, and vulgar probity, either as essence of lemons, or +skeletons. + +I intend, therefore,--and believe that the practice will be found both wise +and convenient,--to separate in all my works on natural history the terms +used for vegetable products from those used for animal or mineral ones, +whatever may be their chemical identity, or resemblance in aspect. I do not +mean to talk of fat in seeds, nor of flour in eggs, nor of milk in rocks. +Pace my prelatical friends, I mean to use the word 'Alb' for vegetable +albumen; and although I cannot without pedantry avoid {253} using sometimes +the word 'milky' of the white juices of plants, I must beg the reader to +remain unaffected in his conviction that there is a vital difference +between liquids that coagulate into butter, or congeal into India-rubber. +Oil, when used simply, will always mean a vegetable product: and when I +have occasion to speak of petroleum, tallow, or blubber, I shall generally +call these substances by their right names. + +There are also a certain number of vegetable materials more or less +prepared, secreted, or digested for us by animals, such as wax, honey, +silk, and cochineal. The properties of these require more complex +definitions, but they have all very intelligible and well-established +names. 'Tea' must be a general term for an extract of any plant in boiling +water: though when standing alone the word will take its accepted Chinese +meaning: and essence, the general term for the condensed dew of a vegetable +vapour, which is with grace and fitness called the 'being' of a plant, +because its properties are almost always characteristic of the species; and +it is not, like leaf tissue or wood fibre, approximately the same material +in different shapes; but a separate element in each family of flowers, of a +mysterious, delightful, or dangerous influence, logically inexplicable, +chemically inconstructible, and wholly, in dignity of nature, above all +modes and faculties of form. + + * * * * * + +{254} + +INDEX II. + +TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR ENGLISH NAMES, ACCEPTED +BY PROSERPINA. + + Apple, 102 + Ash, 120, 127 + Aspen, 134 + Asphodel, 8, 36 + Bay, 51 + Bean, 104 + Bed-straw, 120 + Bindweed, 144 + Birch, 172 + Blackthorn, 119, 127 + Blaeberry, 52, 206 + Bluebell, 144 + Bramble, 119, 195 + Burdock, 112, 131 + Burnet, 95 + Butterbur, 118 + Cabbage, 131, 149 + Captain-salad, 149 + Carrot, 32, 35 + Cauliflower, 131, 149 + Cedar, 35, 61, 113 + Celandine, 72 + Cherry, 65, 130 + Chestnut, 62 + " Spanish, 166 + Chicory, 118 + Clover, 111 + Colewort, 149 + Coltsfoot, 110 + Corn-cockle, 108 + Corn-flag, 104, 109 + Cowslip, 139 + Crocus, 36, 37 + Daffodil, + {255} + Daisy, 117, 144, 145 + Dandelion, 117 + Devil's Bit, 147 + Dock, 131 + Elm, 52 + Fig, 63 + Flag, 104 + Flax, 165 + Foils, Rock, 144 + " Roof, 144, 146 + Foxglove, 70, 118, 139 + Frog-flower, 56 + Grape, 103, 130 + Grass, 52, 53, 55, 156, 158, 161, 163 + Hawk's-eye, 118 + Hazel, 120 + Heath, 67, 68, 107, 208 + Hemlock, 107 + Herb-Robert, 121 + Holly, 113, 119 + Houseleek, 37, 146 + Hyacinth, 65, 67 + Ivy, 111 + Jacinth, 83, 186 + King-cup, 110 + Laurel, 35, 59, 140 + " leaves, 43, 51, 60 + Lichen, 175 + Lilac, 76 + Lily, 1, 36, 53, 104, 109 + Lily, St. Bruno's, 1, 7, 9, 10 + Lily of the Valley, 143 + Lily, Water, 55, 72 + Ling, 68, 69 + Lion's-tooth, 113 + Liquorice, 38 + Lucy, 110, 144 + Mistletoe, 111 + Moss, 12, 15, 175 + Mushroom, 43, 127 + Myrtle, 51 + Nettle, 52, 88, 107 + Nightshade, 108 + Oak, 36, 140 + " blossom, 67 + Olive, 51, 63, 142 + Onion, 38 + Orange, 51 + Pĉony, 129 + Palm, 43, 53, 54, 103, 156, 166 + {256} + Pansy, 120, 144 + Papilionaceĉ, 145 + Papyrus, 165 + Pea, 32, 144 + Peach, 130, 144 + Pine, 140 + Pineapple, 14 + Pink, 144 + Plantain, 134 + Pomegranate, 102 + Poplar, 52 + Poppy, 70, 76, 86, 104 + Primrose, 79, 144 + Radish, 35, 38 + Ragged Robin, 155 + Rhubarb, 131 + Rice, 52 + Rock-foil, 144 + Roof-foil, 144, 146 + Rose, 64, 69, 75, 104, 109, 119, 121, 129, 144 + Rush, 157 + Saxifrage, 120, 143, 146 + Scabious, 147 + Sedum, 146 + Sorrel-wood, 9 + Spider Plant, 8 + Sponsa solis, 118 + Stella, 144, 146 + " domestica, 146 + Stonecrop, 146 + Sweetbriar, 109 + Thistle, 103, 104, 113, 117, 118, 121, 144 _note_, 151 + Thistle, Creeping, 138 + " Waste, 138 + Thorns, 121, 127 + " Black, 119, 127 + Thyme, 118 + Tobacco, 38, 108 + Tormentilla, 110 + Turnip, 35 + Vine, 104, 108, 140, 142 + Viola, 144 + Wallflower, 111 + Wheat, 127, 165 + Wreathewort, 181 + + * * * * * + +{257} + +INDEX III. + +TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, +ACCEPTED BY PROSERPINA. + + Acanthus, 104 + Alata, 144 + Alisma, 52 + Amaryllis, 36, 37 + Anemone, 107 + Artemides, 196 + Asphodel, 11 + Aurora, 207 + Azalea, 207 + Cactus, 43 + Campanula, 144 + Carduus, 138 + Charites, 188 + Cistus, 69 + Clarissa, 144, 155 + Contorta, 181 + Convoluta, 144 + Cyclamen, 32 + Drosidĉ, 36, 199 + Ensatĉ, 203 + Ericĉ, 9, 206 + Eryngo, 83 + Fragaria, 188 + Francesca, 144, 146 + Fraxinus, 195 + Geranium, 83, 120 + Gladiolus, 104, 109, 163 + Hyacinthus, 186 + Hypnum, 13 + Iris, 36, 103 + Lilium (_see_ Lily), 8 + Lucia, 110, 189 + {258} + Magnolia, 51 + Margarita, 144 + Myrtilla, 206 + Narcissus, 109 + Ophrys, 180 + Papaver, 91, 96 + Persica, 144 + Pomum, 188 + Primula, 143 + Rosa, 144 + Rubra, 188, 195 + Satyrium, 182 + Stella, 144, 146 + Veronica, 75 + Viola, 144 + + * * * * * + +Notes + +[1] At least, it throws off its flowers on each side in a bewilderingly +pretty way; a real lily can't branch, I believe: but, if not, what is the +use of the botanical books saying "on an unbranched stem"? + +[2] I have by happy chance just added to my Oxford library the poet Gray's +copy of Linnĉus, with its exquisitely written Latin notes, exemplary alike +to scholar and naturalist. + +[3] It was in the year 1860, in June. + +[4] Admirably engraved by Mr. Burgess, from my pen drawing, now at Oxford. +By comparing it with the plate of the same flower in Sowerby's work, the +student will at once see the difference between attentive drawing, which +gives the cadence and relation of masses in a group, and the mere copying +of each flower in an unconsidered huddle. + +[5] "Histoire des Plantes." Ed. 1865, p. 416. + +[6] The like of it I have now painted, Number 281, CASE XII., in the +Educational Series of Oxford. + +[7] Properly, Florĉ Danicĉ, but it is so tiresome to print the diphthongs +that I shall always call it thus. It is a folio series, exquisitely begun, +a hundred years ago; and not yet finished. + +[8] Magnified about seven times. See note at end of this chapter. + +[9] American,--'System of Botany,' the best technical book I have. + +[10] 'Dicranum cerviculatum,' sequel to Flora Danica, Tab. MMCCX. + +[11] The reader should buy a small specimen of this mineral; it is a useful +type of many structures. + +[12] LUCCA, _Aug. 9th, 1874._--I have left this passage as originally +written, but I believe the dome is of accumulated earth. Bringing home, +here, evening after evening, heaps of all kinds of mosses from the hills +among which the Archbishop Ruggieri was hunting the wolf and her whelps in +Ugolino's dream, I am more and more struck, every day, with their special +function as earth-gatherers, and with the enormous importance to their own +brightness, and to our service, of that dark and degraded state of the +inferior leaves. And it fastens itself in my mind mainly as their +distinctive character, that as the leaves of a tree become wood, so the +leaves of a moss become earth, while yet a normal part of the plant. Here +is a cake in my hand weighing half a pound, bright green on the surface, +with minute crisp leaves; but an inch thick beneath in what looks at first +like clay, but is indeed knitted fibre of exhausted moss. Also, I don't at +all find the generalization I made from the botanical books likely to have +occurred to me from the real things. No moss leaves that I can find here +give me the idea of resemblance to pineapple leaves; nor do I see any, +through my weak lens, clearly serrated; but I do find a general tendency to +run into a silky filamentous structure, and in some, especially on a small +one gathered from the fissures in the marble of the cathedral, white +threads of considerable length at the extremities of the leaves, of which +threads I remember no drawing or notice in the botanical books. Figure 1 +represents, magnified, a cluster of these leaves, with the germinating +stalk springing from their centre; but my scrawl was tired and careless, +and for once, Mr. Burgess has copied _too_ accurately. + +[13] Learn this word, at any rate; and if you know any Greek, learn also +this group of words: "[Greek: hôs rhiza en gê dipsôsêi]," which you may +chance to meet with, and even to think about, some day. + +[14] "Duhamel, botanist of the last century, tells us that, wishing to +preserve a field of good land from the roots of an avenue of elms which +were exhausting it, he cut a ditch between the field and avenue to +intercept the roots. But he saw with surprise those of the roots which had +not been cut, go down behind the slope of the ditch to keep out of the +light, go under the ditch, and into the field again." And the Swiss +naturalist Bonnet said wittily, apropos of a wonder of this sort, "that +sometimes it was difficult to distinguish a cat from a rosebush." + +[15] As the first great office of the mosses is the gathering of earth, so +that of the grasses is the binding of it. Theirs the Enchanter's toil, not +in vain,--making ropes out of sea-sand. + +[16] Drosidĉ, in our school nomenclature, is the general name, including +the four great tribes, iris, asphodel, amaryllis, and lily. See reason for +this name given in the 'Queen of the Air,' Section II. + +[17] The only use of a great part of our existing nomenclature is to enable +one botanist to describe to another a plant which the other has not seen. +When the science becomes approximately perfect, all known plants will be +properly figured, so that nobody need describe them; and unknown plants be +so rare that nobody will care to learn a new and difficult language, in +order to be able to give an account of what in all probability he will +never see. + +[18] An excellent book, nevertheless. + +[19] Lindley, 'Introduction to Botany,' vol. i., p. 21. The terms "wholly +obsolete," says an authoritative botanic friend. Thank Heaven! + +[20] "You should see the girders on under-side of the Victoria Water-lily, +the most wonderful bit of engineering, of the kind, I know +of."--('Botanical friend.') + +[21] Roughly, Cyllene 7,700 feet high; Erymanthus 7,000; Mĉnalus 6,000. + +[22] _March 3rd._--We now ascend the roots of the mountain called Kastaniá, +and begin to pass between it and the mountain of Alonístena, which is on +our right. The latter is much higher than Kastaniá, and, like the other +peaked summits of the Mĉnalian range, is covered with firs, and deeply at +present with snow. The snow lies also in our pass. At a fountain in the +road, the small village of Bazeníko is half a mile on the right, standing +at the foot of the Mĉnalian range, and now covered with snow. + +Saetá is the most lofty of the range of mountains, which are in face of +Levídhi, to the northward and eastward; they are all a part of the chain +which extends from Mount Khelmós, and connects that great summit with +Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon. Mount Saetá is covered with firs. The +mountain between the plain of Levídhi and Alonístena, or, to speak by the +ancient nomenclature, that part of the Mĉnalian range which separates the +Orchomenia from the valleys of Helisson and Methydrium, is clothed also +with large forests of the same trees; the road across this ridge from +Lavídhi to Alonístena is now impracticable on account of the snow. + +I am detained all day at Levídhi by a heavy fall of snow, which before the +evening has covered the ground to half a foot in depth, although the +village is not much elevated above the plain, nor in a more lofty situation +than Tripolitzá. + +_March 4th._--Yesterday afternoon and during the night the snow fell in +such quantities as to cover all the plains and adjacent mountains; and the +country exhibited this morning as fine a snow-scene as Norway could supply. +As the day advanced and the sun appeared, the snow melted rapidly, but the +sky was soon overcast again, and the snow began to fall. + +[23] Just in time, finding a heap of gold under an oak tree some thousand +years old, near Arundel, I've made them out: Eight, divided by three; that +is to say, three couples of petals, with two odd little ones inserted for +form's sake. No wonder I couldn't decipher them by memory. + +[24] Figs. 8 and 9 are both drawn and engraved by Mr. Burgess. + +[25] Of Vespertilian science generally, compare 'Eagles' Nest,' pp. 25 and +179. + +[26] The mathematical term is 'rhomb.' + +[27] [Greek: hês to sperma artopoieitai.] + +[28] [Greek: epimêkes echousa to kephalion.] Dioscorides makes no effort to +distinguish species, but gives the different names as if merely used in +different places. + +[29] It is also used sometimes of the garden poppy, says Dioscorides, +"[Greek: dia to rhein ex autês ton opon]"--"because the sap, opium, flows +from it." + +[30] See all the passages quoted by Liddell. + +[31] I find this chapter rather tiresome on re-reading it myself, and +cancel some farther criticism of the imitation of this passage by Virgil, +one of the few pieces of the Ĉneid which are purely and vulgarly imitative, +rendered also false as well as weak by the introducing sentence, "Volvitur +Euryalus leto," after which the simile of the drooping flower is absurd. Of +criticism, the chief use of which is to warn all sensible men from such +business, the following abstract of Diderot's notes on the passage, given +in the 'Saturday Review' for April 29th, 1871, is worth preserving. (Was +the French critic really not aware that Homer _had_ written the lines his +own way?) + +"Diderot illustrates his theory of poetical hieroglyphs by no quotations, +but we can show the manner of his minute and sometimes fanciful criticism +by repeating his analysis of the passage of Virgil wherein the death of +Euryalus is described:-- + + 'Pulchrosque per artus + It cruor, inque humeros cervix collapsa recumbit; + Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro + Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo + Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.' + +"The sound of 'It cruor,' according to Diderot, suggests the image of a jet +of blood; 'cervix collapsa recumbit,' the fall of a dying man's head upon +his shoulder; 'succisus' imitates the use of a cutting scythe (not plough); +'demisere' is as soft as the eye of a flower; 'gravantur,' on the other +hand, has all the weight of a calyx, filled with rain; 'collapsa' marks an +effort and a fall, and similar double duty is performed by 'papavera,' the +first two syllables symbolizing the poppy upright, the last two the poppy +bent. While thus pursuing his minute investigations, Diderot can scarcely +help laughing at himself, and candidly owns that he is open to the +suspicion of discovering in the poem beauties which have no existence. He +therefore qualifies his eulogy by pointing out two faults in the passage. +'Gravantur,' notwithstanding the praise it has received, is a little too +heavy for the light head of a poppy, even when filled with water. As for +'aratro,' coming as it does after the hiss of 'succisus,' it is altogether +abominable. Had Homer written the lines, he would have ended with some +hieroglyph, which would have continued the hiss or described the fall of a +flower. To the hiss of 'succisus' Diderot is warmly attached. Not by +mistake, but in order to justify the sound, he ventures to translate +'aratrum' into 'scythe,' boldly and rightly declaring in a marginal note +that this is not the meaning of the word." + +[32] And I have too harshly called our English vines, 'wicked weeds of +Kent,' in Fors Clavigera, xxvii. 11. Much may be said for Ale, when we brew +it for our people honestly. + +[33] Has my reader ever thought,--I never did till this moment,--how it +perfects the exquisite character which Scott himself loved, as he invented, +till he changed the form of the novel, that his habitual interjection +should be this word;--not but that the oath, by conscience, was happily +still remaining then in Scotland, taking the place of the mediĉval 'by St. +Andrew,' we in England, long before the Scot, having lost all sense of the +Puritanical appeal to private conscience, as of the Catholic oath, 'by St. +George;' and our uncanonized 'by George' in sonorous rudeness, ratifying, +not now our common conscience, but our individual opinion. + +[34] 'Jotham,' 'Sum perfectio eorum,' or 'Consummatio eorum.' +(Interpretation of name in Vulgate index.) + +[35] If you will look at the engraving, in the England and Wales series, of +Turner's Oakhampton, you will see its use. + +[36] General assertions of this kind must always be accepted under +indulgence,--exceptions being made afterwards. + +[37] I use 'round' rather than 'cylindrical,' for simplicity's sake. + +[38] Carduus Arvensis. 'Creeping Thistle,' in Sowerby; why, I cannot +conceive, for there is no more creeping in it than in a furzebush. But it +especially haunts foul and neglected ground; so I keep the Latin name, +translating 'Waste-Thistle.' I could not show the variety of the curves of +the involucre without enlarging; and if, on this much increased scale, I +had tried to draw the flower, it would have taken Mr. Allen and me a good +month's more work. And I had no more a month than a life, to spare: so the +action only of the spreading flower is indicated, but the involucre drawn +with precision. + +[39] The florets gathered in the daisy are cinquefoils, examined closely. +No system founded on colour can be very general or unexceptionable: but the +splendid purples of the pansy, and thistle, which will be made one of the +lower composite groups under Margarita, may justify the general assertion +of this order's being purple. + +[40] See Miss Yonge's exhaustive account of the name, 'History of Christian +Names,' vol. i., p. 265. + +[41] (Du Cange.) The word 'Margarete' is given as heraldic English for +pearl, by Lady Juliana Berners, in the book of St. Albans. + +[42] Recent botanical research makes this statement more than dubitable. +Nevertheless, on no other supposition can the forms and action of +tree-branches, so far as at present known to me, be yet clearly accounted +for. + +[43] Not always in muscular power; but the framework on which strong +muscles are to act, as that of an insect's wing, or its jaw, is never +insectile. + +[44] It is one of the three cadences, (the others being of the words +rhyming to 'mind' and 'way,') used by Sir Philip Sidney in his marvellous +paraphrase of the 55th Psalm. + +[45] Lectures on the Families of Speech, by the Rev. F. Farrer Longman, +1870. Page 81. + +[46] I only profess, you will please to observe, to ask questions in +Proserpina. Never to answer any. But of course this chapter is to introduce +some further inquiry in another place. + +[47] See Introduction, pp. 5-8. + +[48] See Sowerby's nomenclature of the flower, vol. ix., plate 1703. + +[49] Linnĉus used this term for the oleanders; but evidently with less +accuracy than usual. + +[50] "[Greek: anthê porphuroeidê]" says Dioscorides, of the race +generally,--but "[Greek: anthê de hupoporphura]" of this particular one. + +[51] I offer a sample of two dozen for good papas and mammas to begin +with:-- + + Angraecum. + Anisopetalum. + Brassavola. + Brassia. + Caelogyne. + Calopogon. + Corallorrhiza. + Cryptarrhena. + Eulophia. + Gymnadenia. + Microstylis. + Octomeria. + Ornithidium. + Ornithocephalus. + Platanthera. + Pleurothallis. + Pogonia. + Polystachya. + Prescotia. + Renanthera. + Rodriguezia. + Stenorhyncus. + Trizeuxis. + Xylobium. + +[52] Compare Chapter V., § 7. + +[53] "Jacinthus Jurae," changed from "Hyacinthus Comosus." + +[54] + + "Cantando, e scegliendo fior di fiore + Onde era picta tutta la sua via."--_Purg._, xxviii. 35. + +[55] "[Greek: kai theoisi terpna.]" + +[56] The four races of this order are more naturally distinct than +botanists have recognized. In Clarissa, the petal is cloven into a fringe +at the outer edge; in Lychnis, the petal is terminated in two rounded lobes +and the fringe withdrawn to the top of the limb; in Scintilla, the petal is +divided into two _sharp_ lobes, without any fringe of the limb; and in +Mica, the minute and scarcely visible flowers have simple and far separate +petals. The confusion of these four great natural races under the vulgar or +accidental botanical names of spittle-plant, shore-plant, sand plant, etc., +has become entirely intolerable by any rational student; but the names +'Scintilla,' substituted for Stellaria, and 'Mica' for the utterly +ridiculous and probably untrue Sagina, connect themselves naturally with +Lychnis, in expression of the luminous power of the white and sparkling +blossoms. + +[57] Clytia will include all the true sun-flowers, and Falconia the +hawkweeds; but I have not yet completed the analysis of this vast and +complex order, so as to determine the limits of Margarita and Alcestis. + +[58] The reader must observe that the positions given in this more +developed system to any flower do not interfere with arrangements either +formerly or hereafter given for memoria technica. The name of the pea, for +instance (alata), is to be learned first among the twelve cinqfoils, p. +214, above; then transferred to its botanical place. + +[59] The amphibious habit of this race is to me of more importance than its +outlaid structure. + +[60] "Arctostaphylos Alpina," I believe; but scarcely recognize the flower +in my botanical books. + +[61] 'Aurora Regina,' changed from Rhododendron Ferrugineum. + +[62] I do not see what this can mean. Primroses and cowslips can't become +shrubs; nor can violets, nor daisies, nor any other of our pet meadow +flowers. + +[63] 'Deserts.' Punas is not in my Spanish dictionary, and the reference to +a former note is wrong in my edition of Humboldt, vol. iii., p. 490. + +[64] "The Alpine rose of equinoctial America," p. 453. + +[65] More literally "persons to whom the care of eggs is entrusted." + +[66] A most singular sign of this function is given to the chemistry of the +changes, according to a French botanist, to whose carefully and richly +illustrated volume I shall in future often refer my readers, "Vers l'époque +de la maturité, les fruits _exhalent de l'acide carbonique_. Ils ne +presentent plus dès lors aucun dégagement d'oxygène pendant le jour, et +_respirent, pour ainsi dire, à la façon des animaux_."--(Figuier, 'Histoire +des Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette. 1874.) + +[67] 'Elements of Chemistry,' p. 44. By Edward Turner; edited by Justus +Liebig and William Gregory. Taylor and Walton, 1840. + + * * * * * + +Corrections made to printed original. + +p.27. "In Greek, [Greek: rhiza]" - "[Greek: riza]" with soft breath mark in +original. + +p.62. "shall it not be said of England?" - "no be said" in original. + +ibid. "beneficent in fulfilment" - "benet ficent" (across 2 lines) in +original. + +p.71. "flaunting breadth of untenable purple" - "untenabie" in original. + +p.145. "to warn them that this trial of their lovers" - "warm them" in +original. + +p.195. "XI. HESPERIDES." - "II." in original. + +p.238. "at page 26" - "at page 29" in original. + +ibid. "at page 65" - "at page 73" in original. + +Index II. "Celandine" - "Calendine" in original. + +Ibid. "Thistle, ... 151." "151 note" in original. + +Ibid. "Thistle, Waste, 138" - "154" in original. + +Index III. "Fraxinus" - "Frarinus" in original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 1, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 20421-8.txt or 20421-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/2/20421/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Proserpina, Volume 1 + Studies Of Wayside Flowers + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20421] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ccccff;" summary="Transcribers note" title="Transcribers note"> +<tr> +<td style="width:25%; vertical-align:top"> +Transcriber's note: +</td> +<td> +A few typographical errors have been corrected. They +appear in the text <span class="correction" title="explanation will pop up">like this</span>, and the +explanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked +passage. Sections in Greek will yield a transliteration when the pointer is moved over them. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<h1>PROSERPINA.</h1> + +<h2><span class="sc">Studies of Wayside Flowers,</span></h2> + +<p class="cenhead">WHILE THE AIR WAS YET PURE</p> + +<h3><i>AMONG THE ALPS, AND IN THE SCOTLAND AND<br /> +ENGLAND WHICH MY FATHER KNEW</i>.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">BY</p> + +<h2>JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,</h2> + +<p class="cenhead">HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART.</p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i20hg3">"Oh—Prosérpina!</p> + <p>For the flowers now, which frighted, thou let'st fall</p> + <p>From Dis's waggon."</p> + </div> + </div> +<h3>VOLUME I.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">New York:<br /> +JOHN WILEY & SONS,<br /> +15 Astor Place.</p> + +<h3>1888.</h3> + +<hr class="full" > + +<p class="cenhead">Press of J. J. Little & Co.,<br /> +Astor Place, New York.</p> + +<hr class="full" > + + +<table class="nob" summary="Contents" title="Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:center" colspan="2"> + <p><b>CONTENTS OF VOL. I</b></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>PAGE</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>INTRODUCTION</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page1">1</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER I. MOSS</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page12">12</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER II. THE ROOT</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page26">26</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER III. THE LEAF</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page40">40</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER IV. THE FLOWER</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page64">64</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER V. PAPAVER RHOEAS</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page86">86</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER VI. THE PARABLE OF JOASH</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page106">106</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER VII. THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page117">117</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER VIII. THE STEM</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page127">127</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER IX. OUTSIDE AND IN</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page151">151</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER X. THE BARK</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page170">170</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER XI. GENEALOGY</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page176">176</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER XII. CORA AND KRONOS</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page205">205</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER XIII. THE SEED AND HUSK</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page219">219</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>CHAPTER XIV. THE FRUIT GIFT</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page227">227</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>INDEX I. DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page239">239</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>INDEX II. ENGLISH NAMES</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page255">255</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="single" style="text-align:left"> + <p>INDEX III. LATIN OR GREEK NAMES</p> + </td> + <td class="single" style="text-align:right"> + <p><a href="#page258">258</a></p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" > + +<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page1"></a>[1]</span></p> + +<h2>PROSERPINA.</h2> + +<h3>INTRODUCTION.</h3> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Brantwood</span>, <i>14th March, 1874.</i> + + <p>Yesterday evening I was looking over the first book in which I studied + Botany,—Curtis's Magazine, published in 1795 at No. 3, St. George's + Crescent, Blackfriars Road, and sold by the principal booksellers in + Great Britain and Ireland. Its plates are excellent, so that I am always + glad to find in it the picture of a flower I know. And I came yesterday + upon what I suppose to be a variety of a favourite flower of mine, + called, in Curtis, "the St. Bruno's Lily."</p> + + <p>I am obliged to say "what I suppose to be a variety," because my pet + lily is branched,<a name="NtA_1" href="#Nt_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> while + this is drawn as unbranched, and especially stated to be so. And the page + of text, in which this statement is made, is so characteristic of + botanical books, and botanical science, not to say all science as + hitherto taught for the blessing of mankind; <!-- Page 2 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page2"></a>[2]</span> and of the difficulties + thereby accompanying its communication, that I extract the page entire, + printing it, opposite, as nearly as possible in facsimile.</p> + + <p>Now you observe, in this instructive page, that you have in the first + place, nine names given you for one flower; and that among these nine + names, you are not even at liberty to make your choice, because the + united authority of Haller and Miller may be considered as an accurate + balance to the single authority of Linnĉus; and you ought therefore for + the present to remain, yourself, balanced between the sides. You may be + farther embarrassed by finding that the Anthericum of Savoy is only + described as growing in Switzerland. And farther still, by finding that + Mr. Miller describes two varieties of it, which differ only in size, + while you are left to conjecture whether the one here figured is the + larger or smaller; and how great the difference is.</p> + + <p>Farther, If you wish to know anything of the habits of the plant, as + well as its nine names, you are informed that it grows both at the + bottoms of the mountains, and the tops; and that, with us, it flowers in + May and June,—but you are not told when, in its native country.</p> + + <p>The four lines of the last clause but one, may indeed be useful to + gardeners; but—although I know my good father and mother did the + best they could for me in buying this beautiful book; and though the + admirable plates of it did their work, and taught me much, I cannot + wonder that neither my infantine nor boyish mind was irresistibly + attracted by the text of which this page is one of the most favourable + specimens; nor, in consequence, that my botanical studies were—when + I had attained the age of fifty—no farther advanced than the reader + will find them in the opening chapter of this book.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 3 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page3"></a>[3]</span></p> + +<hr class="short" > + +<p class="cenhead">[318]</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + +<h3><span class="sc">Anthericum Liliastrum</span>, <span class="sc">Savoy Anthericum</span>,<br /> +or <span class="sc">St. Bruno's Lily</span>.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><i>Class and Order.</i></p> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Hexandria Monogynia.</span></p> + +<p class="cenhead"><i>Generic Character.</i></p> + + <p><i>Cor.</i> 6-petala, patens. <i>Caps.</i> ovata.</p> + +<p class="cenhead"><i>Specific Character and Synonyms.</i></p> + + <p>ANTHERICUM <i>Liliastrum</i> foliis planis, scapo simplicissimo, + corollis campanulatis, staminibus declinatis. <i>Linn. Syst. + Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p. 330.</i> <i>Ait. Kew. v. <i>I.</i> p. + 449.</i></p> + + <p>HEMEROCALLIS floribus patulis secundis. <i>Hall. Hist. n. + 1230.</i></p> + + <p>PHALANGIUM magno flore. <i>Bauh. Pin. 29.</i></p> + + <p>PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum majus. <i>Clus. cur. app. alt.</i></p> + + <p>PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum. The Savoye Spider-wort. <i>Park. Parad. p. + 150. tab. 151. f. 1.</i></p> + +<hr class="short" > + + <p>Botanists are divided in their opinions respecting the genus of this + plant; <span class="sc">Linnĉus</span> considers it as an + <i>Anthericum</i>, <span class="sc">Haller</span> and <span + class="sc">Miller</span> make it an <i>Hemerocallis</i>.</p> + + <p>It is a native of Switzerland, where, <span class="sc">Haller</span> + informs us it grows abundantly in the Alpine meadows, and even on the + summits of the mountains; with us it flowers in May and June.</p> + + <p>It is a plant of great elegance, producing on an unbranched stem about + a foot and a half high, numerous flowers of a delicate white colour, much + smaller but resembling in form those of the common white lily, possessing + a considerable degree of fragrance, their beauty is heightened by the + rich orange colour of their antherĉ; unfortunately they are but of short + duration.</p> + + <p><span class="sc">Miller</span> describes two varieties of it differing + merely in size.</p> + + <p>A loamy soil, a situation moderately moist, with an eastern or western + exposure, suits this plant best; so situated, it will increase by its + roots, though not very fast, and by parting of these in the autumn, it is + usually propagated.</p> + + <p><span class="sc">Parkinson</span> describes and figures it in his + <i>Parad. Terrest.</i>, observing that "divers allured by the beauty of + its flowers, had brought it into these parts."</p> + +</blockquote> + +<hr class="short" > + +<p><!-- Page 4 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page4"></a>[4]</span></p> + + <p>Which said book was therefore undertaken, to put, if it might be, some + elements of the science of botany into a form more tenable by ordinary + human and childish faculties; or—for I can scarcely say I have yet + any tenure of it myself—to make the paths of approach to it more + pleasant. In fact, I only know, of it, the pleasant distant effects which + it bears to simple eyes; and some pretty mists and mysteries, which I + invite my young readers to pierce, as they may, for themselves,—my + power of guiding them being only for a little way.</p> + + <p>Pretty mysteries, I say, as opposed to the vulgar and ugly mysteries + of the so-called science of botany,—exemplified sufficiently in + this chosen page. Respecting which, please observe + farther;—Nobody—I can say this very boldly—loves Latin + more dearly than I; but, precisely because I do love it (as well as for + other reasons), I have always insisted that books, whether scientific or + not, ought to be written either in Latin, or English; and not in a + doggish mixture of the refuse of both.</p> + + <p>Linnĉus wrote a noble book of universal Natural History in Latin. It + is one of the permanent classical treasures of the world. And if any + scientific man thinks his labors are worth the world's attention, let + him, also, write <!-- Page 5 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page5"></a>[5]</span> what he has to say in Latin, finishedly and + exquisitely, if it take him a month to a page.<a name="NtA_2" + href="#Nt_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + + <p>But if—which, unless he be one chosen of millions, is assuredly + the fact—his lucubrations are only of local and temporary + consequence, let him write, as clearly as he can, in his native + language.</p> + + <p>This book, accordingly, I have written in English; (not, by the way, + that I <i>could</i> have written it in anything else—so there are + small thanks to me); and one of its purposes is to interpret, for young + English readers, the necessary European Latin or Greek names of flowers, + and to make them vivid and vital to their understandings. But two great + difficulties occur in doing this. The first, that there are generally + from three or four, up to two dozen, Latin names current for every + flower; and every new botanist thinks his eminence only to be properly + asserted by adding another.</p> + + <p>The second, and a much more serious one, is of the Devil's own + contriving—(and remember I am always quite serious when I speak of + the Devil,)—namely, that the most current and authoritative names + are apt to be founded on some unclean or debasing association, so that to + interpret them is to defile the reader's mind. I will give no instance; + too many will at once occur to any <!-- Page 6 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page6"></a>[6]</span> learned reader, and the + unlearned I need not vex with so much as one: but, in such cases, since I + could only take refuge in the untranslated word by leaving other Greek or + Latin words also untranslated, and the nomenclature still entirely + senseless,—and I do not choose to do this,—there is only one + other course open to me, namely, to substitute boldly, to my own pupils, + other generic names for the plants thus faultfully hitherto titled.</p> + + <p>As I do not do this for my own pride, but honestly for my reader's + service, I neither question nor care how far the emendations I propose + may be now or hereafter adopted. I shall not even name the cases in which + they have been made for the serious reason above specified; but even + shall mask those which there was real occasion to alter, by sometimes + giving new names in cases where there was no necessity of such kind. + Doubtless I shall be accused of doing myself what I violently blame in + others. I do so; but with a different motive—of which let the + reader judge as he is disposed. The practical result will be that the + children who learn botany on the system adopted in this book will know + the useful and beautiful names of plants hitherto given, in all + languages; the useless and ugly ones they will not know. And they will + have to learn one Latin name for each plant, which, when differing from + the common one, I trust may yet by some scientific persons be accepted, + and with ultimate advantage.</p> + + <p>The learning of the one Latin name—as, for instance, Gramen + striatum—I hope will be accurately enforced <!-- Page 7 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page7"></a>[7]</span> always;—but not less + carefully the learning of the pretty English one—"Ladielace + Grass"—with due observance that "Ladies' laces hath leaves like + unto Millet in fashion, with many white vaines or ribs, and silver + strakes running along through the middest of the leaves, fashioning the + same like to laces of white and green silk, very beautiful and faire to + behold."</p> + + <p>I have said elsewhere, and can scarcely repeat too often, that a day + will come when men of science will think their names disgraced, instead + of honoured, by being used to barbarise nomenclature; I hope therefore + that my own name may be kept well out of the way; but, having been + privileged to found the School of Art in the University of Oxford, I + think that I am justified in requesting any scientific writers who may + look kindly upon this book, to add such of the names suggested in it as + they think deserving of acceptance, to their own lists of synonyms, under + the head of "Schol. Art. Oxon."</p> + + <p>The difficulties thrown in the way of any quiet private student by + existing nomenclature may be best illustrated by my simply stating what + happens to myself in endeavouring to use the page above facsimile'd. Not + knowing how far St. Bruno's Lily might be connected with my own pet one, + and not having any sufficient book on Swiss botany, I take down Loudon's + Encyclopĉdia of Plants, (a most useful book, as far as any book in the + present state of the science <i>can</i> be useful,) and find, under the + head of Anthericum, the Savoy Lily indeed, but only the <!-- Page 8 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page8"></a>[8]</span> following general + information:—"809. Anthericum. A name applied by the Greeks to the + stem of the asphodel, and not misapplied to this set of plants, which in + some sort resemble the asphodel. Plants with fleshy leaves, and spikes of + bright <i>yellow</i> flowers, easily cultivated if kept dry."</p> + + <p>Hunting further, I find again my Savoy lily called a spider-plant, + under the article Hemerocallis, and the only information which the book + gives me under Hemerocallis, is that it means 'beautiful day' lily; and + then, "This is an ornamental genus of the easiest culture. The species + are remarkable among border flowers for their fine <i>orange</i>, + <i>yellow</i>, or <i>blue</i> flowers. The Hemerocallis cœrulea has + been considered a distinct genus by Mr. Salisbury, and called Saussurea." + As I correct this sheet for press, however, I find that the Hemerocallis + is now to be called 'Funkia,' "in honour of Mr. Funk, a Prussian + apothecary."</p> + + <p>All this while, meantime, I have a suspicion that my pet Savoy Lily is + not, in existing classification, an Anthericum, nor a Hemerocallis, but a + Lilium. It is, in fact, simply a Turk's cap which doesn't curl up. But on + trying 'Lilium' in Loudon, I find no mention whatever of any wild + branched white lily.</p> + + <p>I then try the next word in my specimen page of Curtis; but there is + no 'Phalangium' at all in Loudon's index. And now I have neither time nor + mind for more search, but will give, in due place, such account as I can + <!-- Page 9 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page9"></a>[9]</span> of my + own dwarf branched lily, which I shall call St. Bruno's, as well as this + Liliastrum—no offence to the saint, I hope. For it grows very + gloriously on the limestones of Savoy, presumably, therefore, at the + Grande Chartreuse; though I did not notice it there, and made a very + unmonkish use of it when I gathered it last:—There was a pretty + young English lady at the table-d'hôte, in the Hotel du Mont Blanc at St. + Martin's,<a name="NtA_3" href="#Nt_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> and I wanted to + get speech of her, and didn't know how. So all I could think of was to go + half-way up the Aiguille de Varens, to gather St. Bruno's lilies; and I + made a great cluster of them, and put wild roses all around them as I + came down. I never saw anything so lovely; and I thought to present this + to her before dinner,—but when I got down, she had gone away to + Chamouni. My Fors always treated me like that, in affairs of the + heart.</p> + + <p>I had begun my studies of Alpine botany just eighteen years before, in + 1842, by making a careful drawing of wood-sorrel at Chamouni; and + bitterly sorry I am, now, that the work was interrupted. For I drew, + then, very delicately; and should have made a pretty book if I could have + got peace. Even yet, I can manage my point a little, and would far rather + be making outlines of flowers, than writing; and I meant to have drawn + every English and Scottish wild flower, like this cluster of bog heather + opposite,<a name="NtA_4" href="#Nt_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>—back, and + profile, and front. But 'Blackwood's <!-- Page 10 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page10"></a>[10]</span> Magazine,' with its + insults to Turner, dragged me into controversy; and I have not had, + properly speaking, a day's peace since; so that in 1868 my botanical + studies were advanced only as far as the reader will see in next chapter; + and now, in 1874, must end altogether, I suppose, heavier thoughts and + work coming fast on me. So that, finding among my notebooks, two or + three, full of broken materials for the proposed work on flowers; and, + thinking they may be useful even as fragments, I am going to publish them + in their present state,—only let the reader note that while my + other books endeavour, and claim, so far as they reach, to give + trustworthy knowledge of their subjects, this one only shows how such + knowledge may be obtained; and it is little more than a history of + efforts and plans,—but of both, I believe, made in right + methods.</p> + + <p>One part of the book, however, will, I think, be found of permanent + value. Mr. Burgess has engraved on wood, in reduced size, with consummate + skill, some of the excellent old drawings in the Flora Danica, and has + interpreted, and facsimile'd, some of his own and my drawings from + nature, with a vigour and precision unsurpassed in woodcut illustration, + which render these outlines the best exercises in black and white I have + yet been able to <!-- Page 11 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page11"></a>[11]</span> prepare for my drawing pupils. The larger + engravings by Mr. Allen may also be used with advantage as copies for + drawings with pen or sepia.</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>10th May</i> (<i>my father's birthday</i>). + + <p>I found the loveliest blue asphodel I ever saw in my life, yesterday, + in the fields beyond Monte Mario,—a spire two feet high, of more + than two hundred stars, the stalks of them all deep blue, as well as the + flowers. Heaven send all honest people the gathering of the like, in + Elysian fields, some day!</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 12 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page12"></a>[12]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">MOSS.</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Denmark Hill</span>, <i>3rd November, 1868.</i> + + <p>1. It is mortifying enough to write,—but I think thus much ought + to be written,—concerning myself, as 'the author of Modern + Painters.' In three months I shall be fifty years old: and I don't at + this hour—ten o'clock in the morning of the two hundred and + sixty-eighth day of my forty-ninth year—know what 'moss' is.</p> + + <p>There is nothing I have more <i>intended</i> to know—some day or + other. But the moss 'would always be there'; and then it was so + beautiful, and so difficult to examine, that one could only do it in some + quite separated time of happy leisure—which came not. I never was + like to have less leisure than now, but I <i>will</i> know what moss is, + if possible, forthwith.</p> + + <p>2. To that end I read preparatorily, yesterday, what account I could + find of it in all the botanical books in the house. Out of them all, I + get this general notion of a moss,—that it has a fine fibrous + root,—a stem surrounded with spirally set leaves,—and + produces its fruit in a small case, under a cap. I fasten especially, + however, on a <!-- Page 13 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page13"></a>[13]</span> sentence of Louis Figuier's, about the + particular species, Hypnum:—</p> + + <p>"These mosses, which often form little islets of verdure at the feet + of poplars and willows, are robust vegetable organisms, which do not + decay."<a name="NtA_5" href="#Nt_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + + <p>3. "Qui ne pourrissent point." What do they do with themselves, + then?—it immediately occurs to me to ask. And, secondly,—If + this immortality belongs to the Hypnum only?</p> + + <p>It certainly does not, by any means: but, however modified or limited, + this immortality is the first thing we ought to take note of in the + mosses. They are, in some degree, what the "everlasting" is in flowers. + Those minute green leaves of theirs do not decay, nor fall.</p> + + <p>But how do they die, or how stop growing, then?—it is the first + thing I want to know about them. And from all the books in the house, I + can't as yet find out this. Meanwhile I will look at the leaves + themselves.</p> + + <p>4. Going out to the garden, I bring in a bit of old brick, emerald + green on its rugged surface,<a name="NtA_6" + href="#Nt_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> and a thick piece of mossy turf.</p> + + <p>First, for the old brick: To think of the quantity of pleasure one has + had in one's life from that emerald green velvet,—and yet that for + the first time to-day I am verily going to look at it! Doing so, through + a pocket <!-- Page 14 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page14"></a>[14]</span> lens of no great power, I find the velvet + to be composed of small star-like groups of smooth, strong, oval + leaves,—intensely green, and much like the young leaves of any + other plant, except in this;—they all have a long brown spike, like + a sting, at their ends.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/fig1.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig1.png" + alt="Fig. 1. Leaves of a moss." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 1. + </div> + <p>5. Fastening on that, I take the Flora Danica,<a name="NtA_7" + href="#Nt_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> and look through its plates of mosses, + for their leaves only; and I find, first, that this spike, or strong + central rib, is characteristic;—secondly, that the said leaves are + apt to be not only spiked, but serrated, and otherwise angry-looking at + the points;—thirdly, that they have a tendency to fold together in + the centre (Fig. 1<a name="NtA_8" href="#Nt_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>); and + at last, after an hour's work at them, it strikes me suddenly that they + are more like pineapple leaves than anything else.</p> + + <p>And it occurs to me, very unpleasantly, at the same time, that I don't + know what a pineapple is!</p> + + <p>Stopping to ascertain that, I am told that a pineapple belongs to the + 'Bromeliaceĉ'—(can't stop to find out what that means)—nay, + that of these plants "the pineapple is the representative" (Loudon); + "their habit is acid, their leaves rigid, and toothed with spines, their + <!-- Page 15 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page15"></a>[15]</span> + bracteas often coloured with scarlet, and their flowers either white or + blue"—(what are their flowers like?) But the two sentences that + most interest me, are, that in the damp forests of Carolina, the + Tillandsia, which is an 'epiphyte' (<i>i.e.</i>, a plant growing on other + plants,) "forms dense festoons among the branches of the trees, + vegetating among the black mould that collects upon the bark of trees in + hot damp countries; other species are inhabitants of deep and gloomy + forests, and others form, with their spring leaves, an impenetrable + herbage in the Pampas of Brazil." So they really seem to be a kind of + moss, on a vast scale.</p> + + <p>6. Next, I find in Gray,<a name="NtA_9" + href="#Nt_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> Bromeliaceĉ, and—the very thing I + want—"Tillandsia, the black <i>moss</i>, or long moss, which, + <i>like most Bromelias</i>, grows on the branches of trees." So the + pineapple is really a moss; only it is a moss that flowers but + 'imperfectly.' "The fine fruit is caused by the consolidation of the + imperfect flowers." (I wish we could consolidate some imperfect English + moss-flowers into little pineapples then,—though they were only as + big as filberts.) But we cannot follow that farther now; nor consider + when a flower is perfect, and when it is not, or we should get into + morals, and I don't know where else; we will go back to the moss I have + gathered, for I begin to see my way, a little, to understanding it.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 16 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page16"></a>[16]</span></p> + + <p>7. The second piece I have on the table is a cluster—an inch or + two deep—of the moss that grows everywhere, and that the birds use + for nest-building, and we for packing, and the like. It is dry, since + yesterday, and its fibres define themselves against the dark ground in + warm green, touched with a glittering light. Note that burnished lustre + of the minute leaves; they are necessarily always relieved against dark + hollows, and this lustre makes them much clearer and brighter than if + they were of dead green. In that lustre—and it is characteristic of + them—they differ wholly from the dead, aloe-like texture of the + pineapple leaf; and remind me, as I look at them closely, a little of + some conditions of chaff, as on heads of wheat after being threshed. I + will hunt down that clue presently; meantime there is something else to + be noticed on the old brick.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/fig2.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig2.png" + alt="Fig. 2. Detail of Dicranum cerviculatum." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 2. + </div> + <p>8. Out of its emerald green cushions of minute leaves, there rise, + here and there, thin red threads, each with a little brown cap, or + something like a cap, at the top of it. These red threads shooting up out + of the green tufts, are, I believe, the fructification of the moss; + fringing its surface in the woods, and on the rocks, with the small + forests of brown stems, each carrying its pointed cap or crest—of + infinitely varied 'mode,' as we shall see presently; and, which is one of + their most blessed functions, carrying high the dew in the morning; every + spear balancing its own crystal globe.</p> + + <p>9. And now, with my own broken memories of moss <!-- Page 17 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page17"></a>[17]</span> and this unbroken, + though unfinished, gift of the noble labour of other people, the Flora + Danica, I can generalize the idea of the precious little plant, for + myself, and for the reader.</p> + + <p>All mosses, I believe, (with such exceptions and collateral groups as + we may afterwards discover, but they are not many,) that is to say, some + thousands of species, are, in their strength of existence, composed of + fibres surrounded by clusters of dry <i>spinous</i> leaves, set close to + the fibre they grow on. Out of this leafy stern descends a fibrous root, + and ascends in its season, a capped seed.</p> + + <p>We must get this very clearly into our heads. Fig. 2, <span + class="scac">A</span>, is a little tuft of a common wood moss of + Norway,<a name="NtA_10" href="#Nt_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> in its fruit + season, of its real size; but at present I want to look at the central + fibre and its leaves accurately, and understand that first.</p> + + <p>10. Pulling it to pieces, we find it composed of seven little + company-keeping fibres, each of which, by itself, appears as in Fig. 2, + <span class="scac">B</span>: but as in this, its real size, it <!-- Page + 18 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page18"></a>[18]</span> is too + small, not indeed for our respect, but for our comprehension, we magnify + it, Fig. 2, <span class="scac">C</span>, and thereupon perceive it to be + indeed composed of, <i>a</i>, the small fibrous root which sustains the + plant; <i>b</i>, the leaf-surrounded stem which is the actual being, and + main creature, moss; and, <i>c</i>, the aspirant pillar, and cap, of its + fructification.</p> + + <p>11. But there is one minor division yet. You see I have drawn the + central part of the moss plant (<i>b</i>, Fig. 2,) half in outline and + half in black; and that, similarly, in the upper group, which is too + small to show the real roots, the base of the cluster is black. And you + remember, I doubt not, how often in gathering what most invited + gathering, of deep green, starry, perfectly soft and living wood-moss, + you found it fall asunder in your hand into multitudes of separate + threads, each with its bright green crest, and long root of + blackness.</p> + + <p>That blackness at the root—though only so notable in this + wood-moss and collateral species, is indeed a general character of the + mosses, with rare exceptions. It is their funeral blackness;—that, + I perceive, is the way the moss leaves die. They do not fall—they + do not visibly decay. But they decay <i>in</i>visibly, in continual + secession, beneath the ascending crest. They rise to form that crest, all + green and bright, and take the light and air from those out of which they + grew;—and those, their ancestors, darken and die slowly, and at + last become a mass of mouldering ground. In fact, as I perceive farther, + their final duty is so to die. The main work of other leaves is <!-- Page + 19 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page19"></a>[19]</span> in their + life,—but these have to form the earth out of which all other + leaves are to grow. Not to cover the rocks with golden velvet only, but + to fill their crannies with the dark earth, through which nobler + creatures shall one day seek their being.</p> + + <p>12. "Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss." Pope could not have + known the hundredth part of the number of 'sorts' of moss there are; and + I suppose he only chose the word because it was a monosyllable beginning + with m, and the best English general expression for despised and minute + structures of plants. But a fate rules the words of wise men, which makes + their words truer, and worth more, than the men themselves know. No other + plants have so endless variety on so similar a structure as the mosses; + and none teach so well the humility of Death. As for the death of our + bodies, we have learned, wisely, or unwisely, to look the fact of that in + the face. But none of us, I think, yet care to look the fact of the death + of our minds in the face. I do not mean death of our souls, but of our + mental work. So far as it is good <i>art</i>, indeed, and done in + realistic form, it may perhaps not die; but so far as it was only good + <i>thought</i>—good, for its time, and apparently a great + achievement therein—that good, useful thought may yet in the future + become a foolish thought, and then die quite away,—it, and the + memory of it,—when better thought and knowledge come. But the + better thought could not have come if the weaker thought had not come + first, and died in sustaining the <!-- Page 20 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page20"></a>[20]</span> better. If we think + honestly, our thoughts will not only live usefully, but even perish + usefully—like the moss—and become dark, not without due + service. But if we think dishonestly, or malignantly, our thoughts will + die like evil fungi,—dripping corrupt dew.</p> + + <p>13. But farther. If you have walked moorlands enough to know the look + of them, you know well those flat spaces or causeways of bright green or + golden ground between the heathy rock masses; which signify winding pools + and inlets of stagnant water caught among the rocks;—pools which + the deep moss that covers them—<i>blanched</i>, not black, at the + root,—is slowly filling and making firm; whence generally the + unsafe ground in the moorland gets known by being <i>mossy</i> instead of + heathy; and is at last called by its riders, briefly, 'the Moss': and as + it is mainly at these same mossy places that the riding is difficult, and + brings out the gifts of horse and rider, and discomfits all followers not + similarly gifted, the skilled crosser of them got his name, naturally, of + 'moss-rider,' or moss-trooper. In which manner the moss of Norway and + Scotland has been a taskmaster and Maker of Soldiers, as yet, the + strongest known among natural powers. The lightning may kill a man, or + cast down a tower, but these little tender leaves of moss—they and + their progenitors—have trained the Northern Armies.</p> + + <p>14. So much for the human meaning of that decay of the leaves. Now to + go back to the little creatures themselves. It seems that the upper part + of the moss fibre is <!-- Page 21 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page21"></a>[21]</span> especially <i>un</i>decaying among leaves; + and the lower part, especially decaying. That, in fact, a plant of + moss-fibre is a kind of persistent state of what is, in other plants, + annual. Watch the year's growth of any luxuriant flower. First it comes + out of the ground all fresh and bright; then, as the higher leaves and + branches shoot up, those first leaves near the ground get brown, sickly, + earthy,—remain for ever degraded in the dust, and under the dashed + slime in rain, staining, and grieving, and loading them with obloquy of + envious earth, half-killing them,—only life enough left in them to + hold on the stem, and to be guardians of the rest of the plant from all + they suffer;—while, above them, the happier leaves, for whom they + are thus oppressed, bend freely to the sunshine, and drink the rain + pure.</p> + + <p>The moss strengthens on a diminished scale, intensifies, and makes + perpetual, these two states,—bright leaves above that never wither, + leaves beneath that exist only to wither.</p> + + <p>15. I have hitherto spoken only of the fading moss as it is needed for + change into earth. But I am not sure whether a yet more important office, + in its days of age, be not its use as a colour.</p> + + <p>We are all thankful enough—as far as we ever are so—for + green moss, and yellow moss. But we are never enough grateful for black + moss. The golden would be nothing without it, nor even the grey.</p> + + <p>It is true that there are black lichens enough, and <!-- Page 22 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page22"></a>[22]</span> brown ones: + nevertheless, the chief use of lichens is for silver and gold colour on + rocks; and it is the dead moss which gives the leopard-like touches of + black. And yet here again—as to a thing I have been looking at and + painting all my life—I am brought to pause, the moment I think of + it carefully. The black moss which gives the precious Velasquez touches, + lies, much of it, flat on the rocks; radiating from its + centres—powdering in the fingers, if one breaks it off, like dry + tea. Is it a black species?—or a black-parched state of other + species, perishing for the sake of Velasquez effects, instead of + accumulation of earth? and, if so, does it die of drought, accidentally, + or, in a sere old age, naturally? and how is it related to the rich green + bosses that grow in deep velvet? And there again is another matter not + clear to me. One calls them 'velvet' because they are all brought to an + even surface at the top. Our own velvet is reduced to such trimness by + cutting. But how is the moss trimmed? By what scissors? Carefullest + Elizabethan gardener never shaped his yew hedge more daintily than the + moss fairies smooth these soft rounded surfaces of green and gold. And + just fancy the difference, if they were ragged! If the fibres had every + one of them leave to grow at their own sweet will, and to be long or + short as they liked, or, worse still, urged by fairy prizes into + laboriously and agonizingly trying which could grow longest. Fancy the + surface of a spot of competitive moss!</p> + + <p>16. But how is it that they are subdued into that <!-- Page 23 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page23"></a>[23]</span> spherical + obedience, like a crystal of wavellite?<a name="NtA_11" + href="#Nt_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> Strange—that the vegetable + creatures growing so fondly on rocks should form themselves in that + mineral-like manner. It is true that the tops of all well-grown trees are + rounded, on a large scale, as equally; but that is because they grow from + a central stem, while these mossy mounds are made out of independent + filaments, each growing to exactly his proper height in the + sphere—short ones outside, long in the middle. Stop, though; + <i>is</i> that so? I am not even sure of that; perhaps they are built + over a little dome of decayed moss below.<a name="NtA_12" + href="#Nt_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> I must find out how every <!-- Page 24 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page24"></a>[24]</span> filament grows, + separately—from root to cap, through the spirally set leaves. And + meanwhile I don't know very clearly so much as what a root is—or + what a leaf is. Before puzzling myself any farther in examination either + of moss or any other grander vegetable, I had better define these primal + forms of all vegetation, as well as I can—or rather begin the + definition of them, for future completion and correction. For, as my + reader must already sufficiently perceive, this book is literally to be + one of studies—not of statements. Some one said of me once, very + shrewdly, When he wants to work out a subject, he writes a book on it. + That is a very true saying in the main,—I work down or up to my + mark, and let the reader see process and progress, not caring to conceal + them. But this book will be nothing but process. I don't mean to assert + anything positively in it from the first page to the last. Whatever I + say, is to be understood only as a conditional statement—liable to, + and inviting, correction. And this the more because, as on the whole, I + am at war with the botanists, I can't ask them to help me, and then <!-- + Page 25 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page25"></a>[25]</span> call + them names afterwards. I hope only for a contemptuous heaping of coals on + my head by correction of my errors from them;—in some cases, my + scientific friends will, I know, give me forgiving aid;—but, for + many reasons, I am forced first to print the imperfect statement, as I + can independently shape it; for if once I asked for, or received help, + every thought would be frostbitten into timid expression, and every + sentence broken by apology. I should have to write a dozen of letters + before I could print a line, and the line, at last, would be only like a + bit of any other botanical book—trustworthy, it might be, perhaps; + but certainly unreadable. Whereas now, it will rather put things more + forcibly in the reader's mind to have them retouched and corrected as we + go on; and our natural and honest mistakes will often be suggestive of + things we could not have discovered but by wandering.</p> + + <p>On these guarded conditions, then, I proceed to study, with my reader, + the first general laws of vegetable form.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 26 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page26"></a>[26]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE ROOT.</p> + + <p>1. Plants in their perfect form consist of four principal + parts,—the Root, Stem, Leaf, and Flower. It is true that the stem + and flower are parts, or remnants, or altered states, of the leaves; and + that, speaking with close accuracy, we might say, a perfect plant + consists of leaf and root. But the division into these four parts is best + for practical purposes, and it will be desirable to note a few general + facts about each, before endeavouring to describe any one kind of plant. + Only, because the character of the stem depends on the nature of the leaf + and flower, we must put it last in order of examination; and trace the + development of the plant first in root and leaf; then in the flower and + its fruit; and lastly in the stem.</p> + + <p>2. First, then, the Root.</p> + + <p>Every plant is divided, as I just said, in the main, into two parts, + and these have opposite natures. One part seeks the light; the other + hates it. One part feeds on the air; the other on the dust.</p> + + <p>The part that loves the light is called the Leaf. It is an old Saxon + word; I cannot get at its origin. The part that hates the light is called + the Root. <!-- Page 27 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page27"></a>[27]</span></p> + + <p>In Greek, <span title="rhiza" class="grk"><span class="correction" + title="'ριζα' (soft breath mark) in original" + >ῥίζα</span></span>, Rhiza.<a name="NtA_13" + href="#Nt_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p> + + <p>In Latin, Radix, "the growing thing," which shortens, in French, into + Race, and then they put on the diminutive 'ine,' and get their two words, + Race, and Racine, of which we keep Race for animals, and use for + vegetables a word of our own Saxon (and Dutch) dialect,—'root'; + (connected with Rood—an image of wood; whence at last the Holy + Rood, or Tree).</p> + + <p>3. The Root has three great functions:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>1st. To hold the plant in its place.</p> + <p>2nd. To nourish it with earth.</p> + <p>3rd. To receive vital power for it from the earth.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>With this last office is in some degree,—and especially in + certain plants,—connected, that of reproduction.</p> + + <p>But in all plants the root has these three essential functions.</p> + + <p>First, I said, to hold the Plant in its place. The Root is its + Fetter.</p> + + <p>You think it, perhaps, a matter of course that a plant is not to be a + crawling thing? It is not a matter of course at all. A vegetable might be + just what it is now, as compared with an animal;—might live on + earth and water instead of on meat,—might be as senseless in life, + as calm in death, and in all its parts and apparent structure <!-- Page + 28 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page28"></a>[28]</span> unchanged; + and yet be a crawling thing. It is quite as easy to conceive plants + moving about like lizards, putting forward first one root and then + another, as it is to think of them fastened to their place. It might have + been well for them, one would have thought, to have the power of going + down to the streams to drink, in time of drought;—of migrating in + winter with grim march from north to south of Dunsinane Hill side. But + that is not their appointed Fate. They are—at least all the noblest + of them, rooted to their spot. Their honour and use is in giving + immoveable shelter,—in remaining landmarks, or lovemarks, when all + else is changed:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"The cedars wave on Lebanon,</p> + <p>But Judah's statelier maids are gone."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>4. Its root is thus a form of fate to the tree. It condemns, or + indulges it, in its place. These semi-living creatures, come what may, + shall abide, happy, or tormented. No doubt concerning "the position in + which Providence has placed <i>them</i>" is to trouble their minds, + except so far as they can mend it by seeking light, or shrinking from + wind, or grasping at support, within certain limits. In the thoughts of + men they have thus become twofold images,—on the one side, of + spirits restrained and half destroyed, whence the fables of + transformation into trees; on the other, of spirits patient and + continuing, having root in themselves and in good ground, capable of all + persistent <!-- Page 29 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page29"></a>[29]</span> effort and vital stability, both in + themselves, and for the human States they form.</p> + + <p>5. In this function of holding fast, roots have a power of grasp quite + different from that of branches. It is not a grasp, or clutch by + contraction, as that of a bird's claw, or of the small branches we call + 'tendrils' in climbing plants. It is a dead, clumsy, but inevitable + grasp, by swelling, <i>after</i> contortion. For there is this main + difference between a branch and root, that a branch cannot grow vividly + but in certain directions and relations to its neighbour branches; but a + root can grow wherever there is earth, and can turn in any direction to + avoid an obstacle.<a name="NtA_14" href="#Nt_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + + <p>6. In thus contriving access for itself where it chooses, a root + contorts itself into more serpent-like writhing than branches can; and + when it has once coiled partly round a rock, or stone, it grasps it + tight, necessarily, merely by swelling. Now a root has force enough + sometimes to split rocks, but not to crush them; so it is compelled to + grasp by <i>flattening</i> as it thickens; and, as it must have room + somewhere, it alters its own shape as if it were made of <!-- Page 30 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page30"></a>[30]</span> dough, and + holds the rock, not in a claw, but in a wooden cast or mould, adhering to + its surface. And thus it not only finds its anchorage in the rock, but + binds the rocks of its anchorage with a constrictor cable.</p> + + <p>7. Hence—and this is a most important secondary + function—roots bind together the ragged edges of rocks as a hem + does the torn edge of a dress: they literally stitch the stones together; + so that, while it is always dangerous to pass under a treeless edge of + overhanging crag, as soon as it has become beautiful with trees, it is + safe also. The rending power of roots on rocks has been greatly + overrated. Capillary attraction in a willow wand will indeed split + granite, and swelling roots sometimes heave considerable masses aside, + but on the whole, roots, small and great, bind, and do not rend.<a + name="NtA_15" href="#Nt_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> The surfaces of mountains + are dissolved and disordered, by rain, and frost, and chemical + decomposition, into mere heaps of loose stones on their desolate summits; + but, where the forests grow, soil accumulates and disintegration ceases. + And by cutting down forests on great mountain slopes, not only is the + climate destroyed, but the danger of superficial landslip fearfully + increased.</p> + + <p>8. The second function of roots is to gather for the plant the + nourishment it needs from the ground. This is <!-- Page 31 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page31"></a>[31]</span> partly water, mixed with + some kinds of air (ammonia, etc.,) but the plant can get both water and + ammonia from the atmosphere; and, I believe, for the most part does so; + though, when it cannot get water from the air, it will gladly drink by + its roots. But the things it cannot receive from the air at all are + certain earthy salts, essential to it (as iron is essential in our own + blood), and of which when it has quite exhausted the earth, no more such + plants can grow in that ground. On this subject you will find enough in + any modern treatise on agriculture; all that I want you to note here is + that this feeding function of the root is of a very delicate and + discriminating kind, needing much searching and mining among the dust, to + find what it wants. If it only wanted water, it could get most of that by + spreading in mere soft senseless limbs, like sponge, as far, and as far + down, as it could—but to get the <i>salt</i> out of the earth it + has to <i>sift</i> all the earth, and taste and touch every grain of it + that it can, with fine fibres. And therefore a root is not at all a + merely passive sponge or absorbing thing, but an infinitely subtle + tongue, or tasting and eating thing. That is why it is always so fibrous + and divided and entangled in the clinging earth.</p> + + <p>9. "Always fibrous and divided"? But many roots are quite hard and + solid!</p> + + <p>No; the active part of the root is always, I believe, a fibre. But + there is often a provident and passive part—a savings bank of + root—in which nourishment is laid up for the plant, and which, + though it may be underground, is no <!-- Page 32 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page32"></a>[32]</span> more to be considered + its real root than the kernel of a seed is. When you sow a pea, if you + take it up in a day or two, you will find the fibre below, which is root; + the shoot above, which is plant; and the pea as a now partly exhausted + storehouse, looking very woful, and like the granaries of Paris after the + fire. So, the round solid root of a cyclamen, or the conical one which + you know so well as a carrot, are not properly roots, but permanent + storehouses,—only the fibres that grow from them are roots. Then + there are other apparent roots which are not even storehouses, but + refuges; houses where the little plant lives in its infancy, through + winter and rough weather. So that it will be best for you at once to + limit your idea of a root to this,—that it is a group of growing + fibres which taste and suck what is good for the plant out of the ground, + and by their united strength hold it in its place; only remember the + thick limbs of roots do not feed, but only the fine fibres at the ends of + them which are something between tongues and sponges, and while they + absorb moisture readily, are yet as particular about getting what they + think nice to eat as any dainty little boy or girl; looking for it + everywhere, and turning angry and sulky if they don't get it.</p> + + <p>10. But the root has, it seems to me, one more function, the most + important of all. I say, it seems to me, for observe, what I have + hitherto told you is all (I believe) ascertained and admitted; this that + I am going to tell you has not yet, as far as I know, been asserted by + men of <!-- Page 33 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page33"></a>[33]</span> science, though I believe it to be + demonstrable. But you are to examine into it, and think of it for + yourself.</p> + + <p>There are some plants which appear to derive all their food from the + air—which need nothing but a slight grasp of the ground to fix them + in their place. Yet if we were to tie them into that place, in a + framework, and cut them from their roots, they would die. Not only in + these, but in all other plants, the vital power by which they shape and + feed themselves, whatever that power may be, depends, I think, on that + slight touch of the earth, and strange inheritance of its power. It is as + essential to the plant's life as the connection of the head of an animal + with its body by the spine is to the animal. Divide the feeble nervous + thread, and all life ceases. Nay, in the tree the root is even of greater + importance. You will not kill the tree, as you would an animal, by + dividing its body or trunk. The part not severed from the root will shoot + again. But in the root, and its touch of the ground, is the life of it. + My own definition of a plant would be "a living creature whose source of + vital energy is in the earth" (or in the water, as a form of the earth; + that is, in inorganic substance). There is, however, one tribe of plants + which seems nearly excepted from this law. It is a very strange one, + having long been noted for the resemblance of its flowers to different + insects; and it has recently been proved by Mr. Darwin to be dependent on + insects for its existence. Doubly strange therefore, it seems, that in + some cases this race of plants all but reaches the independent life of + <!-- Page 34 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page34"></a>[34]</span> + insects. It rather <i>settles</i> upon boughs than roots itself in them; + half of its roots may wave in the air.</p> + + <p>11. What vital power is, men of science are not a step nearer knowing + than they were four thousand years ago. They are, if anything, farther + from knowing now than then, in that they imagine themselves nearer. But + they know more about its limitations and manifestations than they did. + They have even arrived at something like a proof that there is a fixed + quantity of it flowing out of things and into them. But, for the present, + rest content with the general and sure knowledge that, fixed or flowing, + measurable or immeasurable—one with electricity or heat or light, + or quite distinct from any of them—life is a delightful, and its + negative, death, a dreadful thing, to human creatures; and that you can + give or gather a certain quantity of life into plants, animals, and + yourself by wisdom and courage, and by their reverses can bring upon them + any quantity of death you please, which is a much more serious point for + you to consider than what life and death are.</p> + + <p>12. Now, having got a quite clear idea of a root properly so called, + we may observe what those storehouses, refuges, and ruins are, which we + find connected with roots. The greater number of plants feed and grow at + the same time; but there are some of them which like to feed first and + grow afterwards. For the first year, or, at all events, the first period + of their life, they gather material for their future life out of the + ground and out <!-- Page 35 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page35"></a>[35]</span> of the air, and lay it up in a storehouse + as bees make combs. Of these stores—for the most part rounded + masses tapering downwards into the ground—some are as good for + human beings as honeycombs are; only not so sweet. We steal them from the + plants, as we do from the bees, and these conical upside-down hives or + treasuries of Atreus, under the names of carrots, turnips, and radishes, + have had important influence on human fortunes. If we do not steal the + store, next year the plant lives upon it, raises its stem, flowers and + seeds out of that abundance, and having fulfilled its destiny, and + provided for its successor, passes away, root and branch together.</p> + + <p>13. There is a pretty example of patience for us in this; and it would + be well for young people generally to set themselves to grow in a + carrotty or turnippy manner, and lay up secret store, not caring to + exhibit it until the time comes for fruitful display. But they must not, + in after-life, imitate the spendthrift vegetable, and blossom only in the + strength of what they learned long ago; else they soon come to + contemptible end. Wise people live like laurels and cedars, and go on + mining in the earth, while they adorn and embalm the air.</p> + + <p>14. Secondly, Refuges. As flowers growing on trees have to live for + some time, when they are young in their buds, so some flowers growing on + the ground have to live for a while, when they are young, <i>in</i> what + we call their <!-- Page 36 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page36"></a>[36]</span> roots. These are mostly among the Drosidĉ<a + name="NtA_16" href="#Nt_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> and other humble tribes, + loving the ground; and, in their babyhood, liking to live quite down in + it. A baby crocus has literally its own little dome—domus, or + duomo—within which in early spring it lives a delicate convent life + of its own, quite free from all worldly care and dangers, exceedingly + ignorant of things in general, but itself brightly golden and perfectly + formed before it is brought out. These subterranean palaces and vaulted + cloisters, which we call bulbs, are no more roots than the blade of grass + is a root, in which the ear of corn forms before it shoots up.</p> + + <p>15. Thirdly, Ruins. The flowers which have these subterranean homes + form one of many families whose roots, as well as seeds, have the power + of reproduction. The succession of some plants is trusted much to their + seeds: a thistle sows itself by its down, an oak by its acorns; the + companies of flying emigrants settle where they may; and the shadowy tree + is content to cast down its showers of nuts for swines' food with the + chance that here and there one may become a ship's bulwark. But others + among plants are less careless, or less proud. Many are anxious for their + children to grow in the place where they grew themselves, and secure this + not merely by letting their fruit fall at their feet, on the chance of + its growing up <!-- Page 37 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page37"></a>[37]</span> beside them, but by closer bond, bud + springing forth from root, and the young plant being animated by the + gradually surrendered life of its parent. Sometimes the young root is + formed above the old one, as in the crocus, or beside it, as in the + amaryllis, or beside it in a spiral succession, as in the orchis; in + these cases the old root always perishes wholly when the young one is + formed; but in a far greater number of tribes, one root connects itself + with another by a short piece of intermediate stem; and this stem does + not at once perish when the new root is formed, but grows on at one end + indefinitely, perishing slowly at the other, the scars or ruins of the + past plants being long traceable on its sides. When it grows entirely + underground it is called a root-stock. But there is no essential + distinction between a root-stock and a creeping stem, only the root-stock + may be thought of as a stem which shares the melancholy humour of a root + in loving darkness, while yet it has enough consciousness of better + things to grow towards, or near, the light. In one family it is even + fragrant where the flower is not, and a simple houseleek is called + 'rhodiola rosea,' because its root-stock has the scent of a rose.</p> + + <p>16. There is one very unusual condition of the root-stock which has + become of much importance in economy, though it is of little in botany; + the forming, namely, of knots at the ends of the branches of the + underground stem, where the new roots are to be thrown out. Of these + knots, or 'tubers,' (swollen things,) one kind, belonging to <!-- Page 38 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page38"></a>[38]</span> the tobacco + tribe, has been singularly harmful, together with its pungent relative, + to a neighbouring country of ours, which perhaps may reach a higher + destiny than any of its friends can conceive for it, if it can ever + succeed in living without either the potato, or the pipe.</p> + + <p>17. Being prepared now to find among plants many things which are like + roots, yet are not; you may simplify and make fast your true idea of a + root as a fibre or group of fibres, which fixes, animates, and partly + feeds the leaf. Then practically, as you examine plants in detail, ask + first respecting them: What kind of root have they? Is it large or small + in proportion to their bulk, and why is it so? What soil does it like, + and what properties does it acquire from it? The endeavour to answer + these questions will soon lead you to a rational inquiry into the plant's + history. You will first ascertain what rock or earth it delights in, and + what climate and circumstances; then you will see how its root is fitted + to sustain it mechanically under given pressures and violences, and to + find for it the necessary sustenance under given difficulties of famine + or drought. Lastly you will consider what chemical actions appear to be + going on in the root, or its store; what processes there are, and + elements, which give pungency to the radish, flavour to the onion, or + sweetness to the liquorice; and of what service each root may be made + capable under cultivation, and by proper subsequent treatment, either to + animals or men.</p> + + <p>18. I shall not attempt to do any of this for you; I <!-- Page 39 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page39"></a>[39]</span> assume, in + giving this advice, that you wish to pursue the science of botany as your + chief study; I have only broken moments for it, snatched from my chief + occupations, and I have done nothing myself of all this I tell you to do. + But so far as you can work in this manner, even if you only ascertain the + history of one plant, so that you know that accurately, you will have + helped to lay the foundation of a true science of botany, from which the + mass of useless nomenclature,<a name="NtA_17" + href="#Nt_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> now mistaken for science, will fall + away, as the husk of a poppy falls from the bursting flower.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 40 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page40"></a>[40]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE LEAF.</p> + + <p>1. In the first of the poems of which the English Government has + appointed a portion to be sung every day for the instruction and pleasure + of the people, there occurs this curious statement respecting any person + who will behave himself rightly: "He shall be like a tree planted by the + river side, that bears its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not + wither; and you will see that whatever he does will prosper."</p> + + <p>I call it a curious statement, because the conduct to which this + prosperity is promised is not that which the English, as a nation, at + present think conducive to prosperity: but whether the statement be true + or not, it will be easy for you to recollect the two eastern figures + under which the happiness of the man is represented,—that he is + like a tree bearing fruit "in its season;" (not so hastily as that the + frost pinch it, nor so late that no sun ripens it;) and that "his leaf + shall not fade." I should like you to recollect this phrase in the + Vulgate—"folium ejus non defluet"—shall not fall + <i>away</i>,—that is to say, shall not fall so as to leave any + visible bareness in winter time, but <!-- Page 41 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page41"></a>[41]</span> only that others may + come up in its place, and the tree be always green.</p> + + <p><a name="c3p2"></a> 2. Now, you know, the fruit of the tree is either + for the continuance of its race, or for the good, or harm, of other + creatures. In no case is it a good to the tree itself. It is not indeed, + properly, a part of the tree at all, any more than the egg is part of the + bird, or the young of any creature part of the creature itself. But in + the leaf is the strength of the tree itself. Nay, rightly speaking, the + leaves <i>are</i> the tree itself. Its trunk sustains; its fruit burdens + and exhausts; but in the leaf it breathes and lives. And thus also, in + the eastern symbolism, the fruit is the labour of men for others; but the + leaf is their own life. "He shall bring forth fruit, in his time; and his + own joy and strength shall be continual."</p> + + <p>3. Notice next the word 'folium.' In Greek, <span title="phullon" class="grk" + >φυλλον</span>, 'phyllon.'</p> + + <p>"The thing that is born," or "put forth." "When the branch is tender, + and putteth forth her leaves, ye know that summer is nigh." The botanists + say, "The leaf is an expansion of the bark of the stem." More accurately, + the bark is a contraction of the tissue of the leaf. For every leaf is + born out of the earth, and breathes out of the air; and there are many + leaves that have no stems, but only roots. It is 'the springing thing'; + this thin film of life; rising, with its <i>edge</i> out of the + ground—infinitely feeble, infinitely fair. With Folium, in Latin, + is rightly associated the word Flos; for the flower is only a group of + <!-- Page 42 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page42"></a>[42]</span> + singularly happy leaves. From these two roots come foglio, feuille, + feuillage, and fleur;—blume, blossom, and bloom; our foliage, and + the borrowed foil, and the connected technical groups of words in + architecture and the sciences.</p> + + <p>4. This <i>thin</i> film, I said. That is the essential character of a + leaf; to be thin,—widely spread out in proportion to its mass. It + is the opening of the substance of the earth to the air, which is the + giver of life. The Greeks called it, therefore, not only the born or + blooming thing, but the spread or expanded thing—"<span + title="petalon" class="grk" + >πεταλον</span>." Pindar calls the + beginnings of quarrel, "petals of quarrel." Recollect, therefore, this + form, Petalos; and connect it with Petasos, the expanded cap of Mercury. + For one great use of both is to give shade. The root of all these words + is said to be <b><span title="PET" class="grk" + >ΠΕΤ</span></b> (Pet), which may easily be remembered in + Greek, as it sometimes occurs in no unpleasant sense in English.</p> + + <p>5. But the word 'petalos' is connected in Greek with another word, + meaning, to fly,—so that you may think of a bird as spreading its + petals to the wind; and with another, signifying Fate in its pursuing + flight, the overtaking thing, or overflying Fate. Finally, there is + another Greek word meaning 'wide,' <span title="platus" class="grk" + >πλατυς</span> (platys); whence at + last our 'plate'—a thing made broad or extended—but + especially made broad or 'flat' out of the solid, as in a lump of clay + extended on the wheel, or a lump of metal extended by the hammer. So the + first we call Platter; the second Plate, when of the precious metals. + Then putting <i>b</i> for <!-- Page 43 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page43"></a>[43]</span> <i>p</i>, and <i>d</i> for <i>t</i>, we get + the blade of an oar, and blade of grass.</p> + + <p>6. Now gather a branch of laurel, and look at it carefully. You may + read the history of the being of half the earth in one of those green + oval leaves—the things that the sun and the rivers have made out of + dry ground. Daphne—daughter of Enipeus, and beloved by the + Sun,—that fable gives you at once the two great facts about + vegetation. Where warmth is, and moisture—there, also, the leaf. + Where no warmth—there is no leaf; where there is no dew—no + leaf.</p> + + <p>7. Look, then, to the branch you hold in your hand. That you + <i>can</i> so hold it, or make a crown of it, if you choose, is the first + thing I want you to note of it;—the proportion of size, namely, + between the leaf and <i>you</i>. Great part of your life and character, + as a human creature, has depended on that. Suppose all leaves had been + spacious, like some palm leaves; solid, like cactus stem; or that trees + had grown, as they might of course just as easily have grown, like + mushrooms, all one great cluster of leaf round one stalk. I do not say + that they are divided into small leaves only for your delight, or your + service, as if you were the monarch of everything—even in this atom + of a globe. You are made of your proper size; and the leaves of theirs: + for reasons, and by laws, of which neither the leaves nor you know + anything. Only note the harmony between both, and the joy we may have in + this division and mystery of the frivolous and tremulous petals, <!-- + Page 44 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page44"></a>[44]</span> which + break the light and the breeze,—compared to what with the frivolous + and tremulous mind which is in us, we could have had out of domes, or + penthouses, or walls of leaf.</p> + + <p>8. Secondly; think awhile of its dark clear green, and the good of it + to you. Scientifically, you know green in leaves is owing to + 'chlorophyll,' or, in English, to 'greenleaf.' It may be very fine to + know that; but my advice to you, on the whole, is to rest content with + the general fact that leaves are green when they do not grow in or near + smoky towns; and not by any means to rest content with the fact that very + soon there will not be a green leaf in England, but only greenish-black + ones. And thereon resolve that you will yourself endeavour to promote the + growing of the green wood, rather than of the black.</p> + + <p>9. Looking at the back of your laurel-leaves, you see how the central + rib or spine of each, and the lateral branchings, strengthen and carry + it. I find much confused use, in botanical works, of the words Vein and + Rib. For, indeed, there are veins <i>in</i> the ribs of leaves, as marrow + in bones; and the projecting bars often gradually depress themselves into + a transparent net of rivers. But the <i>mechanical</i> force of the + framework in carrying the leaf-tissue is the point first to be noticed; + it is that which admits, regulates, or restrains the visible motions of + the leaf; while the system of circulation can only be studied through the + microscope. But the ribbed leaf bears itself to the wind, as the webbed + foot of a bird does to the <!-- Page 45 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page45"></a>[45]</span> water, and needs the same kind, though not + the same strength, of support; and its ribs always are partly therefore + constituted of strong woody substance, which is knit out of the tissue; + and you can extricate this skeleton framework, and keep it, after the + leaf-tissue is dissolved. So I shall henceforward speak simply of the + leaf and its ribs,—only specifying the additional veined structure + on necessary occasions.</p> + + <p>10. I have just said that the ribs—and might have said, farther, + the stalk that sustains them—are knit out of the <i>tissue</i> of + the leaf. But what is the leaf tissue itself knit out of? One would think + that was nearly the first thing to be discovered, or at least to be + thought of, concerning plants,—namely, how and of what they are + made. We say they 'grow.' But you know that they can't grow out of + nothing;—this solid wood and rich tracery must be made out of some + previously existing substance. What is the substance?—and how is it + woven into leaves.—twisted into wood?</p> + + <p>11. Consider how fast this is done, in spring. You walk in February + over a slippery field, where, through hoar-frost and mud, you perhaps + hardly see the small green blades of trampled turf. In twelve weeks you + wade through the same field up to your knees in fresh grass; and in a + week or two more, you mow two or three solid haystacks off it. In winter + you walk by your currant-bush, or your vine. They are shrivelled + sticks—like bits of black tea in the canister. You pass again in + May, and <!-- Page 46 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page46"></a>[46]</span> the currant-bush looks like a young + sycamore tree; and the vine is a bower: and meanwhile the forests, all + over this side of the round world, have grown their foot or two in + height, with new leaves—so much deeper, so much denser than they + were. Where has it all come from? Cut off the fresh shoots from a single + branch of any tree in May. Weigh them; and then consider that so much + weight has been added to every such living branch, everywhere, this side + the equator, within the last two months. What is all that made of?</p> + + <p>12. Well, this much the botanists really know, and tell us,—It + is made chiefly of the breath of animals: that is to say, of the + substance which, during the past year, animals have breathed into the + air; and which, if they went on breathing, and their breath were not made + into trees, would poison them, or rather suffocate them, as people are + suffocated in uncleansed pits, and dogs in the Grotta del Cane. So that + you may look upon the grass and forests of the earth as a kind of green + hoar-frost, frozen upon it from our breath, as, on the window-panes, the + white arborescence of ice.</p> + + <p>13. But how is it made into wood?</p> + + <p>The substances that have been breathed into the air are charcoal, with + oxygen and hydrogen,—or, more plainly, charcoal and water. Some + necessary earths,—in smaller quantity, but absolutely + essential,—the trees get from the ground; but, I believe all the + charcoal they want, and most of the water, from the air. Now the question + is, where and how do they take it in, and digest it into wood? <!-- Page + 47 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page47"></a>[47]</span></p> + + <p>14. You know, in spring, and partly through all the year, except in + frost, a liquid called 'sap' circulates in trees, of which the nature, + one should have thought, might have been ascertained by mankind in the + six thousand years they have been cutting wood. Under the impression + always that it <i>had been</i> ascertained, and that I could at any time + know all about it, I have put off till to-day, 19th October, 1869, when I + am past fifty, the knowing anything about it at all. But I will really + endeavour now to ascertain something, and take to my botanical books, + accordingly, in due order.</p> + + <p>(1) Dresser's "Rudiments of Botany." 'Sap' not in the index; only + Samara, and Sarcocarp,—about neither of which I feel the smallest + curiosity. (2) Figuier's "Histoire des Plantes."<a name="NtA_18" + href="#Nt_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> 'Sêve,' not in index; only Serpolet, + and Sherardia arvensis, which also have no help in them for me. (3) + Balfour's "Manual of Botany." 'Sap,'—yes, at last. "Article 257. + Course of fluids in exogenous stems." I don't care about the course just + now: I want to know where the fluids come from. "If a plant be plunged + into a weak solution of acetate of lead,"—I don't in the least want + to know what happens. "From the minuteness of the tissue, it is not easy + to determine the vessels through which the sap moves." Who said it was? + If it had been easy, I should have done it myself. "Changes take place in + the composition of the <!-- Page 48 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page48"></a>[48]</span> sap in its upward course." I dare say; but + I don't know yet what its composition is before it begins going up. "The + Elaborated Sap by Mr. Schultz has been called 'latex.'" I wish Mr. + Schultz were in a hogshead of it, with the top on. "On account of these + movements in the latex, the laticiferous vessels have been denominated + cinenchymatous." I do not venture to print the expressions which I here + mentally make use of.</p> + + <p>15. Stay,—here, at last, in Article 264, is something to the + purpose: "It appears then that, in the case of Exogenous plants, the + fluid matter in the soil, containing different substances in solution, is + sucked up by the extremities of the roots." Yes, but how of the pine + trees on yonder rock?—Is there any sap in the rock, or water + either? The moisture must be seized during actual rain on the root, or + stored up from the snow; stored up, any way, in a tranquil, not actively + sappy, state, till the time comes for its change, of which there is no + account here.</p> + + <p>16. I have only one chance left now. Lindley's "Introduction to + Botany." 'Sap,'—yes,—'General motion of.' II. 325. "The + course which is taken by the sap, after entering a plant, is the first + subject for consideration." My dear doctor, I have learned nearly + whatever I know of plant structure from you, and am grateful; and that it + is little, is not your fault, but mine. But this—let me say it with + all sincere respect—is not what you should have told me here. You + know, far better than I, that 'sap' never does enter a plant at all; but + only salt, or earth and water, <!-- Page 49 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page49"></a>[49]</span> and that the roots alone could not make it; + and that, therefore, the course of it must be, in great part, the result + or process of the actual making. But I will read now, patiently; for I + know you will tell me much that is worth hearing, though not perhaps what + I want.</p> + + <p>Yes; now that I have read Lindley's statement carefully, I find it is + full of precious things; and this is what, with thinking over it, I can + gather for you.</p> + + <p>17. First, towards the end of January,—as the light enlarges, + and the trees revive from their rest,—there is a general + liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius in their stems; and I suppose + there is really a great deal of moisture rapidly absorbed from the earth + in most cases; and that this absorption is a great help to the sun in + drying the winter's damp out of it for us: then, with that strange vital + power,—which scientific people are usually as afraid of naming as + common people are afraid of naming Death,—the tree gives the + gathered earth and water a changed existence; and to this new-born liquid + an upward motion from the earth, as our blood has from the heart; for the + life of the tree is out of the earth; and this upward motion has a + mechanical power in pushing on the growth. "<i>Forced onward</i> by the + current of sap, the plumule ascends," (Lindley, p. 132,)—this blood + of the tree having to supply, exactly as our own blood has, not only the + forming powers of substance, but a continual evaporation, "approximately + seventeen times more than that of the human body," while the force of + motion in the sap "is <!-- Page 50 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page50"></a>[50]</span> sometimes five times greater than that + which impels the blood in the crural artery of the horse."</p> + + <p>18. Hence generally, I think we may conclude thus much,—that at + every pore of its surface, under ground and above, the plant in the + spring absorbs moisture, which instantly disperses itself through its + whole system "by means of some permeable quality of the membranes of the + cellular tissue invisible to our eyes even by the most powerful glasses" + (p. 326); that in this way subjected to the vital power of the tree, it + becomes sap, properly so called, which passes downwards through this + cellular tissue, slowly and secretly; and then upwards, through the great + vessels of the tree, violently, stretching out the supple twigs of it as + yon see a flaccid waterpipe swell and move when the cock is turned to + fill it. And the tree becomes literally a fountain, of which the + springing streamlets are clothed with new-woven garments of green tissue, + and of which the silver spray stays in the sky,—a spray, now, of + leaves.</p> + + <p>19. That is the gist of the matter; and a very wonderful gist it is, + to my mind. The secret and subtle descent—the violent and exulting + resilience of the tree's blood,—what guides it?—what compels? + The creature has no heart to beat like ours; one cannot take refuge from + the mystery in a 'muscular contraction.' Fountain without + supply—playing by its own force, for ever rising and falling all + through the days of Spring, spending itself at last in gathered clouds of + leaves, and iris of blossom.</p> + + <p>Very wonderful; and it seems, for the present, that <!-- Page 51 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"></a>[51]</span> we know nothing + whatever about its causes;—nay, the strangeness of the reversed + arterial and vein motion, without a heart, does not seem to strike + anybody. Perhaps, however, it may interest you, as I observe it does the + botanists, to know that the cellular tissue through which the motion is + effected is called Parenchym, and the woody tissue, Bothrenchym; and that + Parenchym is divided, by a system of nomenclature which "has some + advantages over that more commonly in use,"<a name="NtA_19" + href="#Nt_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> into merenchyma, conenchyma, ovenchyma, + atractenchyma, cylindrenchyma, colpenchyma, cladenchyma, and + prismenchyma.</p> + + <p>20. Take your laurel branch into your hand again. There are, as you + must well know, innumerable shapes and orders of leaves;—there are + some like claws; some like fingers, and some like feet; there are + endlessly cleft ones, and endlessly clustered ones, and inscrutable + divisions within divisions of the fretted verdure; and wrinkles, and + ripples, and stitchings, and hemmings, and pinchings, and gatherings, and + crumplings, and clippings, and what not. But there is nothing so + constantly noble as the pure leaf of the laurel, bay, orange, and olive; + numerable, sequent, perfect in setting, divinely simple and serene. I + shall call these noble leaves 'Apolline' leaves. They characterize many + orders of plants, great and small,—from the magnolia to the myrtle, + and exquisite 'myrtille' <!-- Page 52 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page52"></a>[52]</span> of the hills, (bilberry); but wherever you + find them, strong, lustrous, dark green, simply formed, richly scented or + stored,—you have nearly always kindly and lovely vegetation, in + healthy ground and air.</p> + + <p>21. The gradual diminution in rank beneath the Apolline leaf, takes + place in others by the loss of one or more of the qualities above named. + The Apolline leaf, I said, is strong, lustrous, full in its green, rich + in substance, simple in form. The inferior leaves are those which have + lost strength, and become thin, like paper; which have lost lustre, and + become dead by roughness of surface, like the nettle,—(an Apolline + leaf may become dead by <i>bloom</i>, like the olive, yet not lose + beauty); which have lost colour and become feeble in green, as in the + poplar, or <i>crudely</i> bright, like rice; which have lost substance + and softness, and have nothing to give in scent or nourishment; or become + flinty or spiny; finally, which have lost simplicity, and become cloven + or jagged. Many of these losses are partly atoned for by gain of some + peculiar loveliness. Grass and moss, and parsley and fern, have each + their own delightfulness; yet they are all of inferior power and honour, + compared to the Apolline leaves.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:50%;"> + <a href="images/fig3.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig3.png" + alt="Fig. 3. Leaves of elm and alisma." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 3. + </div> + <p>22. You see, however, that though your laurel leaf has a central stem, + and traces of ribs branching from it, in a vertebrated manner, they are + so faint that we cannot take it for a type of vertebrate structure. But + the two figures of elm and alisma leaf, given in Modern Painters (vol. + iii.), and now here repeated, Fig. 3, will clearly enough <!-- Page 53 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"></a>[53]</span> show the + opposition between this vertebrate form, branching again usually at the + edges, <i>a</i>, and the softly opening lines diffused at the stem, and + gathered at the point of the leaf <i>b</i>, which, as you almost without + doubt know already are characteristic of a vast group of plants, + including especially all the lilies, grasses, and palms, which for the + most part are the signs of local or temporary moisture in hot + countries;—local, as of fountains and streams; temporary, as of + rain or inundation.</p> + + <p>But temporary, still more definitely in the day, than in the year. + When you go out, delighted, into the dew of the morning, have you ever + considered why it is so rich upon the grass;—why it is <i>not</i> + upon the trees? It <i>is</i> partly on the trees, but yet your memory of + it will be always chiefly of its gleam upon the lawn. On many <!-- Page + 54 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"></a>[54]</span> trees you + will find there is none at all. I cannot follow out here the many + inquiries connected with this subject, but, broadly, remember the + branched trees are fed chiefly by rain,—the unbranched ones by dew, + visible or invisible; that is to say, at all events by moisture which + they can gather for themselves out of the air; or else by streams and + springs. Hence the division of the verse of the song of Moses: "My + doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distil as the dew: as + the <i>small</i> rain upon the tender <i>herb</i>, and as the showers + upon the grass."</p> + + <p>23. Next, examining the direction of the veins in the leaf of the + alisma, <i>b</i>, Fig. 3, you see they all open widely, as soon as they + can, towards the thick part of the leaf; and then taper, apparently with + reluctance, pushing each other outwards, to the point. If the leaf were a + lake of the same shape, and its stem the entering river, the lines of the + currents passing through it would, I believe, be nearly the same as that + of the veins in the aquatic leaf. I have not examined the fluid law + accurately, and I do not suppose there is more real correspondence than + may be caused by the leaf's expanding in every permitted direction, as + the water would, with all the speed it can; but the resemblance is so + close as to enable you to fasten the relation of the unbranched leaves to + streams more distinctly in your mind,—just as the toss of the palm + leaves from their stem may, I think, in their likeness to the springing + of a fountain, remind you of their relation to the desert, and their + necessity, therein, to life of man and beast. <!-- Page 55 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page55"></a>[55]</span></p> + + <p>24. And thus, associating these grass and lily leaves always with + fountains, or with dew, I think we may get a pretty general name for them + also. You know that Cora, our Madonna of the flowers, was lost in + Sicilian Fields: you know, also, that the fairest of Greek fountains, + lost in Greece, was thought to rise in a Sicilian islet; and that the + real springing of the noble fountain in that rock was one of the causes + which determined the position of the greatest Greek city of Sicily. So I + think, as we call the fairest branched leaves 'Apolline,' we will call + the fairest flowing ones 'Arethusan.' But remember that the Apolline leaf + represents only the central type of land leaves, and is, within certain + limits, of a fixed form; while the beautiful Arethusan leaves, alike in + flowing of their lines, change their forms indefinitely,—some + shaped like round pools, and some like winding currents, and many like + arrows, and many like hearts, and otherwise varied and variable, as + leaves ought to be,—that rise out of the waters, and float amidst + the pausing of their foam.</p> + + <p>25. Brantwood, <i>Easter Day</i>, 1875.—I don't like to spoil my + pretty sentence, above; but on reading it over, I suspect I wrote it + confusing the water-lily leaf, and other floating ones of the same kind, + with the Arethusan forms. But the water-lily and water-ranunculus leaves, + and such others, are to the orders of earth-loving leaves what ducks and + swans are to birds; (the swan is the water-lily of birds;) they are + <i>swimming</i> leaves; not properly watery creatures, or able to live + under water like fish, (unless <!-- Page 56 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page56"></a>[56]</span> when dormant), but just like birds that + pass their lives on the surface of the waves—though they must + breathe in the air.</p> + + <p>And these natant leaves, as they lie on the water surface, do not want + strong ribs to carry them,<a name="NtA_20" + href="#Nt_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> but have very delicate ones beautifully + branching into the orbed space, to keep the tissue nice and flat; while, + on the other hand, leaves that really have to grow under water, sacrifice + their tissue, and keep only their ribs, like coral animals; ('Ranunculus + heterophyllus,' 'other-leaved Frog-flower,' and its like,) just as, if + you keep your own hands too long in water, they shrivel at the + finger-ends.</p> + + <p>26. So that you must not attach any great botanical importance to the + characters of contrasted aspects in leaves, which I wish you to express + by the words 'Apolline' and 'Arethusan'; but their mythic importance is + very great, and your careful observance of it will help you completely to + understand the beautiful Greek fable of Apollo and Daphne. There are + indeed several Daphnes, and the first root of the name is far away in + another field of thought altogether, connected with the Gods of Light. + But etymology, the best of servants, is an unreasonable master; and + Professor Max Müller trusts his deep-reaching knowledge of the first + ideas connected with the names of Athena <!-- Page 57 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page57"></a>[57]</span> and Daphne, too + implicitly, when he supposes this idea to be retained in central Greek + theology. 'Athena' originally meant only the dawn, among nations who knew + nothing of a Sacred Spirit. But the Athena who catches Achilles by the + hair, and urges the spear of Diomed, has not, in the mind of Homer, the + slightest remaining connection with the mere beauty of daybreak. Daphne + chased by Apollo, may perhaps—though I doubt even this much of + consistence in the earlier myth—have meant the Dawn pursued by the + Sun. But there is no trace whatever of this first idea left in the fable + of Arcadia and Thessaly.</p> + + <p>27. The central Greek Daphne is the daughter of one of the great + <i>river</i> gods of Arcadia; her mother is the Earth. Now Arcadia is the + Oberland of Greece; and the crests of Cyllene, Erymanthus, and Mĉnalus<a + name="NtA_21" href="#Nt_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> surround it, like the + Swiss forest cantons, with walls of rock, and shadows of pine. And it + divides itself, like the Oberland, into three regions: first, the region + of rock and snow, sacred to Mercury and Apollo, in which Mercury's birth + on Cyllene, his construction of the lyre, and his stealing the oxen of + Apollo, are all expressions of the enchantments of cloud and sound, + mingling with the sunshine, on the cliffs of Cyllene.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i16hg3">"While the mists</p> + <p>Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes</p> +<!-- Page 58 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page58"></a>[58]</span> + <p>And phantoms from the crags and solid earth</p> + <p>As fast as a musician scatters sounds</p> + <p>Out of his instrument."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Then came the pine region, sacred especially to Pan and Mĉnalus, the + son of Lycaon and brother of Callisto; and you had better remember this + relationship carefully, for the sake of the meaning of the constellations + of Ursa Major and the Mons Mĉnalius, and of their wolf and bear + traditions; (compare also the strong impression on the Greek mind of the + wild leafiness, nourished by snow, of the Bœotian + Cithĉron,—"Oh, thou lake-hollow, full of divine leaves, and of wild + creatures, nurse of the snow, darling of Diana," (Phœnissĉ, 801)). + How wild the climate of this pine region is, you may judge from the + pieces in the note below<a name="NtA_22" + href="#Nt_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> out of Colonel Leake's diary in <!-- + Page 59 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"></a>[59]</span> + crossing the Mĉnalian range in spring. And then, lastly, you have the + laurel and vine region, full of sweetness and Elysian beauty.</p> + + <p>28. Now as Mercury is the ruling power of the hill enchantment, so + Daphne of the leafy peace. She is, in her first life, the daughter of the + mountain river, the mist of it filling the valley; the Sun, pursuing, and + effacing it, from dell to dell, is, literally, Apollo pursuing Daphne, + and <i>adverse</i> to her; (not, as in the earlier tradition, the Sun + pursuing only his own light). Daphne, thus hunted, cries to her mother, + the Earth, which opens, and receives her, causing the laurel to spring up + in her stead. That is to say, wherever the rocks protect the mist from + the sunbeam, and suffer it to water the earth, there the laurel and other + richest vegetation fill the hollows, giving a better glory to the sun + itself. For sunshine, on the torrent spray, <!-- Page 60 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page60"></a>[60]</span> on the grass of its + valley, and entangled among the laurel stems, or glancing from their + leaves, became a thousandfold lovelier and more sacred than the same + sunbeams, burning on the leafless mountain-side.</p> + + <p>And farther, the leaf, in its connection with the river, is typically + expressive, not, as the flower was, of human fading and passing away, but + of the perpetual flow and renewal of human mind and thought, rising "like + the rivers that run among the hills"; therefore it was that the youth of + Greece sacrificed their hair—the sign of their continually renewed + strength,—to the rivers, and to Apollo. Therefore, to commemorate + Apollo's own chief victory over death—over Python, the + corrupter,—a laurel branch was gathered every ninth year in the + vale of Tempe; and the laurel leaf became the reward or crown of all + beneficent and enduring work of man—work of inspiration, born of + the strength of the earth, and of the dew of heaven, and which can never + pass away.</p> + + <p>29. You may doubt at first, even because of its grace, this meaning in + the fable of Apollo and Daphne; you will not doubt it, however, when you + trace it back to its first eastern origin. When we speak carelessly of + the traditions respecting the Garden of Eden, (or in Hebrew, remember, + Garden of Delight,) we are apt to confuse Milton's descriptions with + those in the book of Genesis. Milton fills his Paradise with flowers; but + no flowers are spoken of in Genesis. We may indeed conclude that in + speaking of every herb of the field, flowers are included. But they <!-- + Page 61 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page61"></a>[61]</span> are not + named. The things that are <i>named</i> in the Garden of Delight are + trees only.</p> + + <p>The words are, "every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for + food;" and as if to mark the idea more strongly for us in the Septuagint, + even the ordinary Greek word for tree is not used, but the word <span + title="xulon" class="grk" + >ξυλον</span>,—literally, every + 'wood,' every piece of <i>timber</i> that was pleasant or good. They are + indeed the "vivi travi,"—living rafters, of Dante's Apennine.</p> + + <p>Do you remember how those trees were said to be watered? Not by the + four rivers only. The rivers could not supply the place of rain. No + rivers do; for in truth they are the refuse of rain. No storm-clouds were + there, nor hidings of the blue by darkening veil; but there went up a + <i>mist</i> from the earth, and watered the face of the ground,—or, + as in Septuagint and Vulgate, "There went forth a fountain from the + earth, and gave the earth to drink."</p> + + <p>30. And now, lastly, we continually think of that Garden of Delight, + as if it existed, or could exist, no longer; wholly forgetting that it is + spoken of in Scripture as perpetually existent; and some of its fairest + trees as existent also, or only recently destroyed. When Ezekiel is + describing to Pharaoh the greatness of the Assyrians, do you remember + what image he gives of them? "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in + Lebanon, with fair branches; and his top was among the thick boughs; the + waters nourished him, and the deep brought him up, with her rivers <!-- + Page 62 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page62"></a>[62]</span> running + round about his plants. Under his branches did all the beasts of the + field bring forth their young; and under his shadow dwelt all great + nations."</p> + + <p>31. Now hear what follows. "The cedars <i>in the Garden of God</i> + could not hide <i>him</i>. The fir trees were not like his boughs, and + the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the Garden + of God was like unto him in beauty."</p> + + <p>So that you see, whenever a nation rises into consistent, vital, and, + through many generations, enduring power, <i>there</i> is still the + Garden of God; still it is the water of life which feeds the roots of it; + and still the succession of its people is imaged by the perennial leafage + of trees of Paradise. Could this be said of Assyria, and shall it <span + class="correction" title="'no' in original">not</span> be said of + England? How much more, of lives such as ours should be,—just, + laborious, united in aim, <span class="correction" title="'benet ficent' across 2 lines in original" + >beneficent</span> in fulfilment, may the image be used of the leaves of + the trees of Eden! Other symbols have been given often to show the + evanescence and slightness of our lives—the foam upon the water, + the grass on the housetop, the vapour that vanishes away; yet none of + these are images of true human life. That life, when it is real, is + <i>not</i> evanescent; is <i>not</i> slight; does <i>not</i> vanish away. + Every noble life leaves the fibre of it interwoven for ever in the work + of the world; by so much, evermore, the strength of the human race has + gained; more stubborn in the root, higher towards heaven in the branch; + and, "as a teil tree, and as an oak,—whose substance is in them + <!-- Page 63 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page63"></a>[63]</span> + when they cast their leaves,—so the holy seed is in the midst + thereof."</p> + + <p>32. Only remember on what conditions. In the great Psalm of life, we + are told that everything that a man doeth shall prosper, so only that he + delight in the law of his God, that he hath not walked in the counsel of + the wicked, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. Is it among these leaves + of the perpetual Spring,—helpful leaves for the healing of the + nations,—that we mean to have our part and place, or rather among + the "brown skeletons of leaves that lag, the forest brook along"? For + other leaves there are, and other streams that water them,—not + water of life, but water of Acheron. Autumnal leaves there are that strew + the brooks, in Vallombrosa. Remember you how the name of the place was + changed: "Once called 'Sweet water' (Aqua bella), now, the Shadowy Vale." + Portion in one or other name we must choose, all of us,—with the + living olive, by the living fountains of waters, or with the wild fig + trees, whose leafage of human soul is strewed along the brooks of death, + in the eternal Vallombrosa.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 64 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64"></a>[64]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE FLOWER.</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>Whit Monday, 1874</i>. + + <p>1. On the quiet road leading from under the Palatine to the little + church of St. Nereo and Achilleo, I met, yesterday morning, group after + group of happy peasants heaped in pyramids on their triumphal carts, in + Whit-Sunday dress, stout and clean, and gay in colour; and the women all + with bright artificial roses in their hair, set with true natural taste, + and well becoming them. This power of arranging wreath or crown of + flowers for the head, remains to the people from classic times. And the + thing that struck me most in the look of it was not so much the + cheerfulness, as the dignity;—in a true sense, the + <i>becomingness</i> and decorousness of the ornament. Among the ruins of + the dead city, and the worse desolation of the work of its modern + rebuilders, here was one element at least of honour, and + order;—and, in these, of delight.</p> + + <p>And these are the real significances of the flower itself. It is the + utmost purification of the plant, and the utmost discipline. Where its + tissue is blanched fairest, dyed purest, set in strictest rank, appointed + to most chosen office, <!-- Page 65 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page65"></a>[65]</span> there—and created by the fact of this + purity and function—is the flower.</p> + + <p>2. But created, observe, by the purity and order, more than by the + function. The flower exists for its own sake,—not for the fruit's + sake. The production of the fruit is an added honour to it—is a + granted consolation to us for its death. But the flower is the end of the + seed,—not the seed of the flower. You are fond of cherries, + perhaps; and think that the use of cherry blossom is to produce cherries. + Not at all. The use of cherries is to produce cherry blossoms; just as + the use of bulbs is to produce hyacinths,—not of hyacinths to + produce bulbs. Nay, that the flower can multiply by bulb, or root, or + slip, as well as by seed, may show you at once how immaterial the + seed-forming function is to the flower's existence. A flower is to the + vegetable substance what a crystal is to the mineral. "Dust of sapphire," + writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me, of the wood hyacinths of Scotland + in the spring. Yes, that is so,—each bud more beautiful, itself, + than perfectest jewel—<i>this</i>, indeed, jewel "of purest ray + serene;" but, observe you, the glory is in the purity, the serenity, the + radiance,—not in the mere continuance of the creature.</p> + + <p>3. It is because of its beauty that its continuance is worth Heaven's + while. The glory of it is in being,—not in begetting; and in the + spirit and substance,—not the change. For the earth also has its + flesh and spirit. Every day of spring is the earth's Whit + Sunday—Fire <!-- Page 66 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page66"></a>[66]</span> Sunday. The falling fire of the rainbow, + with the order of its zones, and the gladness of its covenant,—you + may eat of it, like Esdras; but you feed upon it only that you may see + it. Do you think that flowers were born to nourish the blind?</p> + + <p>Fasten well in your mind, then, the conception of order, and purity, + as the essence of the flower's being, no less than of the crystal's. A + ruby is not made bright to scatter round it child-rubies; nor a flower, + but in collateral and added honour, to give birth to other flowers.</p> + + <p>Two main facts, then, you have to study in every flower: the symmetry + or order of it, and the perfection of its substance; first, the manner in + which the leaves are placed for beauty of form; then the spinning and + weaving and blanching of their tissue, for the reception of purest + colour, or refining to richest surface.</p> + + <p>4. First, the order: the proportion, and answering to each other, of + the parts; for the study of which it becomes necessary to know what its + parts are; and that a flower consists essentially of—Well, I really + don't know what it consists essentially of. For some flowers have bracts, + and stalks, and toruses, and calices, and corollas, and discs, and + stamens, and pistils, and ever so many odds and ends of things besides, + of no use at all, seemingly; and others have no bracts, and no stalks, + and no toruses, and no calices, and no corollas, and nothing recognizable + for stamens or pistils,—only, when they come to be reduced to this + kind of poverty, one doesn't call <!-- Page 67 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page67"></a>[67]</span> them flowers; they get + together in knots, and one calls them catkins, or the like, or forgets + their existence altogether;—I haven't the least idea, for instance, + myself, what an oak blossom is like; only I know its bracts get together + and make a cup of themselves afterwards, which the Italians call, as they + do the dome of St. Peter's, 'cupola'; and that it is a great pity, for + their own sake as well as the world's, that they were not content with + their ilex cupolas, which were made to hold something, but took to + building these big ones upside-down, which hold nothing—<i>less</i> + than nothing,—large extinguishers of the flame of Catholic + religion. And for farther embarrassment, a flower not only is without + essential consistence of a given number of parts, but it rarely consists, + alone, of <i>itself</i>. One talks of a hyacinth as of a flower; but a + hyacinth is any number of flowers. One does not talk of 'a heather'; when + one says 'heath,' one means the whole plant, not the + blossom,—because heath-bells, though they grow together for + company's sake, do so in a voluntary sort of way, and are not fixed in + their places; and yet, they depend on each other for effect, as much as a + bunch of grapes.</p> + + <p>5. And this grouping of flowers, more or less waywardly, is the most + subtle part of their order, and the most difficult to represent. Take + that cluster of bog-heather bells, for instance, Line-study 1. You might + think at first there were no lines in it worth study; but look at it more + carefully. There are twelve bells in the <!-- Page 68 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page68"></a>[68]</span> cluster. There may be + fewer, or more; but the bog-heath is apt to run into something near that + number. They all grow together as close as they can, and on one side of + the supporting branch only. The natural effect would be to bend the + branch down; but the branch won't have that, and so leans back to carry + them. Now you see the use of drawing the profile in the middle figure: it + shows you the exactly balanced setting of the group,—not drooping, + nor erect; but with a disposition to droop, tossed up by the leaning back + of the stem. Then, growing as near as they can to each other, those in + the middle get squeezed. Here is another quite special character. Some + flowers don't like being squeezed at all (fancy a squeezed convolvulus!); + but these heather bells like it, and look all the prettier for + it,—not the squeezed ones exactly, by themselves, but the cluster + altogether, by their patience.</p> + + <p>Then also the outside ones get pushed into a sort of star-shape, and + in front show the colour of all their sides, and at the back the rich + green cluster of sharp leaves that hold them; all this order being as + essential to the plant as any of the more formal structures of the bell + itself.</p> + + <p>6. But the bog-heath has usually only one cluster of flowers to + arrange on each branch. Take a spray of ling (Frontispiece), and you will + find that the richest piece of Gothic spire-sculpture would be dull and + graceless beside the grouping of the floral masses in their various life. + But it is difficult to give the accuracy of attention <!-- Page 69 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page69"></a>[69]</span> necessary to + see their beauty without drawing them; and still more difficult to draw + them in any approximation to the truth before they change. This is indeed + the fatallest obstacle to all good botanical work. Flowers, or + leaves,—and especially the last,—can only be rightly drawn as + they grow. And even then, in their loveliest spring action, they grow as + you draw them, and will not stay quite the same creatures for half an + hour.</p> + + <p>7. I said in my inaugural lectures at Oxford, § 107, that real botany + is not so much the description of plants as their biography. Without + entering at all into the history of its fruitage, the life and death of + the blossom <i>itself</i> is always an eventful romance, which must be + completely told, if well. The grouping given to the various states of + form between bud and flower is always the most important part of the + design of the plant; and in the modes of its death are some of the most + touching lessons, or symbolisms, connected with its existence. The utter + loss and far-scattered ruin of the cistus and wild rose,—the + dishonoured and dark contortion of the convolvulus,—the pale + wasting of the crimson heath of Apennine, are strangely opposed by the + quiet closing of the brown bells of the ling, each making of themselves a + little cross as they die; and so enduring into the days of winter. I have + drawn the faded beside the full branch, and know not which is the more + beautiful.</p> + + <p>8. This grouping, then, and way of treating each other in their + gathered company, is the first and most subtle <!-- Page 70 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page70"></a>[70]</span> condition of form in + flowers; and, observe, I don't mean, just now, the appointed and + disciplined grouping, but the wayward and accidental. Don't confuse the + beautiful consent of the cluster in these sprays of heath with the legal + strictness of a foxglove,—though that also has its divinity; but of + another kind. That legal order of blossoming—for which we may + wisely keep the accepted name, 'inflorescence,'—is itself quite a + separate subject of study, which we cannot take up until we know the + still more strict laws which are set over the flower itself.</p> + + <p>9. I have in my hand a small red poppy which I gathered on Whit Sunday + on the palace of the Cĉsars. It is an intensely simple, intensely floral, + flower. All silk and flame: a scarlet cup, perfect-edged all round, seen + among the wild grass far away, like a burning coal fallen from Heaven's + altars. You cannot have a more complete, a more stainless, type of flower + absolute; inside and outside, <i>all</i> flower. No sparing of colour + anywhere—no outside coarsenesses—no interior secrecies; open + as the sunshine that creates it; fine-finished on both sides, down to the + extremest point of insertion on its narrow stalk; and robed in the purple + of the Cĉsars.</p> + + <p>Literally so. That poppy scarlet, so far as it could be painted by + mortal hand, for mortal King, stays yet, against the sun, and wind, and + rain, on the walls of the house of Augustus, a hundred yards from the + spot where I gathered the weed of its desolation.</p> + + <p>10. A pure <i>cup</i>, you remember it is; that much at least <!-- + Page 71 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page71"></a>[71]</span> you + cannot but remember, of poppy-form among the cornfields; and it is best, + in beginning, to think of every flower as essentially a cup. There are + flat ones, but you will find that most of these are really groups of + flowers, not single blossoms; and there are out-of-the-way and quaint + ones, very difficult to define as of any shape; but even these have a cup + to begin with, deep down in them. You had better take the idea of a cup + or vase, as the first, simplest, and most general form of true + flower.</p> + + <p>The botanists call it a corolla, which means a garland, or a kind of + crown; and the word is a very good one, because it indicates that the + flower-cup is made, as our clay cups are, on a potter's wheel; that it is + essentially a <i>revolute</i> form—a whirl or (botanically) 'whorl' + of leaves; in reality successive round the base of the urn they form.</p> + + <p>11. Perhaps, however, you think poppies in general are not much like + cups. But the flower in my hand is a—poverty-<i>stricken</i> poppy, + I was going to write,—poverty-<i>strengthened</i> poppy, I mean. On + richer ground, it would have gushed into flaunting breadth of <span + class="correction" title="'untenabie' in original">untenable</span> + purple—flapped its inconsistent scarlet vaguely to the + wind—dropped the pride of its petals over my hand in an hour after + I gathered it. But this little rough-bred thing, a Campagna pony of a + poppy, is as bright and strong to-day as yesterday. So that I can see + exactly where the leaves join or lap over each other; and when I look + down into the cup, find it to be composed of four leaves + altogether,—two smaller, set within two larger. <!-- Page 72 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page72"></a>[72]</span></p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:25%;"> + <a href="images/fig4.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig4.png" + alt="Fig. 4. Petals of poppy." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 4. + </div> + <p>12. Thus far (and somewhat farther) I had written in Rome; but now, + putting my work together in Oxford, a sudden doubt troubles me, whether + all poppies have two petals smaller than the other two. Whereupon I take + down an excellent little school-book on botany—the best I've yet + found, thinking to be told quickly; and I find a great deal about opium; + and, apropos of opium, that the juice of common celandine is of a bright + orange colour; and I pause for a bewildered five minutes, wondering if a + celandine is a poppy, and how many petals <i>it</i> has: going on + again—because I must, without making up my mind, on either + question—I am told to "observe the floral receptacle of the + Californian genus Eschscholtzia." Now I can't observe anything of the + sort, and I don't want to; and I wish California and all that's in it + were at the deepest bottom of the Pacific. Next I am told to compare the + poppy and waterlily; and I can't do that, neither—though I should + like to; and there's the end of the article; and it never tells me + whether one pair of petals is always smaller than the other, or not. Only + I see it says the corolla has four petals. Perhaps a celandine may be a + double poppy, and have eight, I know they're tiresome irregular things, + and I mustn't be stopped by them;<a name="NtA_23" + href="#Nt_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>—at <!-- Page 73 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page73"></a>[73]</span> any rate, my Roman poppy + knew what it was about, and had its two couples of leaves in clear + subordination, of which at the time I went on to inquire farther, as + follows.</p> + + <p>13. The next point is, what shape are the petals of? And that is + easier asked than answered; for when you pull them off, you find they + won't lie flat, by any means, but are each of them cups, or rather + shells, themselves; and that it requires as much conchology as would + describe a cockle, before you can properly give account of a single poppy + leaf. Or of a single <i>any</i> leaf—for all leaves are either + shells, or boats, (or solid, if not hollow, masses,) and cannot be + represented in flat outline. But, laying these as flat as they will lie + on a sheet of paper, you will find the piece they hide of the paper they + lie on can be drawn; giving approximately the shape of the outer leaf as + at A, that of the inner as at B, Fig. 4; which you will find very + difficult lines to draw, for they are each composed of two curves, + joined, as in Fig. 5; all above the line <i>a b</i> being the outer edge + of the leaf, but joined so subtly to the side that the least break in + drawing the line spoils the form.</p> + + <p>14. Now every flower petal consists essentially of these two parts, + variously proportioned and outlined. It <!-- Page 74 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page74"></a>[74]</span> expands from C to <i>a + b</i>; and closes in the external line, and for this reason.</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;"> + <a href="images/fig5.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig5.png" + alt="Fig. 5. Typical flower petal." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 5. + </div> + <p>Considering every flower under the type of a cup, the first part of + the petal is that in which it expands from the bottom to the rim; the + second part, that in which it terminates itself on reaching the rim. Thus + let the three circles, A B C, Fig 6., represent the undivided cups of the + three great geometrical orders of flowers—trefoil, quatrefoil and + cinquefoil.</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:40%;"> + <a href="images/fig6.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig6.png" + alt="Fig. 6. Orders of flowers." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 6. + </div> + <p>Draw in the first an equilateral triangle, in the second a square, in + the third a pentagon; draw the dark lines from centres to angles; (D E + F): then (<i>a</i>) the third part of D; (<i>b</i>) the fourth part of E, + (<i>c</i>) the fifth part of F, are the normal outline forms of the + petals of the three <!-- Page 75 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page75"></a>[75]</span> families; the relations between the + developing angle and limiting curve being varied according to the depth + of cup, and the degree of connection between the petals. Thus a rose + folds them over one another, in the bud; a convolvulus twists + them,—the one expanding into a flat cinquefoil of separate petals, + and the other into a deep-welled cinquefoil of connected ones.</p> + + <p>I find an excellent illustration in Veronica Polita, one of the most + perfectly graceful of field plants because of the light alternate flower + stalks, each with its leaf at the base; the flower itself a quatrefoil, + of which the largest and least petals are uppermost. Pull one off its + calyx (draw, if you can, the outline of the striped blue upper petal with + the jagged edge of pale gold below), and then examine the relative shapes + of the lateral, and least upper <!-- Page 76 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page76"></a>[76]</span> petal. Their under surface is very curious, + as if covered with white paint; the blue stripes above, in the direction + of their growth, deepening the more delicate colour with exquisite + insistence.</p> + + <p>A lilac blossom will give you a pretty example of the expansion of the + petals of a quatrefoil above the edge of the cup or tube; but I must get + back to our poppy at present.</p> + + <p>15. What outline its petals really have, however, is little shown in + their crumpled fluttering; but that very crumpling arises from a fine + floral character which we do not enough value in them. We usually think + of the poppy as a coarse flower; but it is the most transparent and + delicate of all the blossoms of the field. The rest—nearly all of + them—depend on the <i>texture</i> of their surfaces for colour. But + the poppy is painted <i>glass</i>; it never glows so brightly as when the + sun shines through it. Wherever it is seen—against the light or + with the light—always, it is a flame, and warms the wind like a + blown ruby.</p> + + <p>In these two qualities, the accurately balanced form, and the + perfectly infused colour of the petals, you have, as I said, the central + being of the flower. All the other parts of it are necessary, but we must + follow them out in order.</p> + + <p>16. Looking down into the cup, you see the green boss divided by a + black star,—of six rays only,—and surrounded by a few black + spots. My rough-nurtured poppy contents itself with these for its centre; + a rich one would have had the green boss divided by a dozen of rays, and + surrounded by a dark crowd of crested threads. <!-- Page 77 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page77"></a>[77]</span></p> + + <p>This green boss is called by botanists the pistil, which word consists + of the two first syllables of the Latin pistillum, otherwise more + familiarly Englished into 'pestle.' The meaning of the botanical word is + of course, also, that the central part of a flower-cup has to it + something of the relations that a pestle has to a mortar! Practically, + however, as this pestle has no pounding functions, I think the word is + misleading as well as ungraceful; and that we may find a better one after + looking a little closer into the matter. For this pestle is divided + generally into three very distinct parts: there is a storehouse at the + bottom of it for the seeds of the plant; above this, a shaft, often of + considerable length in deep cups, rising to the level of their upper + edge, or above it; and at the top of these shafts an expanded crest. This + shaft the botanists call 'style,' from the Greek word for a pillar; and + the crest of it—I do not know why—stigma, from the Greek word + for 'spot.' The storehouse for the seeds they call the 'ovary,' from the + Latin ovum, an egg. So you have two-thirds of a Latin word, + (pistil)—awkwardly and disagreeably edged in between pestle and + pistol—for the whole thing; you have an English-Latin word (ovary) + for the bottom of it; an English-Greek word (style) for the middle; and a + pure Greek word (stigma) for the top.</p> + + <p><a name="c4p17"></a> 17. This is a great mess of language, and all the + worse that the words style and stigma have both of them quite different + senses in ordinary and scholarly English from this forced botanical one. + And I will venture therefore, <!-- Page 78 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page78"></a>[78]</span> for my own pupils, to put the four names + altogether into English. Instead of calling the whole thing a pistil, I + shall simply call it the pillar. Instead of 'ovary,' I shall say + 'Treasury' (for a seed isn't an egg, but it <i>is</i> a treasure). The + style I shall call the 'Shaft,' and the stigma the 'Volute.' So you will + have your entire pillar divided into the treasury, at its base, the + shaft, and the volute; and I think you will find these divisions easily + remembered, and not unfitted to the sense of the words in their ordinary + use.</p> + + <p>18. Round this central, but, in the poppy, very stumpy, pillar, you + find a cluster of dark threads, with dusty pendants or cups at their + ends. For these the botanists' name 'stamens,' may be conveniently + retained, each consisting of a 'filament,' or thread, and an 'anther,' or + blossoming part.</p> + + <p>And in this rich corolla, and pillar, or pillars, with their + treasuries, and surrounding crowd of stamens, the essential flower + consists. Fewer than these several parts, it cannot have, to be a flower + at all; of these, the corolla leads, and is the object of final purpose. + The stamens and the treasuries are only there in order to produce future + corollas, though often themselves decorative in the highest degree.</p> + + <p>These, I repeat, are all the essential parts of a flower. But it would + have been difficult, with any other than the poppy, to have shown you + them alone; for nearly all other flowers keep with them, all their lives, + their nurse <!-- Page 79 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page79"></a>[79]</span> or tutor leaves,—the group which, in + stronger and humbler temper, protected them in their first weakness, and + formed them to the first laws of their being. But the poppy casts these + tutorial leaves away. It is the finished picture of impatient and + luxury-loving youth,—at first too severely restrained, then casting + all restraint away,—yet retaining to the end of life unseemly and + illiberal signs of its once compelled submission to laws which were only + pain,—not instruction.</p> + + <p>19. Gather a green poppy bud, just when it shows the scarlet line at + its side; break it open and unpack the poppy. The whole flower is there + complete in size and colour,—its stamens full-grown, but all packed + so closely that the fine silk of the petals is crushed into a million of + shapeless wrinkles. When the flower opens, it seems a deliverance from + torture: the two imprisoning green leaves are shaken to the ground; the + aggrieved corolla smooths itself in the sun, and comforts itself as it + can; but remains visibly crushed and hurt to the end of its days.</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:40%;"> + <a href="images/fig7.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig7.png" + alt="Fig. 7. Development of primrose flower." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 7. + </div> + <p>20. Not so flowers of gracious breeding. Look at these four stages in + the young life of a primrose, Fig. 7. First confined, as strictly as the + poppy within five pinching green leaves, whose points close over it, the + little thing is content to remain a child, and finds its nursery large + enough. The green leaves unclose their points,—the little yellow + ones peep out, like ducklings. They find the light delicious, and open + wide to it; and grow, and grow, <!-- Page 80 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page80"></a>[80]</span> and throw themselves wider at last into + their perfect rose. But they never leave their old nursery for all that; + it and they live on together; and the nursery seems a part of the + flower.</p> + + <p>21. Which is so, indeed, in all the loveliest flowers; and, in usual + botanical parlance, a flower is said to consist of its calyx, (or + <i>hiding</i> part—Calypso having rule over it,) and corolla, or + garland part, Proserpina having rule over it. But it is better to think + of them always as separate; for this calyx, very justly so named from its + main function of concealing the flower, in its youth is usually green, + not coloured, and shows its separate nature by pausing, or at least + greatly lingering, in its growth, and modifying itself very slightly, + while the corolla is forming <!-- Page 81 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page81"></a>[81]</span> itself through active change. Look at the + two, for instance, through the youth of a pease blossom, Fig. 8.</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:30%;"> + <a href="images/fig8.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig8.png" + alt="Fig. 8. Pease blossom." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 8. + </div> + <p>The entire cluster at first appears pendent in this manner, the stalk + bending round on purpose to put it into that position. On which all the + little buds, thinking themselves ill-treated, determine not to submit to + anything of the sort, turn their points upward persistently, and + determine that—at any cost of trouble—they will get nearer + the sun. Then they begin to open, and let out their corollas. I give the + process of one only (Fig. 9).<a name="NtA_24" + href="#Nt_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> It chances to be engraved the reverse + way from the bud; but that is of no consequence.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <a href="images/fig9.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig9.png" + alt="Fig. 9. Development of pease blossom." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 9. + </div> + <p>At first, you see the long lower point of the calyx thought that + <i>it</i> was going to be the head of the family, and curls upwards + eagerly. Then the little corolla steals out; and soon does away with that + impression on the mind of the calyx. The corolla soars up with widening + wings, the abashed calyx retreats beneath; and finally the great upper + leaf of corolla—not pleased at having its back still <!-- Page 82 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"></a>[82]</span> turned to the + light, and its face down—throws itself entirely back, to look at + the sky, and nothing else;—and your blossom is complete.</p> + + <p>Keeping, therefore, the ideas of calyx and corolla entirely distinct, + this one general point you may note of both: that, as a calyx is + originally folded tight over the flower, and has to open deeply to let it + out, it is nearly always composed of sharp pointed leaves like the + segments of a balloon; while corollas, having to open out as wide as + possible to show themselves, are typically like cups or plates, only cut + into their edges here and there, for ornamentation's sake.</p> + + <p>22. And, finally, though the corolla is essentially the floral group + of leaves, and usually receives the glory of colour for itself only, this + glory and delight may be given to any other part of the group; and, as if + to show us that there is no really dishonoured or degraded membership, + the stalks and leaves in some plants, near the blossom, flush in sympathy + with it, and become themselves a part of the <!-- Page 83 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page83"></a>[83]</span> effectively visible + flower;—Eryngo—Jura hyacinth, (comosus,) and the edges of + upper stems and leaves in many plants; while others, (Geranium lucidum,) + are made to delight us with their leaves rather than their blossoms; only + I suppose, in these, the scarlet leaf colour is a kind of early autumnal + glow,—a beautiful hectic, and foretaste, in sacred youth, of sacred + death.</p> + + <p>I observe, among the speculations of modern science, several, lately, + not uningenious, and highly industrious, on the subject of the relation + of colour in flowers, to insects—to selective development, etc., + etc. There <i>are</i> such relations, of course. So also, the blush of a + girl, when she first perceives the faltering in her lover's step as he + draws near, is related essentially to the existing state of her stomach; + and to the state of it through all the years of her previous existence. + Nevertheless, neither love, chastity, nor blushing, are merely exponents + of digestion.</p> + + <p>All these materialisms, in their unclean stupidity, are essentially + the work of human bats; men of semi-faculty or semi-education, who are + more or less incapable of so much as seeing, much less thinking about, + colour; among whom, for one-sided intensity, even Mr. Darwin must be + often ranked, as in his vespertilian treatise on the ocelli of the Argus + pheasant, which he imagines to be artistically gradated, and perfectly + imitative of a ball and socket. If I had him here in Oxford for a week, + and could force him to try to copy a feather by Bewick, or to draw for + himself a boy's thumbed marble, his notions of feathers, and balls, <!-- + Page 84 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page84"></a>[84]</span> would + be changed for all the rest of his life. But his ignorance of good art is + no excuse for the acutely illogical simplicity of the rest of his talk of + colour in the "Descent of Man." Peacocks' tails, he thinks, are the + result of the admiration of blue tails in the minds of well-bred + peahens,—and similarly, mandrills' noses the result of the + admiration of blue noses in well-bred baboons. But it never occurs to him + to ask why the admiration of blue noses is healthy in baboons, so that it + develops their race properly, while similar maidenly admiration either of + blue noses or red noses in men would be improper, and develop the race + improperly. The word itself 'proper' being one of which he has never + asked, or guessed, the meaning. And when he imagined the gradation of the + cloudings in feathers to represent successive generation, it never + occurred to him to look at the much finer cloudy gradations in the clouds + of dawn themselves; and explain the modes of sexual preference and + selective development which had brought <i>them</i> to their scarlet + glory, before the cock could crow thrice. Putting all these vespertilian + speculations out of our way, the human facts concerning colour are + briefly these. Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and + wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them—in + sky, sea, flowers, and living creatures.</p> + + <p>On the other hand, wherever men are ignoble and sensual, they endure + without pain, and at last even come to like (especially if artists,) + mud-colour and black, and to dislike rose-colour and white. And wherever + it is unhealthy for <!-- Page 85 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page85"></a>[85]</span> them to live, the poisonousness of the + place is marked by some ghastly colour in air, earth, or flowers.</p> + + <p>There are, of course, exceptions to all such widely founded laws; + there are poisonous berries of scarlet, and pestilent skies that are + fair. But, if we once honestly compare a venomous wood-fungus, rotting + into black dissolution of dripped slime at its edges, with a spring + gentian; or a puff adder with a salmon trout, or a fog in Bermondsey with + a clear sky at Berne, we shall get hold of the entire question on its + right side; and be able afterwards to study at our leisure, or accept + without doubt or trouble, facts of apparently contrary meaning. And the + practical lesson which I wish to leave with the reader is, that lovely + flowers, and green trees growing in the open air, are the proper guides + of men to the places which their Maker intended them to inhabit; while + the flowerless and treeless deserts—of reed, or sand, or + rock,—are meant to be either heroically invaded and redeemed, or + surrendered to the wild creatures which are appointed for them; happy and + wonderful in their wild abodes.</p> + + <p>Nor is the world so small but that we may yet leave in it also + unconquered spaces of beautiful solitude; where the chamois and red deer + may wander fearless,—nor any fire of avarice scorch from the + Highlands of Alp, or Grampian, the rapture of the heath, and the + rose.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 86 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"></a>[86]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">PAPAVER RHOEAS.</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Brantwood</span>, <i>July 11th, 1875</i>. + + <p>1. Chancing to take up yesterday a favourite old book, Mavor's British + Tourists, (London, 1798,) I found in its fourth volume a delightful diary + of a journey made in 1782 through various parts of England, by Charles P. + Moritz of Berlin.</p> + + <p>And in the fourteenth page of this diary I find the following passage, + pleasantly complimentary to England:—</p> + + <p>"The slices of bread and butter which they give you with your tea are + as thin as poppy leaves. But there is another kind of bread and butter + usually eaten with tea, which is toasted by the fire, and is incomparably + good. This is called 'toast.'"</p> + + <p>I wonder how many people, nowadays, whose bread and butter was cut too + thin for them, would think of comparing the slices to poppy leaves? But + this was in the old days of travelling, when people did not whirl + themselves past corn-fields, that they might have more time to walk on + paving-stones; and understood that <!-- Page 87 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page87"></a>[87]</span> poppies did not mingle + their scarlet among the gold, without some purpose of the poppy-Maker + that they should be looked at.</p> + + <p>Nevertheless, with respect to the good and polite German's + poetically-contemplated, and finely ĉsthetic, tea, may it not be asked + whether poppy leaves themselves, like the bread and butter, are not, if + we may venture an opinion—<i>too</i> thin,—im-<i>properly</i> + thin? In the last chapter, my reader was, I hope, a little anxious to + know what I meant by saying that modern philosophers did not know the + meaning of the word 'proper,' and may wish to know what I mean by it + myself. And this I think it needful to explain before going farther.</p> + + <p><a name="c5p2"></a> 2. In our English prayer-book translation, the + first verse of the ninety-third Psalm runs thus: "The Lord is King; and + hath put on glorious apparel." And although, in the future republican + world, there are to be no lords, no kings, and no glorious apparel, it + will be found convenient, for botanical purposes, to remember what such + things once were; for when I said of the poppy, in last chapter, that it + was "robed in the purple of the Cĉsars," the words gave, to any one who + had a clear idea of a Cĉsar, and of his dress, a better, and even + <i>stricter</i>, account of the flower than if I had only said, with Mr. + Sowerby, "petals bright scarlet;" which might just as well have been said + of a pimpernel, or scarlet geranium;—but of neither of these latter + should I have said "robed in purple of Cĉsars." What I meant was, first, + that the poppy leaf <!-- Page 88 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page88"></a>[88]</span> looks dyed through and through, like glass, + or Tyrian tissue; and not merely painted: secondly, that the splendour of + it is proud,—almost insolently so. Augustus, in his glory, might + have been clothed like one of these; and Saul; but not David, nor + Solomon; still less the teacher of Solomon, when He puts on 'glorious + apparel.'</p> + + <p>3. Let us look, however, at the two translations of the same + verse.</p> + + <p>In the vulgate it is "Dominus regnavit; decorem indutus est;" He has + put on 'becomingness,'—decent apparel, rather than glorious.</p> + + <p>In the Septuagint it is <span title="euprepeia" class="grk" + >ευπρεπειὰ</span>—<i>well</i>-becomingness; + an expression which, if the reader considers, must imply certainly the + existence of an opposite idea of possible + '<i>ill</i>-becomingness,'—of an apparel which should, in just as + accurate a sense, belong appropriately to the creature invested with it, + and yet not be glorious, but inglorious, and not well-becoming, but + ill-becoming. The mandrill's blue nose, for instance, already referred + to,—can we rightly speak of this as '<span title="euprepeia" class="grk" + >ευπρεπειὰ</span>'? + Or the stings, and minute, colourless blossoming of the nettle? May we + call these a glorious apparel, as we may the glowing of an alpine + rose?</p> + + <p>You will find on reflection, and find more convincingly the more + accurately you reflect, that there is an absolute sense attached to such + words as 'decent,' 'honourable,' 'glorious,' or '<span title="kalos" class="grk" + >καλος</span>,' contrary to another + absolute sense in the words 'indecent,' 'shameful,' 'vile,' or '<span + title="aischros" class="grk" + >αἰσχρος</span>.' <!-- Page 89 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page89"></a>[89]</span></p> + + <p>And that there is every degree of these absolute qualities visible in + living creatures; and that the divinity of the Mind of man is in its + essential discernment of what is <span title="kalon" class="grk" + >καλον</span> from what is <span + title="aischron" class="grk" + >αἰσχρον</span>, and in his + preference of the kind of creatures which are decent, to those which are + indecent; and of the kinds of thoughts, in himself, which are noble, to + those which are vile.</p> + + <p>4. When therefore I said that Mr. Darwin, and his school,<a + name="NtA_25" href="#Nt_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> had no conception of the + real meaning of the word 'proper,' I meant that they conceived the + qualities of things only as their 'properties,' but not as their + becomingnesses;' and seeing that dirt is proper to a swine, malice to a + monkey, poison to a nettle, and folly to a fool, they called a nettle + <i>but</i> a nettle, and the faults of fools but folly; and never saw the + difference between ugliness and beauty absolute, decency and indecency + absolute, glory or shame absolute, and folly or sense absolute.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:35%;"> + <a href="images/fig10.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig10.png" + alt="Fig. 10. Meconopsis Cambrica." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 10. + </div> + <p>Whereas, the perception of beauty, and the power of defining physical + character, are based on moral instinct, and on the power of defining + animal or human character. Nor is it possible to say that one flower is + more highly developed, or one animal of a higher order, than another, + without the assumption of a divine law of perfection to which the one + more conforms than the other.</p> + + <p>5. Thus, for instance. That it should ever have been an open question + with me whether a poppy had always <!-- Page 90 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page90"></a>[90]</span> two of its petals less + than the other two, depended wholly on the hurry and imperfection with + which the poppy carries out its plan. It never would have occurred to me + to <!-- Page 91 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page91"></a>[91]</span> + doubt whether an iris had three of its leaves smaller than the other + three, because an iris always completes itself to its own ideal. + Nevertheless, on examining various poppies, as I have walked, this + summer, up and down the hills between Sheffield and Wakefield, I find the + subordination of the upper and lower petals entirely necessary and + normal; and that the result of it is to give two distinct profiles to the + poppy cup, the difference between which, however, we shall see better in + the yellow Welsh poppy, at present called Meconopsis Cambrica; but which, + in the Oxford schools, will be 'Papaver cruciforme'—'Crosslet + Poppy,'—first, because all our botanical names must be in Latin if + possible; Greek only allowed when we can do no better; secondly, because + meconopsis is barbarous Greek; thirdly, and chiefly, because it is little + matter whether this poppy be Welsh or English; but very needful that we + should observe, wherever it grows, that the petals are arranged in what + used to be, in my young days, called a diamond shape,<a name="NtA_26" + href="#Nt_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> as at A, Fig. 10, the two narrow inner + ones at right angles to, and projecting farther than, the two outside + broad ones; and that the two broad ones, when the flower is seen in + profile, as at B, show their margins folded back, as indicated by the + thicker lines, and have a profile curve, which is only the softening, or + melting away into each other, of two straight lines. Indeed, when the + flower is younger, and quite strong, both its <!-- Page 92 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page92"></a>[92]</span> profiles, A and B, Fig. + 11, are nearly straight-sided; and always, be it young or old, one + broader than the other, so as to give the flower, seen from above, the + shape of a contracted cross, or crosslet.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:35%;"> + <a href="images/fig11.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig11.png" + alt="Fig. 11. Meconopsis Cambrica in profile." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 11. + </div> + <p>6. Now I find no notice of this flower in Gerarde; and in Sowerby, out + of eighteen lines of closely printed descriptive text, no notice of its + crosslet form, while the petals are only stated to be "roundish-concave," + terms equally applicable to at least one-half of all flower petals in the + <!-- Page 93 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page93"></a>[93]</span> + world. The leaves are <i>said</i> to be very deeply pinnately partite; + but <i>drawn</i>—as neither pinnate nor partite!</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;"> + <a href="images/fig12.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig12.png" + alt="Fig. 12. The artists sketch of poppyness." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 12. + </div> + <p>And this is your modern cheap science, in ten volumes. Now I haven't a + quiet moment to spare for drawing this morning; but I merely give the + main relations of the petals, A, and blot in the wrinkles of one of the + lower ones, B, Fig. 12; and yet in this rude sketch you will feel, I + believe, there is something specific which could not belong to any other + flower. But all proper description is <!-- Page 94 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page94"></a>[94]</span> impossible without + careful profiles of each petal laterally and across it. Which I may not + find time to draw for any poppy whatever, because they none of them have + well-becomingness enough to make it worth my while, being all more or + less weedy, and ungracious, and mingled of good and evil. Whereupon rises + before me, ghostly and untenable, the general question, 'What is a weed?' + and, impatient for answer, the particular question, What is a poppy? I + choose, for instance, to call this yellow flower a poppy, instead of a + "likeness to poppy," which the botanists meant to call it, in their bad + Greek. I choose also to call a poppy, what the botanists have called + "glaucous thing," (glaucium). But where and when shall I stop calling + things poppies? This is certainly a question to be settled at once, with + others appertaining to it.</p> + + <p><a name="c5p7"></a> 7. In the first place, then, I mean to call every + flower either one thing or another, and not an 'aceous' thing, only half + something or half another. I mean to call this plant now in my hand, + either a poppy or not a poppy; but not poppaceous. And this other, either + a thistle or not a thistle; but not thistlaceous. And this other, either + a nettle or not a nettle; but not nettlaceous. I know it will be very + difficult to carry out this principle when tribes of plants are much + extended and varied in type: I shall persist in it, however, as far as + possible; and when plants change so much that one cannot with any + conscience call them by their family name any more, I shall put them + aside somewhere among families of poor relations, not <!-- Page 95 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page95"></a>[95]</span> to be minded + for the present, until we are well acquainted with the better bred + circles; I don't know, for instance, whether I shall call the Burnet + 'Grass-rose,' or put it out of court for having no petals; but it + certainly shall not be called rosaceous; and my first point will be to + make sure of my pupils having a clear idea of the central and + unquestionable forms of thistle, grass, or rose, and assigning to them + pure Latin, and pretty English, names,—classical, if possible; and + at least intelligible and decorous.</p> + + <p>8. I return to our present special question, then, What is a poppy? + and return also to a book I gave away long ago, and have just begged back + again, Dr. Lindley's 'Ladies' Botany.' For without at all looking upon + ladies as inferior beings, I dimly hope that what Dr. Lindley considers + likely to be intelligible to <i>them</i>, may be also clear to their very + humble servant.</p> + + <p>The poppies, I find, (page 19, vol. i.) differ from crowfeet in being + of a stupifying instead of a burning nature, and in generally having two + sepals and twice two petals; "but as some poppies have three sepals, and + twice three petals, the number of these parts is not sufficiently + constant to form an essential mark." Yes, I know that, for I found a + superb six-petaled poppy, spotted like a cistus, the other day in a + friend's garden. But then, what makes it a poppy still? That it is of a + stupifying nature, and itself so stupid that it does not know how many + petals it should have, is surely not enough distinction?</p> + + <p>9. Returning to Lindley, and working the matter <!-- Page 96 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page96"></a>[96]</span> farther out with his + help, I think this definition might stand. "A poppy is a flower which has + either four or six petals, and two or more treasuries, united into one; + containing a milky, stupifying fluid in its stalks and leaves, and always + throwing away its calyx when it blossoms."</p> + + <p>And indeed, every flower which unites all these characters, we shall, + in the Oxford schools, call 'poppy,' and 'Papaver;' but when I get fairly + into work, I hope to fix my definitions into more strict terms. For I + wish all my pupils to form the habit of asking, of every plant, these + following four questions, in order, corresponding to the subject of these + opening chapters, namely, "What root has it? what leaf? what flower? and + what stem?" And, in this definition of poppies, nothing whatever is said + about the root; and not only I don't know myself what a poppy root is + like, but in all Sowerby's poppy section, I find no word whatever about + that matter.</p> + + <p>10. Leaving, however, for the present, the root unthought of, and + contenting myself with Dr. Lindley's characteristics, I shall place, at + the head of the whole group, our common European wild poppy, Papaver + Rhoeas, and, with this, arrange the nine following other flowers + thus,—opposite.</p> + + <p>I must be content at present with determining the Latin names for the + Oxford schools; the English ones I shall give as they chance to occur to + me, in Gerarde and the classical poets who wrote before the English + revolution. When no satisfactory name is to be found, I must try to + invent one; as, for instance, just now, I don't like Gerarde's + 'Corn-rose' for Papaver Rhoeas, and must coin another; but this can't be + done by thinking; it will come into my head some day, by chance. I might + try at it straightforwardly for a week together, and not do it.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 97 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page97"></a>[97]</span></p> + + +<table class="tpbtb" summary="Naming of poppies" title="Naming of poppies"> + <tr> + <td class="tpbtb" style="text-align:left"> + <p><span class="sc">Name in Oxford Catalogue.</span></p> + </td> + <td class="tpbtb" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span class="sc">Dioscorides.</span></p> + </td> + <td class="tpbtb" style="text-align:left"> + <p>In present Botany.</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>1. Papaver Rhoeas</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span title="mêkôn rhoias" class="grk">μηκων + ῥοιας</span></p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Papaver Rhoeas</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>2. P. Hortense</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span title="m. kêpeutê" class="grk">μ. + κηπευτη</span><a name="NtA_27" + href="#Nt_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>P. Hortense</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>3. P. Elatum</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span title="m. thulakitis" class="grk">μ. + θυλακίτις</span><a + name="NtA_28" href="#Nt_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>P. Lamottei</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>4. P. Argemone</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p>...</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>P. Argemone</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>5. P. Echinosum</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p>...</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>P. Hybridum</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>6. P. Violaceum</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p>...</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Roemeria Hybrida</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>7. P. Cruciforme</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p>...</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Meconopsis Cambrica</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>8. P. Corniculatum</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span title="m. keratitis" class="grk">μ. + κερατίτις</span></p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Glaucium Corniculatum</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>9. P. Littorale</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p><span title="m. paralios" class="grk">μ. + παραλιος</span></p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Glaucium Luteum</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>10. P. Chelidonium</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center; border-left : thin solid black; border-right : thin solid black"> + <p>...</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Chelidonium Majus</p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p><!-- Page 98 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page98"></a>[98]</span></p> + + <p>The Latin names must be fixed at once, somehow; and therefore I do the + best I can, keeping as much respect for the old nomenclature as possible, + though this involves the illogical practice of giving the epithet + sometimes from the flower, (violaceum, cruciforme), and sometimes from + the seed vessel, (elatum, echinosum, corniculatum). Guarding this + distinction, however, we may perhaps be content to call the six last of + the group, in English, Urchin Poppy, Violet Poppy, Crosslet Poppy, Horned + Poppy, Beach Poppy, and Welcome Poppy. I don't think the last flower + pretty enough to be connected more directly with the swallow, in its + English name.</p> + + <p>11. I shall be well content if my pupils know these ten poppies + rightly; all of them at present wild in our own country, and, I believe, + also European in range: the head and type of all being the common wild + poppy of our cornfields for which the name 'Papaver Rhoeas,' given it by + Dioscorides, Gerarde, and Linnĉus, is entirely authoritative, and we will + therefore at once examine the meaning, and reason, of that name.</p> + + <p>12. Dioscorides says the name belongs to it "<span title="dia to tacheôs to anthos apoballein" class="grk" + >διὰ τὸ + ταχέως τὸ + ἄνθος + ἀποβάλλειν</span>," + "because it casts off its bloom <!-- Page 99 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page99"></a>[99]</span> quickly," from <span title="rheô," class="grk" + >ῥέω,</span> (rheo) in the sense of shedding.<a + name="NtA_29" href="#Nt_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> And this indeed it + does,—first calyx, then corolla;—you may translate it + 'swiftly ruinous' poppy, but notice, in connection with this idea, how it + droops its head <i>before</i> blooming; an action which, I doubt not, + mingled in Homer's thought with the image of its depression when filled + by rain, in the passage of the Iliad, which, as I have relieved your + memory of three unnecessary names of poppy families, you have memory to + spare for learning.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"<span title="mêkôn d' hôs heterôse karê balen, hêt' eni kêpôi" class="grk">μήκων δ' ὣς ἑτέρωσε κάρη βάλεν, ἣτ' ἐνὶ κήπῳ</span></p> + <p><span title="karpôi brithomenê, notiêisi te eiarinêisin" class="grk">καρπῷ βριθομένη, νοτιῇσι τε εἰάρινῇσιν</span></p> + <p><span title="hôs heterôs' êmuse karê pêlêki barunthen." class="grk">ὣς ἑτέρωσ' ἤμυσε κάρη πήληκι βαρυνθέν.</span>"</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>"And as a poppy lets its head fall aside, which in a garden is loaded + with its fruit, and with the soft rains of spring, so the youth drooped + his head on one side; burdened with the helmet."</p> + + <p>And now you shall compare the translations of this passage, with its + context, by Chapman and Pope—(or the school of Pope), the one being + by a man of pure English temper, and able therefore to understand pure + Greek temper; the other infected with all the faults of the falsely + classical school of the Renaissance.</p> + + <p>First I take Chapman:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"His shaft smit fair Gorgythion of Priam's princely race</p> + <p>Who in Ĉpina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace,</p> +<!-- Page 100 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"></a>[100]</span> + <p>By Castianeira, that for form was like celestial breed.</p> + <p>And as a crimson poppy-flower, surcharged with his seed,</p> + <p>And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow,</p> + <p>So, a-oneside, his helmet's weight his fainting head did bow."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Next, Pope:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"He missed the mark; but pierced Gorgythio's heart,</p> + <p>And drenched in royal blood the thirsty dart:</p> + <p>(Fair Castianeira, nymph of form divine,</p> + <p>This offspring added to King Priam's line).</p> + <p>As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain,</p> + <p>Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain,</p> + <p>So sinks the youth: his beauteous head, depressed</p> + <p>Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>13. I give you the two passages in full, trusting that you may so feel + the becomingness of the one, and the gracelessness of the other. But note + farther, in the Homeric passage, one subtlety which cannot enough be + marked even in Chapman's English, that his second word, <span + title="êmuse" class="grk">ἤμυσε</span>, + is employed by him both of the stooping of ears of corn, under wind, and + of Troy stooping to its ruin;<a name="NtA_30" + href="#Nt_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> and otherwise, in good Greek writers, + the word is marked as having such specific sense of men's drooping under + weight; or towards death, under the burden of fortune which they have no + more strength to sustain;<a name="NtA_31" + href="#Nt_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> compare the passage <!-- Page 101 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page101"></a>[101]</span> I quoted from + Plato, ('Crown of Wild Olive,' p. 95): "And bore lightly the burden of + gold and of possessions." <!-- Page 102 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page102"></a>[102]</span> And thus you will begin to understand how + the poppy became in the heathen mind the type at once of power, or pride, + and of its loss; and therefore, both why Virgil represents the white + nymph Nais, "pallentes violas, et summa papavera + carpens,"—gathering the pale flags, and the highest + poppies,—and the reason for the choice of this rather than any + other flower, in the story of Tarquin's message to his son.</p> + + <p>14. But you are next to remember the word Rhoeas in another sense. + Whether originally intended or afterwards caught at, the resemblance of + the word to 'Rhoea,' a pomegranate, mentally connects itself with the + resemblance of the poppy head to the pomegranate fruit.</p> + + <p>And if I allow this flower to be the first we take up for careful + study in Proserpina, on account of its simplicity of form and splendour + of colour, I wish you also to remember, in connection with it, the cause + of Proserpine's eternal captivity—her having tasted a pomegranate + seed,—the pomegranate being in Greek mythology what the apple is in + the Mosaic legend; and, in the whole <!-- Page 103 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page103"></a>[103]</span> worship of Demeter, + associated with the poppy by a multitude of ideas which are not + definitely expressed, but can only be gathered out of Greek art and + literature, as we learn their symbolism. The chief character on which + these thoughts are founded is the fulness of seed in the poppy and + pomegranate, as an image of life: then the forms of both became adopted + for beads or bosses in ornamental art; the pomegranate remains more + distinctly a Jewish and Christian type, from its use in the border of + Aaron's robe, down to the fruit in the hand of Angelico's and + Botticelli's Infant Christs; while the poppy is gradually confused by the + Byzantine Greeks with grapes; and both of these with palm fruit. The + palm, in the shorthand of their art, gradually becomes a symmetrical + branched ornament with two pendent bosses; this is again confused with + the Greek iris, (Homer's blue iris, and Pindar's water-flag,)—and + the Florentines, in adopting Byzantine ornament, read it into their own + Fleur-de-lys; but insert two poppyheads on each side of the entire foil, + in their finest heraldry.</p> + + <p>15. Meantime the definitely intended poppy, in late Christian Greek + art of the twelfth century, modifies the form of the Acanthus leaf with + its own, until the northern twelfth century workman takes the + thistle-head for the poppy, and the thistle-leaf for acanthus. The true + poppy-head remains in the south, but gets more and more confused with + grapes, till the Renaissance carvers are content with any kind of boss + full of seed, but insist on such boss <!-- Page 104 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page104"></a>[104]</span> or bursting globe as + some essential part of their ornament;—the bean-pod for the same + reason (not without Pythagorean notions, and some of republican election) + is used by Brunelleschi for main decoration of the lantern of Florence + duomo; and, finally, the ornamentation gets so shapeless, that M. + Violet-le-Duc, in his 'Dictionary of Ornament,' loses trace of its origin + altogether, and fancies the later forms were derived from the spadix of + the arum.</p> + + <p>16. I have no time to enter into farther details; but through all this + vast range of art, note this singular fact, that the wheat-ear, the vine, + the fleur-de-lys, the poppy, and the jagged leaf of the acanthus-weed, or + thistle, occupy the entire thoughts of the decorative workmen trained in + classic schools, to the exclusion of the rose, true lily, and the other + flowers of luxury. And that the deeply underlying reason of this is in + the relation of weeds to corn, or of the adverse powers of nature to the + beneficent ones, expressed for us readers of the Jewish scriptures, + centrally in the verse, "thorns also, and thistles, shall it bring forth + to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" (<span title="chortos" class="grk" + >χορτος</span>, grass or corn), and + exquisitely symbolized throughout the fields of Europe by the presence of + the purple 'corn-flag,' or gladiolus, and 'corn-rose' (Gerarde's name for + Papaver Rhoeas), in the midst of carelessly tended corn; and in the + traditions of the art of Europe by the springing of the acanthus round + the basket of the canephora, strictly the basket <i>for bread</i>, the + idea of bread <!-- Page 105 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page105"></a>[105]</span> including all sacred things carried at + the feasts of Demeter, Bacchus, and the Queen of the Air. And this + springing of the thorny weeds round the basket of reed, distinctly taken + up by the Byzantine Italians in the basketwork capital of the twelfth + century, (which I have already illustrated at length in the 'Stones of + Venice,') becomes the germ of all capitals whatsoever, in the great + schools of Gothic, to the end of Gothic time, and also of all the + capitals of the pure and noble Renaissance architecture of Angelico and + Perugino, and all that was learned from them in the north, while the + introduction of the rose, as a primal element of decoration, only takes + place when the luxury of English decorated Gothic, the result of that + licentious spirit in the lords which brought on the Wars of the Roses, + indicates the approach of destruction to the feudal, artistic, and moral + power of the northern nations.</p> + + <p>For which reason, and many others, I must yet delay the following out + of our main subject, till I have answered the other question, which + brought me to pause in the middle of this chapter, namely, 'What is a + weed?'</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 106 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"></a>[106]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE PARABLE OF JOASH.</p> + + <p>1. Some ten or twelve years ago, I bought—three times twelve are + thirty-six—of a delightful little book by Mrs. Gatty, called 'Aunt + Judy's Tales'—whereof to make presents to my little lady friends. I + had, at that happy time, perhaps from four-and-twenty to + six-and-thirty—I forget exactly how many—very particular + little lady friends; and greatly wished Aunt Judy to be the + thirty-seventh,—the kindest, wittiest, prettiest girl one had ever + read of, at least in so entirely proper and orthodox literature.</p> + + <p>2. Not but that it is a suspicious sign of infirmity of faith in our + modern moralists to make their exemplary young people always pretty; and + dress them always in the height of the fashion. One may read Miss + Edgeworth's 'Harry and Lucy,' 'Frank and Mary,' 'Fashionable Tales,' or + 'Parents' Assistant,' through, from end to end, with extremest care; and + never find out whether Lucy was tall or short, nor whether Mary was dark + or fair, nor how Miss Annaly was dressed, nor—which was my own + chief point of interest—what was the colour of <!-- Page 107 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"></a>[107]</span> Rosamond's + eyes. Whereas Aunt Judy, in charming position after position, is shown to + have expressed all her pure evangelical principles with the prettiest of + lips; and to have had her gown, though puritanically plain, made by one + of the best modistes in London.</p> + + <p>3. Nevertheless, the book is wholesome and useful; and the nicest + story in it, as far as I recollect, is an inquiry into the subject which + is our present business, 'What is a weed?'—in which, by many + pleasant devices, Aunt Judy leads her little brothers and sisters to + discern that a weed is 'a plant in the wrong place.'</p> + + <p>'Vegetable' in the wrong place, by the way, I think Aunt Judy says, + being a precisely scientific little aunt. But I can't keep it out of my + own less scientific head that 'vegetable' means only something going to + be boiled. I like 'plant' better for general sense, besides that it's + shorter.</p> + + <p>Whatever we call them, Aunt Judy is perfectly right about them as far + as she has gone; but, as happens often even to the best of evangelical + instructresses, she has stopped just short of the gist of the whole + matter. It is entirely true that a weed is a plant that has got into a + wrong place; but it never seems to have occurred to Aunt Judy that some + plants never <i>do</i>!</p> + + <p>Who ever saw a wood anemone or a heath blossom in the wrong place? Who + ever saw nettle or hemlock in a right one? And yet, the difference + between flower and weed, (I use, for convenience sake, these words in + their <!-- Page 108 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page108"></a>[108]</span> familiar opposition,) certainly does not + consist merely in the flowers being innocent, and the weed stinging and + venomous. We do not call the nightshade a weed in our hedges, nor the + scarlet agaric in our woods. But we do the corncockle in our fields.</p> + + <p>4. Had the thoughtful little tutoress gone but one thought farther, + and instead of "a vegetable in a wrong place," (which it may happen to + the innocentest vegetable sometimes to be, without turning into a weed, + therefore,) said, "A vegetable which has an innate disposition to + <i>get</i> into the wrong place," she would have greatly furthered the + matter for us; but then she perhaps would have felt herself to be + uncharitably dividing with vegetables her own little evangelical property + of original sin.</p> + + <p>5. This, you will find, nevertheless, to be the very essence of weed + character—in plants, as in men. If you glance through your + botanical books, you will see often added certain names—'a + troublesome weed.' It is not its being venomous, or ugly, but its being + impertinent—thrusting itself where it has no business, and hinders + other people's business—that makes a weed of it. The most accursed + of all vegetables, the one that has destroyed for the present even the + possibility of European civilization, is only called a weed in the slang + of its votaries;<a name="NtA_32" href="#Nt_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> but in + the finest and truest English we call so the plant which <!-- Page 109 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page109"></a>[109]</span> has come to + us by chance from the same country, the type of mere senseless prolific + activity, the American water-plant, choking our streams till the very + fish that leap out of them cannot fall back, but die on the clogged + surface; and indeed, for this unrestrainable, unconquerable insolence of + uselessness, what name can be enough dishonourable?</p> + + <p>6. I pass to vegetation of nobler rank.</p> + + <p>You remember, I was obliged in the last chapter to leave my poppy, for + the present, without an English specific name, because I don't like + Gerarde's 'Corn-rose,' and can't yet think of another. Nevertheless, I + would have used Gerarde's name, if the corn-rose were as much a rose as + the corn-flag is a flag. But it isn't. The rose and lily have quite + different relations to the corn. The lily is grass in loveliness, as the + corn is grass in use; and both grow together in peace—gladiolus in + the wheat, and narcissus in the pasture. But the rose is of another and + higher order than the corn, and you never saw a cornfield overrun with + sweetbriar or apple-blossom.</p> + + <p>They have no mind, they, to get into the wrong place.</p> + + <p>What is it, then, this temper in some plants—malicious as it + seems—intrusive, at all events, or erring,—which brings them + out of their places—thrusts them where they thwart us and + offend?</p> + + <p>7. Primarily, it is mere hardihood and coarseness of make. A plant + that can live anywhere, will often live where it is not wanted. But the + delicate and tender ones <!-- Page 110 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page110"></a>[110]</span> keep at home. You have no trouble in + 'keeping down' the spring gentian. It rejoices in its own Alpine home, + and makes the earth as like heaven as it can, but yields as softly as the + air, if you want it to give place. Here in England, it will only grow on + the loneliest moors, above the high force of Tees; its Latin name, for + <i>us</i> (I may as well tell you at once) is to be 'Lucia verna;' and + its English one, Lucy of Teesdale.</p> + + <p>8. But a plant may be hardy, and coarse of make, and able to live + anywhere, and yet be no weed. The coltsfoot, so far as I know, is the + first of large-leaved plants to grow afresh on ground that has been + disturbed: fall of Alpine débris, ruin of railroad embankment, waste of + drifted slime by flood, it seeks to heal and redeem; but it does not + offend us in our gardens, nor impoverish us in our fields.</p> + + <p>Nevertheless, mere coarseness of structure, indiscriminate hardihood, + is at least a point of some unworthiness in a plant. That it should have + no choice of home, no love of native land, is ungentle; much more if such + discrimination as it has, be immodest, and incline it, seemingly, to open + and much-traversed places, where it may be continually seen of strangers. + The tormentilla gleams in showers along the mountain turf; her delicate + crosslets are separate, though constellate, as the rubied daisy. But the + king-cup—(blessing be upon it always no less)—crowds itself + sometimes into too burnished flame of inevitable gold. I don't know if + there was anything in the <!-- Page 111 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page111"></a>[111]</span> darkness of this last spring to make it + brighter in resistance; but I never saw any spaces of full warm yellow, + in natural colour, so intense as the meadows between Reading and the + Thames; nor did I know perfectly what purple and gold meant, till I saw a + field of park land embroidered a foot deep with king-cup and + clover—while I was correcting my last notes on the spring colours + of the Royal Academy—at Aylesbury.</p> + + <p>9. And there are two other questions of extreme subtlety connected + with this main one. What shall we say of the plants whose entire destiny + is parasitic—which are not only sometimes, and + <i>im</i>pertinently, but always, and pertinently, out of place; not only + out of the right place, but out of any place of their own? When is + mistletoe, for instance, in the right place, young ladies, think you? On + an apple tree, or on a ceiling? When is ivy in the right + place?—when wallflower? The ivy has been torn down from the towers + of Kenilworth; the weeds from the arches of the Coliseum, and from the + steps of the Araceli, irreverently, vilely, and in vain; but how are we + to separate the creatures whose office it is to abate the grief of ruin + by their gentleness,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i8hg3">"wafting wallflower scents</p> + <p>From out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride,</p> + <p>And chambers of transgression, now forlorn,"</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>from those which truly resist the toil of men, and conspire against + their fame; which are cunning to consume, and <!-- Page 112 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page112"></a>[112]</span> prolific to encumber; + and of whose perverse and unwelcome sowing we know, and can say + assuredly, "An enemy hath done this."</p> + + <p>10. Again. The character of strength which gives prevalence over + others to any common plant, is more or less consistently dependent on + woody fibre in the leaves; giving them strong ribs and great expanding + extent; or spinous edges, and wrinkled or gathered extent.</p> + + <p>Get clearly into your mind the nature of those two conditions. When a + leaf is to be spread wide, like the Burdock, it is supported by a + framework of extending ribs like a Gothic roof. The supporting function + of these is geometrical; every one is constructed like the girders of a + bridge, or beams of a floor, with all manner of science in the + distribution of their substance in the section, for narrow and deep + strength; and the shafts are mostly hollow. But when the extending space + of a leaf is to be enriched with fulness of folds, and become beautiful + in wrinkles, this may be done either by pure undulation as of a liquid + current along the leaf edge, or by sharp 'drawing'—or 'gathering' I + believe ladies would call it—and stitching of the edges together. + And this stitching together, if to be done very strongly, is done round a + bit of stick, as a sail is reefed round a mast; and this bit of stick + needs to be compactly, not geometrically strong; its function is + essentially that of starch,—not to hold the leaf up off the ground + against gravity; but to stick the edges out, stiffly, in a crimped frill. + And in beautiful work of <!-- Page 113 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page113"></a>[113]</span> this kind, which we are meant to study, + the stays of the leaf—or stay-bones—are finished off very + sharply and exquisitely at the points; and indeed so much so, that they + prick our fingers when we touch them; for they are not at all meant to be + touched, but admired.</p> + + <p>11. To be admired,—with qualification, indeed, always, but with + extreme respect for their endurance and orderliness. Among flowers that + pass away, and leaves that shake as with ague, or shrink like bad + cloth,—these, in their sturdy growth and enduring life, we are + bound to honour; and, under the green holly, remember how much softer + friendship was failing, and how much of other loving, folly. And + yet—you are not to confuse the thistle with the cedar that is in + Lebanon; nor to forget—if the spinous nature of it become too cruel + to provoke and offend—the parable of Joash to Amaziah, and its + fulfilment: "There passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode + down the thistle."</p> + + <p>12. Then, lastly, if this rudeness and insensitiveness of nature be + gifted with no redeeming beauty; if the boss of the thistle lose its + purple, and the star of the Lion's tooth, its light; and, much more, if + service be perverted as beauty is lost, and the honied tube, and + medicinal leaf, change into mere swollen emptiness, and salt brown + membrane, swayed in nerveless languor by the idle sea,—at last the + separation between the two natures is as great as between the fruitful + earth and fruitless ocean; and between the living hands that tend the + Garden of Herbs where <!-- Page 114 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page114"></a>[114]</span> Love is, and those unclasped, that toss + with tangle and with shells.</p> + +<hr class="short" > + + <p>13. I had a long bit in my head, that I wanted to write, about St. + George of the Seaweed, but I've no time to do it; and those few words of + Tennyson's are enough, if one thinks of them: only I see, in correcting + press, that I've partly misapplied the idea of 'gathering' in the leaf + edge. It would be more accurate to say it was gathered at the central + rib; but there is nothing in needlework that will represent the actual + excess by lateral growth at the edge, giving three or four inches of edge + for one of centre. But the stiffening of the fold by the thorn which + holds it out is very like the action of a ship's spars on its sails; and + absolutely in many cases like that of the spines in a fish's fin, passing + into the various conditions of serpentine and dracontic crest, connected + with all the terrors and adversities of nature; not to be dealt with in a + chapter on weeds.</p> + + <p>14. Here is a sketch of a crested leaf of less adverse temper, which + may as well be given, together with Plate III., in this number, these two + engravings being meant for examples of two different methods of drawing, + both useful according to character of subject. Plate III. is sketched + first with a finely-pointed pen, and common ink, on white paper; then + washed rapidly with colour, and retouched with the pen to give sharpness + and completion. <!-- Page 115 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page115"></a>[115]</span> This method is used because the thistle + leaves are full of complex and sharp sinuosities, and set with intensely + sharp spines passing into hairs, which require many kinds of execution + with the fine point to imitate at all. In the drawing there was more look + of the bloom or woolliness on the stems, but it was useless to try for + this in the mezzotint, and I desired Mr. Allen to leave his work at the + stage where it expressed as much form as I wanted. The leaves are of the + common marsh thistle, of which more anon; and the two long lateral ones + are only two different views of the same leaf, while the central figure + is a young leaf just opening. It beat me, in its delicate bossing, and I + had to leave it, discontentedly enough.</p> + + <p>Plate IV. is much better work, being of an easier subject, adequately + enough rendered by perfectly simple means. Here I had only a succulent + and membranous surface to represent, with definite outlines, and merely + undulating folds; and this is sufficiently done by a careful and firm pen + outline on grey paper, with a slight wash of colour afterwards, + reinforced in the darks; then marking the lights with white. This method + is classic and authoritative, being used by many of the greatest masters, + (by Holbein continually;) and it is much the best which the general + student can adopt for expression of the action and muscular power of + plants.</p> + + <p>The goodness or badness of such work depends absolutely on the truth + of the single line. You will find a thousand botanical drawings which + will give you a <!-- Page 116 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page116"></a>[116]</span> delicate and deceptive resemblance of the + leaf, for one that will give you the right convexity in its backbone, the + right perspective of its peaks when they foreshorten, or the right + relation of depth in the shading of its dimples. On which, in leaves as + in faces, no little expression of temper depends.</p> + + <p>Meantime we have yet to consider somewhat more touching that temper + itself, in next chapter.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 117 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page117"></a>[117]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM.</p> + + <p>1. I do not know if my readers were checked, as I wished them to be, + at least for a moment, in the close of the last chapter, by my talking of + thistles and dandelions changing into seaweed, by gradation of which, + doubtless, Mr. Darwin can furnish us with specious and sufficient + instances. But the two groups will not be contemplated in our Oxford + system as in any parental relations whatsoever.</p> + + <p>We shall, however, find some very notable relations existing between + the two groups of the wild flowers of dry land, which represent, in the + widest extent, and the distinctest opposition, the two characters of + material serviceableness and unserviceableness; the groups which in our + English classification will be easily remembered as those of the Thyme, + and the Daisy.</p> + + <p>The one, scented as with incense—medicinal—and in all + gentle and humble ways, useful. The other, scentless—helpless for + ministry to the body; infinitely dear as the bringer of light, ruby, + white and gold; the three colours of the Day, with no hue of shade in it. + Therefore I <!-- Page 118 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page118"></a>[118]</span> take it on the coins of St. George for + the symbol of the splendour or light of heaven, which is dearest where + humblest.</p> + + <p>2. Now these great two orders—of which the types are the thyme + and the daisy—you are to remember generally as the 'Herbs' and the + 'Sunflowers.' You are not to call them Lipped flowers, nor Composed + flowers; because the first is a vulgar term; for when you once come to be + able to draw a lip, or, in noble duty, to kiss one, you will know that no + other flower in earth is like that: and the second is an indefinite term; + for a foxglove is as much a 'composed' flower as a daisy; but it is + composed in the shape of a spire, instead of the shape of the sun. And + again a thistle, which common botany calls a composed flower, as well as + a daisy, is composed in quite another shape, being on the whole, bossy + instead of flat; and of another temper, or composition of mind, also, + being connected in that respect with butterburs, and a vast company of + rough, knotty, half-black or brown, and generally + unluminous—flowers I can scarcely call them—and weeds I will + not,—creatures, at all events, in nowise to be gathered under the + general name 'Composed,' with the stars that crown Chaucer's Alcestis, + when she returns to the day from the dead.</p> + + <p>But the wilder and stronger blossoms of the Hawk's-eye—again you + see I refuse for them the word weed;—and the waste-loving Chicory, + which the Venetians call "Sponsa solis," are all to be held in one class + with the <!-- Page 119 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page119"></a>[119]</span> Sunflowers; but dedicate,—the daisy + to Alcestis alone; others to Clytia, or the Physician Apollo himself: but + I can't follow their mythology yet awhile.</p> + + <p>3. Now in these two families you have typically Use opposed to Beauty + in <i>wildness</i>; it is their wildness which is their + virtue;—that the thyme is sweet where it is unthought of, and the + daisies red, where the foot despises them: while, in other orders, + wildness is their crime,—"Wherefore, when I looked that it should + bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" But in all of them you + must distinguish between the pure wildness of flowers and their distress. + It may not be our duty to tame them; but it must be, to relieve.</p> + + <p>4. It chanced, as I was arranging the course of these two chapters, + that I had examples given me of distressed and happy wildness, in + immediate contrast. The first, I grieve to say, was in a bit of my own + brushwood, left uncared-for evidently many a year before it became mine. + I had to cut my way into it through a mass of thorny ruin; black, + birds-nest like, entanglement of brittle spray round twisted stems of + ill-grown birches strangling each other, and changing half into roots + among the rock clefts; knotted stumps of never-blossoming blackthorn, and + choked stragglings of holly, all laced and twisted and tethered round + with an untouchable, almost unhewable, thatch, a foot thick, of dead + bramble and rose, laid over rotten ground through which the water soaked + ceaselessly, undermining it into merely unctuous <!-- Page 120 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page120"></a>[120]</span> clods and clots, + knitted together by mossy sponge. It was all Nature's free doing! she had + had her way with it to the uttermost; and clearly needed human help and + interference in her business; and yet there was not one plant in the + whole ruinous and deathful riot of the place, whose nature was not in + itself wholesome and lovely; but all lost for want of discipline.</p> + + <p>5. The other piece of wild growth was among the fallen blocks of + limestone under Malham Cove. Sheltered by the cliff above from stress of + wind, the ash and hazel wood spring there in a fair and perfect freedom, + without a diseased bough, or an unwholesome shade. I do not know why mine + is all encumbered with overgrowth, and this so lovely that scarce a + branch could be gathered but with injury;—while underneath, the + oxalis, and the two smallest geraniums (Lucidum and Herb-Robert) and the + mossy saxifrage, and the cross-leaved bed-straw, and the white pansy, + wrought themselves into wreaths among the fallen crags, in which every + leaf rejoiced, and was at rest.</p> + + <p>6. Now between these two states of equally natural growth, the point + of difference that forced itself on me (and practically enough, in the + work I had in my own wood), was not so much the withering and waste of + the one, and the life of the other, as the thorniness and cruelty of the + one, and the softness of the other. In Malham Cove, the stones of the + brook were softer with moss than any silken pillow—the crowded + oxalis leaves yielded to the pressure of the hand, and were not + felt—the cloven <!-- Page 121 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page121"></a>[121]</span> leaves of the Herb-Robert and orbed + clusters of its companion overflowed every rent in the rude crags with + living balm; there was scarcely a place left by the tenderness of the + happy things, where one might not lay down one's forehead on their warm + softness, and sleep. But in the waste and distressed ground, the distress + had changed itself to cruelty. The leaves had all perished, and the + bending saplings, and the wood of trust;—but the thorns were there, + immortal, and the gnarled and sapless roots, and the dusty treacheries of + decay.</p> + + <p>7. Of which things you will find it good to consider also otherwise + than botanically. For all these lower organisms suffer and perish, or are + gladdened and flourish, under conditions which are in utter precision + symbolical, and in utter fidelity representative, of the conditions which + induce adversity and prosperity in the kingdoms of men: and the Eternal + Demeter,—Mother, and Judge,—brings forth, as the herb + yielding seed, so also the thorn and the thistle, not to herself, but + <i>to thee</i>.</p> + + <p>8. You have read the words of the great Law often enough;—have + you ever thought enough of them to know the difference between these two + appointed means of Distress? The first, the Thorn, is the type of + distress <i>caused by crime</i>, changing the soft and breathing leaf + into inflexible and wounding stubbornness. The second is the distress + appointed to be the means and herald of good,—Thou shalt see the + stubborn thistle bursting, into glossy purple, which outredden, all + voluptuous garden roses. <!-- Page 122 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page122"></a>[122]</span></p> + + <p>9. It is strange that, after much hunting, I cannot find authentic + note of the day when Scotland took the thistle for her emblem; and I have + no space (in this chapter at least) for tradition; but, with whatever + lightness of construing we may receive the symbol, it is actually the + truest that could have been found, for some conditions of the Scottish + mind. There is no flower which the Proserpina of our Northern Sicily + cherishes more dearly: and scarcely any of us recognize enough the + beautiful power of its close-set stars, and rooted radiance of ground + leaves; yet the stubbornness and ungraceful rectitude of its stem, and + the besetting of its wholesome substance with that fringe of offence, and + the forwardness of it, and dominance,—I fear to lacess some of my + dearest friends if I went on:—let them rather, with Bailie Jarvie's + true conscience,<a name="NtA_33" href="#Nt_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> take + their Scott from the inner shelf in their heart's library which all true + Scotsmen give him, and trace, with the swift reading of memory, the + characters of Fergus M'Ivor, Hector M'Intyre, Mause Headrigg, Alison + Wilson, Richie <!-- Page 123 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page123"></a>[123]</span> Moniplies, and Andrew Fairservice; and + then say, if the faults of all these, drawn as they are with a precision + of touch like a Corinthian sculptor's of the acanthus leaf, can be found + in anything like the same strength in other races, or if so stubbornly + folded and starched moni-plies of irritating kindliness, selfish + friendliness, lowly conceit, and intolerable fidelity, are native to any + other spot of the wild earth of the habitable globe.</p> + + <p>10. Will you note also—for this is of extreme + interest—that these essential faults are all mean + faults;—what we may call ground-growing faults; conditions of + semi-education, of hardly-treated homelife, or of coarsely-minded and + wandering prosperity. How literally may we go back from the living soul + symbolized, to the strangely accurate earthly symbol, in the prickly + weed. For if, with its bravery of endurance, and carelessness in choice + of home, we find also definite faculty and habit of migration, volant + mechanism for choiceless journey, not divinely directed in pilgrimage to + known shrines; but carried at the wind's will by a Spirit which listeth + <i>not</i>—it will go hard but that the plant shall become, if not + dreaded, at least despised; and, in its wandering and reckless splendour, + disgrace the garden of the sluggard, and possess the inheritance of the + prodigal: until even its own nature seems contrary to good, and the + invocation of the just man be made to it as the executor of Judgment, + "Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley."</p> + + <p>11. Yet to be despised—either for men or flowers—may <!-- + Page 124 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page124"></a>[124]</span> be + no ill-fortune; the real ill-fortune is only to be despicable. These + faults of human character, wherever found, observe, belong to it as + ill-trained—incomplete; confirm themselves only in the vulgar. + There is no base pertinacity, no overweening conceit, in the Black + Douglas, or Claverhouse, or Montrose; in these we find the pure Scottish + temper, of heroic endurance and royal pride; but, when, in the pay, and + not deceived, but purchased, idolatry of Mammon, the Scottish persistence + and pride become knit and vested in the spleuchan, and your stiff + Covenanter makes his covenant with Death, and your Old Mortality + deciphers only the senseless legends of the eternal gravestone,—you + get your weed, earth-grown, in bitter verity, and earth-devastating, in + bitter strength.</p> + + <p>12. I have told you, elsewhere, we are always first to study national + character in the highest and purest examples. But if our knowledge is to + be complete, we have to study also the special diseases of national + character. And in exact opposition to the most solemn virtue of Scotland, + the domestic truth and tenderness breathed in all Scottish song, you have + this special disease and mortal cancer, this woody-fibriness, literally, + of temper and thought: the consummation of which into pure lignite, or + rather black Devil's charcoal—the sap of the birks of Aberfeldy + become cinder, and the blessed juices of them, deadly gas,—you may + know in its pure blackness best in the work of the greatest of these + ground-growing Scotchmen, Adam Smith. <!-- Page 125 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page125"></a>[125]</span></p> + + <p>13. No man of like capacity, I believe, born of any other nation, + could have deliberately, and with no momentary shadow of suspicion or + question, formalized the spinous and monstrous fallacy that human + commerce and policy are <i>naturally</i> founded on the desire of every + man to possess his neighbour's goods.</p> + + <p><i>This</i> is the 'release unto us Barabbas,' with a witness; and the + deliberate systematization of that cry, and choice, for perpetual + repetition and fulfilment in Christian statesmanship, has been, with the + strange precision of natural symbolism and retribution, signed, (as of + old, by strewing of ashes on Kidron,) by strewing of ashes on the brooks + of Scotland; waters once of life, health, music, and divine tradition; + but to whose festering scum you may now set fire with a candle; and of + which, round the once excelling palace of Scotland, modern sanitary + science is now helplessly contending with the poisonous exhalations.</p> + + <p>14. I gave this chapter its heading, because I had it in my mind to + work out the meaning of the fable in the ninth chapter of Judges, from + what I had seen on that thorny ground of mine, where the bramble was king + over all the trees of the wood. But the thoughts are gone from me now; + and as I re-read the chapter of Judges,—now, except in my memory, + unread, as it chances, for many a year,—the sadness of that story + of Gideon fastens on me, and silences me. <i>This</i> the end of his + angel visions, and dream-led victories, the slaughter of all his <!-- + Page 126 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page126"></a>[126]</span> sons + but this youngest,<a name="NtA_34" + href="#Nt_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a>—and he never again heard of in + Israel!</p> + + <p>You Scottish children of the Rock, taught through all your once + pastoral and noble lives by many a sweet miracle of dew on fleece and + ground,—once servants of mighty kings, and keepers of sacred + covenant; have you indeed dealt truly with your warrior kings, and + prophet saints, or are these ruins of their homes, and shrines, dark with + the fire that fell from the curse of Jerubbael?</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 127 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page127"></a>[127]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE STEM.</p> + + <p>1. As I read over again, with a fresh mind, the last chapter, I am + struck by the opposition of states which seem best to fit a weed for a + weed's work,—stubbornness, namely, and flaccidity. On the one hand, + a sternness and a coarseness of structure which changes its stem into a + stake, and its leaf into a spine; on the other, an utter flaccidity and + ventosity of structure, which changes its stem into a riband, and its + leaf into a bubble. And before we go farther—for we are not yet at + the end of our study of these obnoxious things—we had better + complete an examination of the parts of a plant in general, by + ascertaining what a Stem proper is; and what makes it stiffer, or + hollower, than we like it;—how, to wit, the gracious and generous + strength of ash differs from the spinous obstinacy of + blackthorn,—and how the geometric and enduring hollowness of a + stalk of wheat differs from the soft fulness of that of a mushroom. To + which end, I will take up a piece of study, not of black, but white, + thorn, written last spring. <!-- Page 128 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page128"></a>[128]</span></p> + + <p>2. I suppose there is no question but that all nice people like + hawthorn blossom.</p> + + <p>I want, if I can, to find out to-day, 25th May, 1875, what it is we + like it so much for: holding these two branches of it in my + hand—one full out, the other in youth. This full one is a mere mass + of symmetrically balanced—snow, one was going vaguely to write, in + the first impulse. But it is nothing of the sort. White,—yes, in a + high degree; and pure, totally; but not at all dazzling in the white, nor + pure in an insultingly rivalless manner, as snow would be; yet pure + somehow, certainly; and white, absolutely, in spite of what might be + thought failure,—imperfection—nay, even distress and loss in + it. For every little rose of it has a green darkness in the + centre—not even a pretty green, but a faded, yellowish, glutinous, + unaccomplished green; and round that, all over the surface of the + blossom, whose shell-like petals are themselves deep sunk, with grey + shadows in the hollows of them—all above this already subdued + brightness, are strewn the dark points of the dead stamens—manifest + more and more, the longer one looks, as a kind of grey sand, sprinkled + without sparing over what looked at first unspotted light. And in all the + ways of it the lovely thing is more like the spring frock of some prudent + little maid of fourteen, than a flower;—frock with some little + spotty pattern on it to keep it from showing an unintended and + inadvertent spot,—if Fate should ever inflict such a thing! + Undeveloped, thinks Mr. Darwin,—the poor <!-- Page 129 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page129"></a>[129]</span> short-coming, + ill-blanched thorn blossom—going to be a Rose, some day soon; and, + what next?—who knows?—perhaps a Pĉony!</p> + + <p>3. Then this next branch, in dawn and delight of youth, set with + opening clusters of yet numerable blossom, four, and five, and seven, + edged, and islanded, and ended, by the sharp leaves of freshest green, + deepened under the flowers, and studded round with bosses, better than + pearl beads of St. Agnes' rosary,—folded, over and over, with the + edges of their little leaves pouting, as the very softest waves do on + flat sand where one meets another; then opening just enough to show the + violet colour within—which yet isn't violet colour, nor even "meno + che le rose," but a different colour from every other lilac that one ever + saw;—faint and faded even before it sees light, as the filmy cup + opens over the depth of it, then broken into purple motes of tired bloom, + fading into darkness, as the cup extends into the perfect rose.</p> + + <p>This, with all its sweet change that one would so fain stay, and soft + effulgence of bud into softly falling flower, one has watched—how + often; but always with the feeling that the blossoms are thrown over the + green depth like white clouds—never with any idea of so much as + asking what holds the cloud there. Have each of the innumerable blossoms + a separate stalk? and, if so, how is it that one never thinks of the + stalk, as one does with currants?</p> + + <p>4. Turn the side of the branch to you;—Nature never meant you to + see it so; but now it is all stalk below, and <!-- Page 130 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page130"></a>[130]</span> stamens + above,—the petals nothing, the stalks all tiny trees, always + dividing their branches mainly into three—one in the centre short, + and the two lateral, long, with an intermediate extremely long one, if + needed, to fill a gap, so contriving that the flowers shall all be nearly + at the same level, or at least surface of ball, like a guelder rose. But + the cunning with which the tree conceals its structure till the blossom + is fallen, and then—for a little while, we had best look no more at + it, for it is all like grape-stalks with no grapes.</p> + + <p>These, whether carrying hawthorn blossom and haw, or grape blossom and + grape, or peach blossom and peach, you will simply call the 'stalk,' + whether of flower or fruit. A 'stalk' is essentially round, like a + pillar; and has, for the most part, the power of first developing, and + then shaking off, flower and fruit from its extremities. You can pull the + peach from its stalk, the cherry, the grape. Always at some time of its + existence, the flower-stalk lets fall something of what it sustained, + petal or seed.</p> + + <p>In late Latin it is called 'petiolus,' the little foot; because the + expanding piece that holds the grape, or olive, is a little like an + animal's foot. Modern botanists have misapplied the word to the + <i>leaf</i>-stalk, which has no resemblance to a foot at all. We must + keep the word to its proper meaning, and, when we want to write Latin, + call it 'petiolus;' when we want to write English, call it 'stalk,' + meaning always fruit or flower stalk. <!-- Page 131 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page131"></a>[131]</span></p> + + <p>I cannot find when the word 'stalk' first appears in + English:—its derivation will be given presently.</p> + + <p>5. Gather next a hawthorn leaf. That also has a stalk; but you can't + shake the leaf off it. It, and the leaf, are essentially one; for the + sustaining fibre runs up into every ripple or jag of the leaf's edge: and + its section is different from that of the flower-stalk; it is no more + round, but has an upper and under surface, quite different from each + other. It will be better, however, to take a larger leaf to examine this + structure in. Cabbage, cauliflower, or rhubarb, would any of them be + good, but don't grow wild in the luxuriance I want. So, if you please, we + will take a leaf of burdock, (Arctium Lappa,) the principal business of + that plant being clearly to grow leaves wherewith to adorn + fore-grounds.<a name="NtA_35" href="#Nt_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a></p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:25%;"> + <a href="images/fig13.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig13.png" + alt="Fig. 13. Burdock leaf" /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 13. + </div> + <p>6. The outline of it in Sowerby is not an intelligent one, and I have + not time to draw it but in the rudest way myself; Fig. 13, <i>a</i>; with + perspectives of the elementary form below, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, and + <i>d</i>. By help of which, if you will construct a burdock leaf in + paper, my rude outline (<i>a</i>) may tell the rest of what I want you to + see.</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:40%;"> + <a href="images/fig14.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig14.png" + alt="Fig. 14. Create a burdock leaf." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 14. + </div> + <p>Take a sheet of stout note paper, Fig. 14, A, double it sharply down + the centre, by the dotted line, then give it the two cuts at <i>a</i> and + <i>b</i>, and double those pieces sharply back, as at B; then, opening + them again, cut the whole <!-- Page 132 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page132"></a>[132]</span> into the form C; and then, pulling up the + corners <i>c d</i>, stitch them together with a loose thread so that the + points <i>c</i> and <i>d</i> shall be within half an inch of each other; + and you will have a kind of triangular scoop, or shovel, with a stem, by + which you can sufficiently hold it, D.</p> + + <p>7. And from this easily constructed and tenable model, you may learn + at once these following main facts about all leaves. <!-- Page 133 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page133"></a>[133]</span></p> + + <p>[I.] That they are not flat, but, however slightly, always hollowed + into craters, or raised into hills, in one or another direction; so that + any drawable outline of them does not in the least represent the real + extent of their surfaces; and until you know how to draw a cup, or a + mountain, rightly, you have no chance of drawing a leaf. My simple artist + readers of long ago, when I told them to draw leaves, thought they could + do them by the boughfull, whenever they liked. Alas, except by old + William Hunt, and Burne Jones, I've not seen a leaf painted, since those + burdocks of Turner's; far less sculptured—though one would think at + first that was easier! Of which we shall have talk elsewhere; here I must + go on to note fact number two, concerning leaves.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 134 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page134"></a>[134]</span></p> + + <p>8. [II.] The strength of their supporting stem consists not merely in + the gathering together of all the fibres, but in gathering them + essentially into the profile of the letter V, which you will see your + doubled paper stem has; and of which you can feel the strength and use, + in your hand, as you hold it. Gather a common plantain leaf, and look at + the way it puts its round ribs together at the base, and you will + understand the matter at once. The arrangement is modified and disguised + in every possible way, according to the leaf's need: in the aspen, the + leaf-stalk becomes an absolute vertical plank; and in the large trees is + often almost rounded into the likeness of a fruit-stalk;—but, in + all,<a name="NtA_36" href="#Nt_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> the essential + structure is this doubled one; and in all, it opens at the place where + the leaf joins the main stem, into a kind of cup, which holds next year's + bud in the hollow of it.</p> + + <p>9. Now there would be no inconvenience in your simply getting into the + habit of calling the round petiol of the fruit the 'stalk,' and the + contracted channel of the leaf, 'leaf-stalk.' But this way of naming them + would not enforce, nor fasten in your mind, the difference between the + two, so well as if you have an entirely different name for the + leaf-stalk. Which is the more desirable, because the limiting character + of the leaf, botanically, is—(I only learned this from my botanical + friend the other day, just <!-- Page 135 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page135"></a>[135]</span> in the very moment I wanted + it,)—that it holds the bud of the new stem in its own hollow, but + cannot itself grow in the hollow of anything else;—or, in botanical + language, leaves are never axillary,—don't grow in armpits, but are + themselves armpits; hollows, that is to say, where they spring from the + main stem.</p> + + <p>10. Now there is already a received and useful botanical word, 'cyme' + (which we shall want in a little while.) derived from the Greek <span + title="kuma" class="grk">κῦμα</span>, a swelling or + rising wave, and used to express a swelling cluster of foamy blossom. + Connected with that word, but in a sort the reverse of it, you have the + Greek '<span title="kumbê" class="grk" + >κύμβη</span>,' the <i>hollow</i> of a cup, or + bowl; whence <span title="kumbalou" class="grk" + >κύμβαλου</span>, a + cymbal,—that is to say, a musical instrument owing its tone to its + <i>hollowness</i>. These words become in Latin, cymba, and cymbalum; and + I think you will find it entirely convenient and advantageous to call the + leaf-stalk distinctively the 'cymba,' retaining the mingled idea of cup + and boat, with respect at least to the part of it that holds the bud; and + understanding that it gathers itself into a V-shaped, or even narrowly + vertical, section, as a boat narrows to its bow, for strength to sustain + the leaf.</p> + + <p>With this word you may learn the Virgilian line, that shows the final + use of iron—or iron-darkened—ships:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"Et ferrugíneâ subvectat corpora cymbâ."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>The "subvectat corpora" will serve to remind you of the office of the + leafy cymba in carrying the bud; and make <!-- Page 136 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page136"></a>[136]</span> you thankful that the + said leafy vase is not of iron; and is a ship of Life instead of + Death.</p> + + <p>11. Already, not once, nor twice, I have had to use the word 'stem,' + of the main round branch from which both stalk and cymba spring. This + word you had better keep for all growing, or advancing, shoots of trees, + whether from the ground, or from central trunks and branches. I regret + that the words multiply on us; but each that I permit myself to use has + its own proper thought or idea to express, as you will presently + perceive; so that true knowledge multiplies with true words.</p> + + <p>12. The 'stem,' you are to say, then, when you mean the + <i>advancing</i> shoot,—which lengthens annually, while a stalk + ends every year in a blossom, and a cymba in a leaf. A stem is + essentially round,<a name="NtA_37" href="#Nt_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> + square, or regularly polygonal; though, as a cymba may become + exceptionally round, a stem may become exceptionally flat, or even mimic + the shape of a leaf. Indeed I should have liked to write "a stem is + essentially round, and constructively, on occasion, square,"—but it + would have been too grand. The fact is, however, that a stem is really a + roundly minded thing, throwing off its branches in circles as a trundled + mop throws off drops, though it can always order the branches to fly off + in what order it likes,—two at a time, opposite to each other; or + three, or five, in a spiral coil; or one here and one there, on this side + and that; <!-- Page 137 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page137"></a>[137]</span> but it is always twisting, in its own + inner mind and force; hence it is especially proper to use the word + 'stem' of it—<span title="stemma" class="grk" + >στέμμα</span>, a twined wreath; properly, + twined round a staff, or sceptre: therefore, learn at once by heart these + lines in the opening Iliad:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i4hg3">"<span title="Stemmat' echôn en chersin hekêbolou Apollônos," class="grk">Στέμματ' ἔχων ἐν χερσὶν ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος,</span></p> + <p><span title="Chruseôi ana skêptrôi;" class="grk">Χρυςέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ·</span>"</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>And recollect that a sceptre is properly a staff to lean upon; and + that as a crown or diadem is first a binding thing, a 'sceptre' is first + a <i>supporting</i> thing, and it is in its nobleness, itself made of the + stem of a young tree. You may just as well learn also this:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"<span title="Nai ma tode skêptron, to men oupote phulla kai ozous" class="grk">Ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον, τὸ μὲν οὔποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄζους</span></p> + <p><span title="Phusei, epeidê prôta tomên en oressi leloipen," class="grk">Φύσει, ἐπειδὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν,</span></p> + <p><span title="Oud' anathêlêsei; peri gar rha he chalkos elepse" class="grk">Οὐδ' ἀναθηλήσει· περὶ γάρ ῥά ἑ χαλκὸς ἔλεψε</span></p> + <p><span title="Phulla te kai phloion; nun aute min huies Achaiôn" class="grk">Φύλλα τε καὶ φλοιόν· νῦν αὖτε μιν υἷες Ἀχαιῶν</span></p> + <p><span title="En palamêis phoreousi dikaspoloi, hoi te themistas" class="grk">Ἐν παλάμῃς φορέουσι δικασπόλοι, οἵ τε θέμιστας</span></p> + <p><span title="Pros Dios eiruatai;" class="grk">Πρὸς Διὸς εἰρύαται·</span>"</p> + </div> + </div> + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"Now, by this sacred sceptre hear me swear</p> + <p>Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,</p> + <p>Which, severed from the trunk, (as I from thee,)</p> + <p>On the bare mountains left its parent tree;</p> + <p>This sceptre, formed by tempered steel to prove</p> + <p>An ensign of the delegates of Jove,</p> + <p>From whom the power of laws and justice springs</p> + <p>(Tremendous oath, inviolate to Kings)."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>13. The supporting power in the tree itself is, I doubt not, greatly + increased by this spiral action; and the fine <!-- Page 138 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page138"></a>[138]</span> instinct of its being + so, caused the twisted pillar to be used in the Lombardic + Gothic,—at first, merely as a pleasant variety of form, but at last + constructively and universally, by Giotto, and all the architects of his + school. Not that the spiral form actually adds to the strength of a + Lombardic pillar, by imitating contortions of wood, any more than the + fluting of a Doric shaft adds to its strength by imitating the + canaliculation of a reed; but the perfect action of the imagination, + which had adopted the encircling acanthus for the capital, adopted the + twining stemma for the shaft; the pure delight of the eye being the first + condition in either case: and it is inconceivable how much of the + pleasure taken both in ornament and in natural form is founded + elementarily on groups of spiral line. The study in our fifth plate, of + the involucre of the waste-thistle,<a name="NtA_38" + href="#Nt_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> is as good an example as I can give of + the more subtle and concealed conditions of this structure.</p> + + <p>14. Returning to our present business of nomenclature, we find the + Greek word, 'stemma,' adopted by the Latins, <!-- Page 139 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page139"></a>[139]</span> becoming the + expression of a growing and hereditary race; and the branched tree, the + natural type, among all nations, of multiplied families. Hence the entire + fitness of the word for our present purposes; as signifying, "a spiral + shoot extending itself by branches." But since, unless it is spiral, it + is not a stem, and unless it has branches, it is not a stem, we shall + still want another word for the sustaining 'sceptre' of a foxglove, or + cowslip. Before determining that, however, we must see what need there + may be of one familiar to our ears until lately, although now, I + understand, falling into disuse.</p> + + <p>15. By our definition, a stem is a spirally bent, essentially living + and growing, shoot of vegetation. But the branch of a tree, in which many + such stems have their origin, is not, except in a very subtle and partial + way, spiral; nor, except in the shoots that spring from it, progressive + forwards; it only receives increase of thickness at its sides. Much more, + what used to be called the <i>trunk</i> of a tree, in which many branches + are united, has ceased to be, except in mere tendency and temper, spiral; + and has so far ceased from growing as to be often in a state of decay in + its interior, while the external layers are still in serviceable + strength.</p> + + <p>16. If, however, a trunk were only to be defined as an arrested stem, + or a cluster of arrested stems, we might perhaps refuse, in scientific + use, the popular word. But such a definition does not touch the main + idea. Branches usually begin to assert themselves at a height above the + <!-- Page 140 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page140"></a>[140]</span> + ground approximately fixed for each species of tree,—low in an oak, + high in a stone pine; but, in both, marked as a point of <i>structural + change in the direction of growing force</i>, like the spring of a vault + from a pillar; and as the tree grows old, some of its branches getting + torn away by winds or falling under the weight of their own fruit, or + load of snow, or by natural decay, there remains literally a 'truncated' + mass of timber, still bearing irregular branches here and there, but + inevitably suggestive of resemblance to a human body, after the loss of + some of its limbs.</p> + + <p>And to prepare trees for their practical service, what age and storm + only do partially, the first rough process of human art does completely. + The branches are lopped away, leaving literally the 'truncus' as the part + of the tree out of which log and rafter can be cut. And in many trees, it + would appear to be the chief end of their being to produce this part of + their body on a grand scale, and of noble substance; so that, while in + thinking of vegetable life without reference to its use to men or + animals, we should rightly say that the essence of it was in leaf and + flower—not in trunk or fruit; yet for the sake of animals, we find + that some plants, like the vine, are apparently meant chiefly to produce + fruit; others, like laurels, chiefly to produce leaves; others chiefly to + produce flowers; and others to produce permanently serviceable and + sculptural wood; or, in some cases, merely picturesque and monumental + masses of vegetable rock, "intertwisted <!-- Page 141 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page141"></a>[141]</span> fibres + serpentine,"—of far nobler and more pathetic use in their places, + and their enduring age, than ever they could be for material purpose in + human habitation. For this central mass of the vegetable organism, then, + the English word 'trunk' and French 'tronc' are always in accurate + scholarship to be retained—meaning the part of a tree which remains + when its branches are lopped away.</p> + + <p>17. We have now got distinct ideas of four different kinds of stem, + and simple names for them in Latin and English,—Petiolus, Cymba, + Stemma, and Truncus; Stalk, Leaf-stalk, Stem, and Trunk; and these are + all that we shall commonly need. There is, however, one more that will be + sometimes necessary, though it is ugly and difficult to pronounce, and + must be as little used as we can.</p> + + <p>And here I must ask you to learn with me a little piece of Roman + history. I say, to <i>learn</i> with me, because I don't know any Roman + history except the two first books of Livy, and little bits here and + there of the following six or seven. I only just know enough about it to + be able to make out the bearings and meaning of any fact that I now + learn. The greater number of modern historians know, (if honest enough + even for that,) the facts, or something that may possibly be like the + facts, but haven't the least notion of the meaning of them. So that, + though I have to find out everything that I want in Smith's dictionary, + like any schoolboy, I can usually tell you the <!-- Page 142 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page142"></a>[142]</span> significance of what I + so find, better than perhaps even Mr. Smith himself could.</p> + + <p>18. In the 586th page of Mr. Smith's volume, you have it written that + 'Calvus,' bald-head, was the name of a family of the Licinia gens; that + the man of whom we hear earliest, as so named, was the first plebeian + elected to military tribuneship in <span class="scac">B.C</span>. 400; + and that the fourth of whom we hear, was surnamed 'Stolo,' because he was + so particular in pruning away the Stolons (stolones), or useless young + shoots, of his vines.</p> + + <p>We must keep this word 'stolon,' therefore, for these young suckers + springing from an old root. Its derivation is uncertain; but the main + idea meant by it is one of uselessness,—sprouting without occasion + or fruit; and the words 'stolidus' and 'stolid' are really its + derivatives, though we have lost their sense in English by partly + confusing them with 'solid' which they have nothing to do with. A + 'stolid' person is essentially a 'useless sucker' of society; frequently + very leafy and graceful, but with no good in him.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/fig15.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig15.png" + alt="Fig. 15." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 15. + </div> + <p>19. Nevertheless, I won't allow our vegetable 'stolons' to be + despised. Some of quite the most beautiful forms of leafage belong to + them;—even the foliage of the olive itself is never seen to the + same perfection on the upper branches as in the young ground-rods in + which the dual groups of leaves crowd themselves in their haste into + clusters of three.</p> + + <p>But, for our point of Latin history, remember always <!-- Page 143 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page143"></a>[143]</span> that in 400 + <span class="scac">B.C.</span>, just a year before the death of Socrates + at Athens, this family of Stolid persons manifested themselves at Rome, + shooting up from plebeian roots into places where they had no business; + and preparing the way for the degradation of the entire Roman race under + the Empire; their success being owed, remember also, to the faults of the + patricians, for one of the laws passed by Calvus Stolo was that the + Sibylline books should be in custody of ten men, of whom five should be + plebeian, "that no falsifications might be introduced in favour of the + patricians."</p> + + <p>20. All this time, however, we have got no name for the prettiest of + all stems,—that of annual flowers growing high from among their + ground leaves, like lilies of the valley, and saxifrages, and the tall + primulas—of which this pretty type, Fig. 15, was cut for me by Mr. + Burgess years ago; admirable in its light outline of the foamy globe of + flowers, supported and balanced in the meadow breezes on that elastic rod + of slenderest life.</p> + + <p>What shall we call it? We had better rest from our study of terms a + little, and do a piece of needful classifying, before we try to name + it.</p> + + <p>21. My younger readers will find it easy to learn, and convenient to + remember, for a beginning of their science, <!-- Page 144 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page144"></a>[144]</span> the names of twelve + great families of cinquefoiled flowers,<a name="NtA_39" + href="#Nt_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> of which the first group of three, is + for the most part golden, the second, blue, the third, purple, and the + fourth, red.</p> + + <p>And their names, by simple lips, can be pleasantly said, or sung, in + this order, the two first only being a little difficult to get over.</p> + + +<table class="nob" summary="Cinquefoil families" title="Cinquefoil families"> + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>1</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>2</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>3</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>4</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Roof-foil,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Lucy,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Pea,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Pink,</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Rock-foil,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Blue-bell,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Pansy,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Peach,</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Primrose.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Bindweed.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Daisy.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Rose.</p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + <p>Which even in their Latin magniloquence will not be too terrible, + namely,—</p> + + +<table class="nob" summary="Cinquefoil families - Latin" title="Cinquefoil families - Latin"> + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>1</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>2</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>3</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:center"> + <p>4</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Stella,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Lucia,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Alata,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Clarissa,</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Francesca,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Campanula,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Viola,</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Persica,</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Primula.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Convoluta.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Margarita.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Rosa.</p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + <p>22. I do not care much to assert or debate my reasons for the changes + of nomenclature made in this list. The <!-- Page 145 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page145"></a>[145]</span> most gratuitous is + that of 'Lucy' for 'Gentian,' because the King of Macedon, from whom the + flower has been so long named, was by no means a person deserving of so + consecrated memory. I conceive no excuse needed for rejecting Caryophyll, + one of the crudest and absurdest words ever coined by unscholarly men of + science; or Papilionaceĉ, which is unendurably long for pease; and when + we are now writing Latin, in a sentimental temper, and wish to say that + we gathered a daisy, we shall not any more be compelled to write that we + gathered a 'Bellidem perennem,' or, an 'Oculum Diei.'</p> + + <p>I take the pure Latin form, Margarita, instead of Margareta, in memory + of Margherita of Cortona,<a name="NtA_40" + href="#Nt_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> as well as of the great saint: also the + tiny scatterings and sparklings of the daisy on the turf may remind us of + the old use of the word 'Margaritĉ,' for the minute particles of the Host + sprinkled on the patina—"Has particulas <span title="meridas" class="grk" + >μερίδας</span> vocat + Euchologium, <span title="margaritas" class="grk" + >μαργαρίτας</span> + Liturgia Chrysostomi."<a name="NtA_41" href="#Nt_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> + My young German readers will, I hope, call the flower + Gretschen,—unless they would uproot the daisies of the Rhine, lest + French girls should also count their love-lots by the Marguerite. I must + be so ungracious to my fair young readers, however, as to <span + class="correction" title="'warm' in original">warn</span> them that this + trial of their lovers is a very favourable one, for, in nine blossoms out + of <!-- Page 146 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page146"></a>[146]</span> ten, the leaves of the Marguerite are + odd, so that, if they are only gracious enough to begin with the + supposition that he loves them, they must needs end in the conviction of + it.</p> + + <p>23. I am concerned, however, for the present, only with my first or + golden order, of which the Roof-foil, or house-leek, is called in present + botany, Sedum, 'the squatter,' because of its way of fastening itself + down on stones, or roof, as close as it can sit. But I think this an + ungraceful notion of its behaviour; and as its blossoms are, of all + flowers, the most sharply and distinctly star-shaped, I shall call it + 'Stella' (providing otherwise, in due time, for the poor little + chickweeds;) and the common stonecrop will therefore be 'Stella + domestica.'</p> + + <p>The second tribe, (at present saxifraga,) growing for the most part + wild on rocks, may, I trust, even in Protestant botany, be named + Francesca, after St. Francis of Assisi; not only for its modesty, and + love of mountain ground, and poverty of colour and leaf; but also because + the chief element of its decoration, seen close, will be found in its + spots, or stigmata.</p> + + <p>In the nomenclature of the third order I make no change.</p> + + <p>24. Now all this group of golden-blossoming plants agree in general + character of having a rich cluster of radical leaves, from which they + throw up a single stalk bearing clustered blossoms; for which stalk, when + entirely leafless, I intend always to keep the term 'virgula,' the <!-- + Page 147 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page147"></a>[147]</span> + 'little rod'—not painfully caring about it, but being able thus to + define it with precision, if required. And these are connected with the + stems of branching shrubs through infinite varieties of structure, in + which the first steps of transition are made by carrying the cluster of + radical leaves up, and letting them expire gradually from the rising + stem: the changes of form in the leaves as they rise higher from the + ground being one of quite the most interesting specific studies in every + plant. I had set myself once, in a bye-study for foreground drawing, hard + on this point; and began, with Mr. Burgess, a complete analysis of the + foliation of annual stems; of which Line-studies II., III., and IV., are + examples; reduced copies, all, from the beautiful Flora Danica. But after + giving two whole lovely long summer days, under the Giesbach, to the blue + scabious, ('Devil's bit,') and getting in that time, only half-way up it, + I gave in; and must leave the work to happier and younger souls.</p> + + <p>25. For these flowering stems, therefore, possessing nearly all the + complex organization of a tree, but not its permanence, we will keep the + word 'virga;' and 'virgula' for those that have no leaves. I believe, + when we come to the study of leaf-order, it will be best to begin with + these annual virgĉ, in which the leaf has nothing to do with preparation + for a next year's branch. And now the remaining terms commonly applied to + stems may be for the most part dispensed with; but several are + interesting, and must be examined before dismissal. <!-- Page 148 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page148"></a>[148]</span></p> + + <p><a name="c8p26"></a> 26. Indeed, in the first place, the word we have + to use so often, 'stalk,' has not been got to the roots of, yet. It comes + from the Greek <span title="stelechos," class="grk" + >στέλεχος,</span> + (stelechos,) the 'holding part' of a tree, that which is like a handle to + all its branches; 'stock' is another form in which it has come down to + us: with some notion of its being the mother of branches: thus, when + Athena's olive was burnt by the Persians, two days after, a shoot a cubit + long had sprung from the 'stelechos,' of it.</p> + + <p>27. Secondly. Few words are more interesting to the modern scholarly + and professorial mind than 'stipend.' (I have twice a year at present to + consider whether I am worth mine, sent with compliments from the Curators + of the University chest). Now, this word comes from 'stips,' small pay, + which itself comes from 'stipo,' to press together, with the idea of + small coin heaped up in little towers or piles. But with the idea of + lateral pressing together, instead of downward, we get 'stipes,' a solid + log; in Greek, with the same sense, <span title="stupos," class="grk" + >στύπος,</span> (stupos,) whence, + gradually, with help from another word meaning to beat, (and a + side-glance at beating of hemp,) we get our 'stupid,' the German stumph, + the Scottish sumph, and the plain English 'stump.'</p> + + <p>Refining on the more delicate sound of stipes, the Latins got + 'stipula,' the thin stem of straw: which rustles and ripples daintily in + verse, associated with spica and spiculum, used of the sharp pointed ear + of corn, and its fine processes of fairy shafts. <!-- Page 149 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page149"></a>[149]</span></p> + + <p>28. There are yet two more names of stalk to be studied, though, + except for particular plants, not needing to be used,—namely, the + Latin cau-dex, and cau-lis, both connected with the Greek <span + title="kaulos" class="grk" + >καυλός</span>, properly meaning + a solid stalk like a handle, passing into the sense of the hilt of a + sword, or quill of a pen. Then, in Latin, caudex passes into the sense of + log, and so, of cut plank or tablet of wood; thus finally becoming the + classical 'codex' of writings engraved on such wooden tablets, and + therefore generally used for authoritative manuscripts.</p> + + <p>Lastly, 'caulis,' retained accurately in our cauliflower, contracted + in 'colewort,' and refined in 'kail,' softens itself into the French + 'chou,' meaning properly the whole family of thick-stalked eatable salads + with spreading heads; but these being distinguished explicitly by Pliny + as 'Capitati,' 'salads with a head,' or 'Captain salads,' the mediĉval + French softened the 'caulis capitatus' into 'chou cabus;'—or, to + separate the round or apple-like mass of leaves from the flowery foam, + 'cabus' simply, by us at last enriched and emphasized into 'cabbage.'</p> + + <p>29. I believe we have now got through the stiffest piece of etymology + we shall have to master in the course of our botany; but I am certain + that young readers will find patient work, in this kind, well rewarded by + the groups of connected thoughts which will thus attach themselves to + familiar names; and their grasp of every language they learn must only be + esteemed by them secure when they recognize its derivatives in these + homely associations, <!-- Page 150 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page150"></a>[150]</span> and are as much at ease with the Latin or + French syllables of a word as with the English ones; this familiarity + being above all things needful to cure our young students of their + present ludicrous impression that what is simple, in English, is knowing, + in Greek; and that terms constructed out of a dead language will explain + difficulties which remained insoluble in a living one. But Greek is + <i>not</i> yet dead: while if we carry our unscholarly nomenclature much + further, English soon will be; and then doubtless botanical gentlemen at + Athens will for some time think it fine to describe what we used to call + caryophyllaceĉ, as the <span title="hedlêphides" class="grk" + >ἑδληφιδες</span>.</p> + + <p>30. For indeed we are all of us yet but school-boys, clumsily using + alike our lips and brains; and with all our mastery of instruments and + patience of attention, but few have reached, and those dimly, the first + level of science,—wonder.</p> + + <p>For the first instinct of the stem,—unnamed by us + yet—unthought of,—the instinct of seeking light, as of the + root to seek darkness,—what words can enough speak the wonder of + it.</p> + + <p>Look. Here is the little thing, Line-study V. (A), in its first birth + to us: the stem of stems; the one of which we pray that it may bear our + daily bread. The seed has fallen in the ground with the springing germ of + it downwards; with heavenly cunning the taught stem curls round, and + seeks the never-seen light. Veritable 'conversion,' miraculous, called of + God. And here is the oat <!-- Page 151 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page151"></a>[151]</span> germ, (B)—after the wheat, most + vital of divine gifts; and assuredly, in days to come, fated to grow on + many a naked rock in hitherto lifeless lands, over which the glancing + sheaves of it will shake sweet treasure of innocent gold.</p> + + <p>And who shall tell us how they grow; and the fashion of their rustling + pillars—bent, and again erect, at every breeze. Fluted shaft or + clustered pier, how poor of art, beside this grass-shaft—built, + first to sustain the food of men, then to be strewn under their feet!</p> + + <p>We must not stay to think of it, yet, or we shall get no farther till + harvest has come and gone again. And having our names of stems now + determined enough, we must in next chapter try a little to understand the + different kinds of them.</p> + + <p>The following notes, among many kindly sent me on the subject of + Scottish Heraldry, seem to be the most trustworthy:—</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>"The earliest known mention of the thistle as the national badge of + Scotland is in the inventory of the effects of James III., who probably + adopted it as an appropriate illustration of the royal motto, <i>In + defence</i>.</p> + + <p>"Thistles occur on the coins of James IV., Mary, James V., and James + VI.; and on those of James VI. they are for the first time accompanied by + the motto, <i>Nemo me impune lacesset</i>.</p> + + <p>"A collar of thistles appears on the gold bonnet-pieces of James V. of + 1539; and the royal ensigns, as depicted in Sir David Lindsay's armorial + register of 1542, are surrounded by a collar formed entirely of golden + thistles, with an oval badge attached. <!-- Page 152 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page152"></a>[152]</span></p> + + <p>"This collar, however, was a mere device until the institution, or as + it is generally but inaccurately called, the revival, of the order of the + Thistle by James VII. (II. of England), which took place on May 29, + 1687."</p> + + <p>Date of James III.'s reign 1460-1488.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 153 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page153"></a>[153]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">OUTSIDE AND IN.</p> + + <p>1. The elementary study of methods of growth, given in the following + chapter, has been many years written, (the greater part soon after the + fourth volume of 'Modern Painters'); and ought now to be rewritten + entirely; but having no time to do this, I leave it with only a word or + two of modification, because some truth and clearness of incipient notion + will be conveyed by it to young readers, from which I can afterwards lop + the errors, and into which I can graft the finer facts, better than if I + had a less blunt embryo to begin with.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/fig17.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig17.png" + alt="Fig. 17. Three leaves forming a stem." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 17. + </div> + <div class="figright" style="width:18%;"> + <a href="images/fig16.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig16.png" + alt="Fig. 16. Three separate leaves." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 16. + </div> + <p>2. A stem, then, broadly speaking, (I had thus began the old chapter,) + is the channel of communication between the leaf and root; and if the + leaf can grow directly from the root there is no stem: so that it is well + first to conceive of all plants as consisting of leaves and roots only, + with the condition that each leaf must have its own quite particular + root<a name="NtA_42" href="#Nt_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> somewhere. <!-- + Page 154 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page154"></a>[154]</span> Let + a b c, Fig. 16, be three leaves, each, as you see, with its own root, and + by no means dependent on other leaves for its daily bread; and let the + horizontal line be the surface of the ground. Then the plant has no stem, + or an underground one. But if the three leaves rise above the ground, as + in Fig. 17, they must reach their roots by elongating their stalks, and + this elongation is the stem of the plant. If the outside leaves grow + last, and are therefore youngest, the plant is said to grow from the + outside. You know that 'ex' means out, and that 'gen' is the first + syllable of Genesis (or creation), therefore the old botanists, putting + an o between the two syllables, called plants whose outside leaves grew + last, Ex-o-gens. If the inside leaf grows last, and is youngest, the + plant was said to grow from the inside, and from the Greek Endon, within, + called an 'Endo-gen.' If these names are persisted in, the Greek + botanists, to return the compliment, will of course call Endogens <span + title="Inseidbornides" class="grk" + >Ἰνσειδβορνιδες</span>, + and Exogens <span title="Houtseidbornides" class="grk" + >Ὅυτσειδβορνιδες</span>. + In the Oxford school, they will be called simply Inlaid and Outlaid.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/fig18.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig18.png" + alt="Fig. 18. Ragged Robin." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 18. + </div> + <p>3. You see that if the outside leaves are to grow last, they may + conveniently grow two at a time; which they accordingly do, and exogens + always start with two little <!-- Page 155 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page155"></a>[155]</span> leaves from their roots, and may + therefore conveniently be called two-leaved; which, if you please, we + will for our parts call them. The botanists call them 'two-suckered,' and + can't be content to call them <i>that</i> in English; but drag in a long + Greek word, meaning the fleshy sucker of the + sea-devil,—'cotyledon,' which, however, I find is practically + getting shortened into 'cot,' and that they will have to end by calling + endogens, monocots, and exogens, bicots. I mean steadily to call them + one-leaved and two-leaved, for this further reason, that they differ not + merely in the single or dual springing of first leaves from the seed; but + in the distinctly single or dual arrangement of leaves afterwards on the + stem; so that, through all the complexity obtained by alternate and + spiral placing, every bicot or two-leaved flower or tree is in reality + composed of dual groups of leaves, separated by a given length of stem; + as, most characteristically in this pure mountain type of the Ragged + Robin (Clarissa laciniosa), Fig. 18; and compare A, and B, Line-study + II.; while, on the other hand, the monocot plants are by close analysis, + I think, always resolvable into successively climbing leaves, sessile on + one another, and sending their roots, <!-- Page 156 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page156"></a>[156]</span> or processes, for + nourishment, down through one another, as in Fig. 19.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/fig19.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig19.png" + alt="Fig. 19. Monocot plant." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 19. + </div> + <p>4. Not that I am yet clear, at all, myself; but I do think it's more + the botanists' fault than mine, what 'cotyledonous' structure there may + be at the outer base of each successive bud; and still less, how the + intervenient length of stem, in the bicots, is related to their power, or + law, of branching. For not only the two-leaved tree is outlaid, and the + one-leaved inlaid, but the two-leaved tree is branched, and the + one-leaved tree is not branched. This is a most vital and important + distinction, which I state to you in very bold terms, for though there + are some apparent exceptions to the law, there are, I believe, no real + ones, if we define a branch rightly. Thus, the head of a palm tree is + merely a cluster of large leaves; and the spike of a grass, a clustered + blossom. The stem, in both, is unbranched; and we should be able in this + respect to classify plants very simply indeed, but for a provoking + species of intermediate creatures whose branching is always in the manner + of corals, or sponges, or arborescent minerals, irregular and accidental, + and essentially, therefore, distinguished from the systematic anatomy of + a truly branched tree. Of these presently; we must go on by very short + steps: and I find no step can be taken without check from existing + generalizations. Sowerby's definition of Monocotyledons, in his ninth + volume, begins thus: "Herbs, (or rarely, and only in exotic genera,) + trees, in which the wood, pith, and bark are indistinguishable." <!-- + Page 157 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page157"></a>[157]</span> Now + if there be one plant more than another in which the pith is defined, it + is the common Rush; while the nobler families of true herbs derive their + principal character from being pithless altogether! We cannot advance too + slowly.</p> + + <p>5. In the families of one-leaved plants in which the young leaves grow + directly out of the old ones, it becomes a grave question for them + whether the old ones are to lie flat or edgeways, and whether they must + therefore grow out of their faces or their edges. And we must at once + understand the way they contrive it, in either case.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/fig20.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig20.png" + alt="Fig. 20. Arethusan leaf." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 20. + </div> + <p>Among the many forms taken by the Arethusan leaf, one of the commonest + is long and gradually tapering,—much broader at the base than the + point. We will take such an one for examination, and suppose that it is + growing on the ground as in Fig. 20, with a root to its every fibre. Cut + out a piece of strong paper roughly into the shape of this Arethusan + leaf, a, Fig. 21. Now suppose the next young leaf has to spring out of + the front of this one, at about the middle of its height. Give it two + nicks with the scissors at b b; then roll up the lower part into a + cylinder, (it will overlap a good deal at the bottom,) and tie it fast + with a fine thread: so, you will get the form at c. Then bend the top of + it back, so that, seen sideways, it appears as at d, and you see you have + made quite a little flower-pot to plant your <!-- Page 158 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page158"></a>[158]</span> new leaf in, and + perhaps it may occur to you that you have seen something like this + before. Now make another, a little less wide, but with the part for the + cylinder twice as long, roll it up in the same way, and slip it inside + the other, with the flat part turned the other way, e. Surely this + reminds you now of something you have seen? Or must I draw the something + (Fig. 22)?</p> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width:40%;"> + <a href="images/fig21.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig21.png" + alt="Fig. 21. Paper folding." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 21. + </div> + <p>6. All grasses are thus constructed, and have their leaves set thus, + opposite, on the sides of their tubular stems, alternately, as they + ascend. But in most of them there is also a peculiar construction, by + which, at the base of the sheath, or enclosing tube, each leaf + articulates itself with the rest of the stem at a ringed knot, or joint. + <!-- Page 159 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page159"></a>[159]</span></p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/fig22.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig22.png" + alt="Fig. 22. A typical grass." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 22. + </div> + <p>Before examining these, remember there are mainly two sorts of joints + in the framework of the bodies of animals. One is that in which the bone + is thick at the joints and thin between them, (see the bone of the next + chicken leg you eat), the other is that of animals that have shells or + horny coats, in which characteristically the shell is thin at the joints, + and thick between them (look at the next lobster's claw you can see, + without eating). You know, also, that though the crustaceous are titled + only from their crusts, the name 'insect' is given to the whole insect + tribe, because they are farther jointed almost into <i>sect</i>ions: it + is easily remembered, also, that the projecting joint means strength and + elasticity in the creature, and that all its limbs are useful to it, and + cannot conveniently be parted with; and that the incised, sectional, or + insectile joint means more or less weakness,<a name="NtA_43" + href="#Nt_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> and necklace-like laxity or license in + the creature's make; and an ignoble power of shaking off its legs or arms + on occasion, coupled also with modes of growth involving occasionally + quite astonishing transformations, and beginnings of new life under new + circumstances; so that, until very lately, no mortal knew what a crab was + like in its youth, the very existence <!-- Page 160 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page160"></a>[160]</span> of the creature, as + well as its legs, being jointed, as it were and made in separate pieces + with the narrowest possible thread of connection between them; and its + principal, or stomachic, period of life, connected with its sentimental + period by as thin a thread as a wasp's stomach is with its thorax.</p> + + <p>7. Now in plants, as in animals, there are just the same opposed + aspects of joint, with this specialty of difference in function, that the + animal's limb bends at the joints, but the vegetable limb stiffens. And + when the articulation projects, as in the joint of a cane, it means not + only that the strength of the plant is well carried through the junction, + but is carried farther and more safely than it could be without it: a + cane is stronger, and can stand higher than it could otherwise, because + of its joints. Also, this structure implies that the plant has a will of + its own, and a position which on the whole it will keep, however it may + now and then be bent out of it; and that it has a continual battle, of a + healthy and humanlike kind, to wage with surrounding elements.</p> + + <p>But the crabby, or insect-like, joint, which you get in seaweeds and + cacti, means either that the plant is to be dragged and wagged here and + there at the will of waves, and to have no spring nor mind of its own; or + else that it has at least no springy intention and elasticity of purpose, + but only a knobby, knotty, prickly, malignant stubbornness, and + incoherent opiniativeness; crawling about, and coggling, and grovelling, + and aggregating <!-- Page 161 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page161"></a>[161]</span> anyhow, like the minds of so many people + whom one knows!</p> + + <p>8. Returning then to our grasses, in which the real rooting and + junction of the leaves with each other is at these joints; we find that + therefore every leaf of grass may be thought of as consisting of two main + parts, for which we shall want two separate names. The lowest part, which + wraps itself round to become strong, we will call the 'staff,' and for + the free-floating outer part we will take specially the name given at + present carelessly to a large number of the plants themselves, 'flag.' + This will give a more clear meaning to the words 'rod' (virga), and + 'staff' (baculus), when they occur together, as in the 23rd Psalm; and + remember the distinction is that a rod bends like a switch, but a staff + is stiff. I keep the well-known name 'blade' for grass-leaves in their + fresh green state.</p> + + <p>9. You felt, as you were bending down the paper into the form d, Fig. + 21, the difficulty and awkwardness of the transition from the tubular + form of the staff to the flat one of the flag. The mode in which this + change is effected is one of the most interesting features in plants, for + you will find presently that the leaf-stalk in ordinary leaves is only a + means of accomplishing the same change from round to flat. But you know I + said just now that some leaves were not flat, but set upright, edgeways. + It is not a common position in two-leaved trees; but if you can run out + and look at an arbor vitĉ, it may interest you <!-- Page 162 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page162"></a>[162]</span> to see its + hatchet-shaped vertically crested cluster of leaves transforming + themselves gradually downwards into branches; and in one-leaved trees the + vertically edged group is of great importance.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <a href="images/fig23.png"><img style="width:100%" src="images/fig23.png" + alt="Fig. 23. Paper folding." /></a> + <span class="sc">Fig</span>. 23. + </div> + <p>10. Cut out another piece of paper like a in Fig. 21, but now, instead + of merely giving it nicks at a, b, cut it into the shape A, Fig. 23. Roll + the lower part up as before, but instead of pulling the upper part down, + pinch its back at the dotted line, and bring the two points, a and b, + forward, so that they may touch each other. B shows the look of the thing + half-done, before the points a and b have quite met. Pinch them close, + and stitch the two edges neatly together, all the way from a to the point + c; then roll and tie up the lower part as before. You will find then that + the back or spinal line of the whole leaf is bent forward, as at B. Now + go out to the garden and gather the green leaf of a fleur-de-lys, and + look at it and your piece of disciplined paper together; and I fancy you + will probably find out several things for yourself that I want you to + know.</p> + + <p><a name="c9p11"></a> 11. You see, for one thing, at once, how + <i>strong</i> the fleur-de-lys leaf is, and that it is just twice as + strong as a blade of grass, for it is the substance of the staff, with + its sides flattened together, while the grass blade is a staff cut <!-- + Page 163 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page163"></a>[163]</span> open + and flattened out. And you see that as a grass blade necessarily flaps + down, the fleur-de-lys leaf as necessarily curves up, owing to that + inevitable bend in its back. And you see, with its keen edge, and long + curve, and sharp point, how like a sword it is. The botanists would for + once have given a really good and right name to the plants which have + this kind of leaf, 'Ensatĉ,' from the Latin 'ensis,' a sword; if only + sata had been properly formed from sis. We can't let the rude Latin + stand, but you may remember that the fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of + chivalry, has a sword for its leaf, and a lily for its heart.</p> + + <p>12. In case you cannot gather a fleur-de-lys leaf, I have drawn for + you, in Plate VI., a cluster of such leaves, which are as pretty as any, + and so small that, missing the points of a few, I can draw them of their + actual size. You see the pretty alternate interlacing at the bottom, and + if you can draw at all, and will try to outline their curves, you will + find what subtle lines they are. I did not know this name for the + strong-edged grass leaves when I wrote the pieces about shield and sword + leaves in 'Modern Painters'; I wish I had chanced in those passages on + some other similitude, but I can't alter them now, and my trustful pupils + may avoid all confusion of thought by putting gladius for ensis, and + translating it by the word 'scymitar,' which is also more accurate in + expressing the curvature blade. So we will call the ensatĉ, instead, + 'gladiolĉ,' translating, 'scymitar-grasses.' And having <!-- Page 164 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page164"></a>[164]</span> now got at + some clear idea of the distinction between outlaid and inlaid growth in + the stem, the reader will find the elementary analysis of forms resulting + from outlaid growth in 'Modern Painters'; and I mean to republish it in + the sequel of this book, but must go on to other matters here. The growth + of the inlaid stem we will follow as far as we need, for English plants, + in examining the glasses.</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Florence</span>, <i>11th September, 1874</i>. + + <p>As I correct this chapter for press, I find it is too imperfect to be + let go without a word or two more. In the first place, I have not enough, + in distinguishing the nature of the living yearly shoot, with its cluster + of fresh leafage, from that of the accumulated mass of perennial trees, + taken notice of the similar power even of the annual shoot, to obtain + some manner of immortality for itself, or at least of usefulness, + <i>after</i> death. A Tuscan woman stopped me on the path up to Fiesole + last night, to beg me to buy her plaited straw. I wonder how long straw + lasts, if one takes care of it? A Leghorn bonnet, (if now such things + are,) carefully put away,—even properly taken care of when it is + worn,—how long will it last, young ladies?</p> + + <p>I have just been reading the fifth chapter of II. Esdras, and am fain + to say, with less discomfort than otherwise I might have felt, (the + example being set me by the archangel Uriel,) "I am not sent to tell + thee, for I do not know." How old is the oldest straw known? the oldest + <!-- Page 165 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page165"></a>[165]</span> + linen? the oldest hemp? We have mummy wheat,—cloth of papyrus, + which is a kind of straw. The paper reeds by the brooks, the flax-flower + in the field, leave such imperishable frame behind them. And + Ponte-della-Paglia, in Venice; and Straw Street, of Paris, remembered in + Heaven,—there is no occasion to change their names, as one may have + to change 'Waterloo Bridge,' or the 'Rue de l'Impératrice.' Poor Empress! + Had she but known that her true dominion was in the straw streets of her + fields; not in the stone streets of her cities!</p> + + <p>But think how wonderful this imperishableness of the stem of many + plants is, even in their annual work: how much more in their perennial + work! The noble stability between death and life, of a piece of perfect + wood? It cannot grow, but will not decay; keeps record of its years of + life, but surrenders them to become a constantly serviceable thing: which + may be sailed in, on the sea, built with, on the land, carved by + Donatello, painted on by Fra Angelico. And it is not the wood's fault, + but the fault of Florence in not taking proper care of it, that the panel + of Sandro Botticelli's loveliest picture has cracked, (not with heat, I + believe, but blighting frost), a quarter of an inch wide through the + Madonna's face.</p> + + <p>But what is this strange state of undecaying wood? What sort of latent + life has it, which it only finally parts with when it rots?</p> + + <p>Nay, what is the law by which its natural life is measured? What makes + a tree 'old'? One sees the <!-- Page 166 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page166"></a>[166]</span> Spanish-chesnut trunks among the + Apennines growing into caves, instead of logs. Vast hollows, confused + among the recessed darknesses of the marble crags, surrounded by mere + laths of living stem, each with its coronal of glorious green leaves. Why + can't the tree go on, and on,—hollowing itself into a + Fairy—no—a Dryad, Ring,—till it becomes a perfect + Stonehenge of a tree? Truly, "I am not sent to tell thee, for I do not + know."</p> + + <p>The worst of it is, however, that I don't know one thing which I ought + very thoroughly to have known at least thirty years ago, namely, the true + difference in the way of building the trunk in outlaid and inlaid wood. I + have an idea that the stem of a palm-tree is only a heap of leaf-roots + built up like a tower of bricks, year by year, and that the palm tree + really grows on the top of it, like a bunch of fern; but I've no books + here, and no time to read them if I had. If only I were a strong giant, + instead of a thin old gentleman of fifty-five, how I should like to pull + up one of those little palm-trees by the roots—(by the way, what + are the roots of a palm like? and, how does it stand in sand, where it is + wanted to stand, mostly? Fancy, not knowing that, at + fifty-five!)—that grow all along the Riviera; and snap its stem in + two, and cut it down the middle. But I suppose there are sections enough + now in our grand botanical collections, and you can find it all out for + yourself. That you should be able to ask a question clearly, is + two-thirds of the way to getting it answered; and I think this chapter of + mine will at <!-- Page 167 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page167"></a>[167]</span> least enable you to ask some questions + about the stem, though what a stem is, truly, "I am not sent to tell + thee, for I do not know."</p> + + <p class="author"><span class="sc">Knaresborough</span>, <i>30th April, 1876</i>. + + <p>I see by the date of last paragraph that this chapter has been in my + good Aylesbury printer's type for more than a year and a half. At this + rate, Proserpina has a distant chance of being finished in the + spirit-land, with more accurate information derived from the archangel + Uriel himself, (not that he is likely to know much about the matter, if + he keeps on letting himself be prevented from ever seeing foliage in + spring-time by the black demon-winds,) about the year 2000. In the + meantime, feeling that perhaps I <i>am</i> sent to tell my readers a + little more than is above told, I have had recourse to my botanical + friend, good Mr. Oliver of Kew, who has taught me, first, of palms, that + they actually stitch themselves into the ground, with a long dipping + loop, up and down, of the root fibres, concerning which sempstress-work I + shall have a month's puzzlement before I can report on it; secondly, that + all the increment of tree stem is, by division and multiplication of the + cells of the wood, a process not in the least to be described as 'sending + down roots from the leaf to the ground.' I suspected as much in beginning + to revise this chapter; but hold to my judgment in not cancelling it. For + this multiplication of the cells is at least compelled by an influence + which passes from the leaf to the ground, and vice versa; and which is at + present best <!-- Page 168 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page168"></a>[168]</span> conceivable to me by imagining the + continual and invisible descent of lightning from electric cloud by a + conducting rod, endowed with the power of softly splitting the rod into + two rods, each as thick as the original one. Studying microscopically, we + should then see the molecules of copper, as we see the cells of the wood, + dividing and increasing, each one of them into two. But the visible + result, and mechanical conditions of growth, would still be the same as + if the leaf actually sent down a new root fibre; and, more than this, the + currents of accumulating substance, marked by the grain of the wood, are, + I think, quite plainly and absolutely those of streams flowing only from + the leaves downwards; never from the root up, nor of mere lateral + increase. I must look over all my drawings again, and at tree stems + again, with more separate study of the bark and pith in those museum + sections, before I can assert this; but there will be no real difficulty + in the investigation. If the increase of the wood is lateral only, the + currents round the knots will be compressed at the sides, and open above + and below; but if downwards, compressed above the knot and open below it. + The nature of the force itself, and the manner of its ordinances in + direction, remain, and must for ever remain, inscrutable as our own + passions, in the hand of the God of all Spirits, and of all Flesh.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i4hg3">"Drunk is each ridge, of thy cup drinking,</p> + <p class="i4">Each clod relenteth at thy dressing,</p> +<!-- Page 169 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page169"></a>[169]</span> + <p class="i4">Thy cloud-borne waters inly sinking,</p> + <p class="i4">Fair spring sproutes forth, blest with thy blessing;</p> + <p>The fertile year is with thy bounty crouned,</p> + <p>And where thou go'st, thy goings fat the ground.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i4">Plenty bedews the desert places,</p> + <p class="i4">A hedge of mirth the hills encloseth.</p> + <p class="i4">The fields with flockes have hid their faces,</p> + <p class="i4">A robe of corn the valleys clotheth.</p> + <p>Deserts and hills and fields and valleys all,</p> + <p>Rejoice, shout, sing, and on thy name do call."</p> + </div> + </div> +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 170 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page170"></a>[170]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE BARK.</p> + + <p>1. Philologists are continually collecting instances, like our friend + the French critic of Virgil, of the beauty of finished language, or the + origin of unfinished, in the imitation of natural sounds. But such + collections give an entirely false idea of the real power of language, + unless they are balanced by an opponent list of the words which signally + fail of any such imitative virtue, and whose sound, if one dwelt upon it, + is destructive of their meaning.</p> + + <p>2. For instance. Few sounds are more distinct in their kind, or one + would think more likely to be vocally reproduced in the word which + signified them, than that of a swift rent in strongly woven cloth; and + the English word 'rag' and ragged, with the Greek <span title="rhêgnumi" class="grk" + >ῥήγνυμι</span>, do indeed in a + measure recall the tormenting effect upon the ear. But it is curious that + the verb which is meant to express the actual origination of rags, should + rhyme with two words entirely musical and peaceful—words, indeed, + which I always reserve for final resource in passages which I want to be + soothing as well as pretty,—'fair,' and <!-- Page 171 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page171"></a>[171]</span> 'air;' while, in its + orthography, it is identical with the word representing the bodily sign + of tenderest passion, and grouped with a multitude of others,<a + name="NtA_44" href="#Nt_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> in which the mere + insertion of a consonant makes such wide difference of sentiment as + between 'dear' and 'drear,' or 'pear' and 'spear.' The Greek root, on the + other hand, has persisted in retaining some vestige of its excellent + dissonance, even where it has parted with the last vestige of the idea it + was meant to convey; and when Burns did his best,—and his best was + above most men's—to gather pleasant liquid and labial syllabling, + round gentle meaning, in</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"Bonnie lassie, will ye go,</p> + <p>Will ye go, will ye go,</p> + <p>Bonnie lassie, will ye go,</p> + <p>To the birks of Aberfeldy?"</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>he certainly had little thought that the delicately crisp final k, in + birk, was the remnant of a magnificent Greek effort to express the + rending of the earth by earthquake, in the wars of the giants. In the + middle of that word 'esmaragēse,' we get our own beggar's 'rag' for + a pure root, which afterwards, through the Latin frango, softens into our + 'break,' and 'bark,'—the 'broken thing'; that idea of its rending + around the tree's stem having been, in the very earliest human efforts at + botanical description, <!-- Page 172 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page172"></a>[172]</span> attached to it by the pure Aryan race, + watching the strips of rosy satin break from the birch stems, in the + Aberfeldys of Imaus.</p> + + <p>3. That this tree should have been the only one which "the Aryans, + coming as conquerors from the North, were able to recognize in + Hindustan,"<a name="NtA_45" href="#Nt_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> and should + therefore also be "the only one whose name is common to Sanskrit, and to + the languages of Europe," delighted me greatly, for two reasons: the + first, for its proof that in spite of the development of species, the + sweet gleaming of birch stem has never changed its argent and sable for + any unchequered heraldry; and the second, that it gave proof of a much + more important fact, the keenly accurate observation of Aryan foresters + at that early date; for the fact is that the breaking of the thin-beaten + silver of the birch trunk is so delicate, and its smoothness so graceful, + that until I painted it with care, I was not altogether clear-headed + myself about the way in which the chequering was done: nor until Fors + today brought me to the house of one of my father's friends at + Carshalton, and gave me three birch stems to look at just outside the + window, did I perceive it to be a primal question about them, what it is + that blanches that dainty dress of theirs, or, anticipatorily, weaves. + What difference is there between the making of the corky excrescence of + other <!-- Page 173 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page173"></a>[173]</span> trees, and of this almost transparent + fine white linen? I perceive that the older it is, within limits, the + finer and whiter; hoary tissue, instead of hoary hair—honouring the + tree's aged body; the outer sprays have no silvery light on their youth. + Does the membrane thin itself into whiteness merely by stretching, or + produce an outer film of new substance?<a name="NtA_46" + href="#Nt_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p> + + <p>4. And secondly, this investiture, why is it transverse to the + trunk,—swathing it, as it were, in bands? Above all,—when it + breaks,—why does it break round the tree instead of down? All other + bark breaks as anything would, naturally, round a swelling rod, but this, + as if the stem were growing longer; until, indeed, it reaches farthest + heroic old age, when the whiteness passes away again, and the rending is + like that of other trees, downwards. So that, as it were in a changing + language, we have the great botanical fact twice taught us, by this tree + of Eden, that the skins of trees differ from the skins of the higher + animals in that, for the most part, they won't stretch, and must be worn + torn.</p> + + <p>So that in fact the most popular arrangement of vegetative adult + costume is Irish; a normal investiture in honourable rags; and + decorousness of tattering, as of a banner borne in splendid ruin through + storms of war.</p> + + <p>5. Now therefore, if we think of it, we have five <!-- Page 174 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page174"></a>[174]</span> distinct + orders of investiture for organic creatures; first, mere secretion of + mineral substance, chiefly lime, into a hard shell, which, if broken, can + only be mended, like china—by sticking it together; secondly, + organic substance of armour which grows into its proper shape at once for + good and all, and can't be mended at all, if broken, (as of insects); + thirdly, organic substance of skin, which stretches, as the creatures + grows, by cracking, over a fresh skin which is supplied beneath it, as in + bark of trees; fourthly, organic substance of skin cracked symmetrically + into plates or scales which can increase all round their edges, and are + connected by softer skin, below, as in fish and reptiles, (divided with + exquisite lustre and flexibility, in feathers of birds); and lastly, true + elastic skin, extended in soft unison with the creature's + growth,—blushing with its blood, fading with its fear; breathing + with its breath, and guarding its life with sentinel beneficence of + pain.</p> + + <p>6. It is notable, in this higher and lower range of organic beauty, + that the decoration, by pattern and colour, which is almost universal in + the protective coverings of the middle ranks of animals, should be + reserved in vegetables for the most living part of them, the flower only; + and that among animals, few but the malignant and senseless are + permitted, in the corrugation of their armour, to resemble the half-dead + trunk of the tree, as they float beside it in the tropical river. I must, + however, leave the scale patterns of the palms and other inlaid tropical + <!-- Page 175 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page175"></a>[175]</span> + stems for after-examination,—content, at present, with the general + idea of the bark of an outlaid tree as the successive accumulation of the + annual protecting film, rent into ravines of slowly increasing depth, and + coloured, like the rock, whose stability it begins to emulate, with the + grey or gold of clinging lichen and embroidering moss.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 176 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page176"></a>[176]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">GENEALOGY.</p> + + <p>1. Returning, after more than a year's sorrowful interval, to my + Sicilian fields,—not incognisant, now, of some of the darker realms + of Proserpina; and with feebler heart, and, it may be, feebler wits, for + wandering in her brighter ones,—I find what I had written by way of + sequel to the last chapter, somewhat difficult, and extremely tiresome. + Not the less, after giving fair notice of the difficulty, and asking due + pardon for the tiresomeness, I am minded to let it stand; trusting to + end, with it, once for all, investigations of the kind. But in finishing + this first volume of my School Botany, I must try to give the reader some + notion of the plan of the book, as it now, during the time for thinking + over it which illness left me, has got itself arranged in my mind, within + limits of possible execution. And this the rather, because I wish also to + state, somewhat more gravely than I have yet done, the grounds on which I + venture here to reject many of the received names of plants; and to + substitute others for them, relating to entirely different attributes + <!-- Page 177 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page177"></a>[177]</span> + from those on which their present nomenclature is confusedly edified.</p> + + <p>I have already in some measure given the reasons for this change;<a + name="NtA_47" href="#Nt_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> but I feel that, for the + sake of those among my scholars who have laboriously learned the accepted + names, I ought now also to explain its method more completely.</p> + + <p>2. I call the present system of nomenclature <i>confusedly</i> + edified, because it introduces,—without, apparently, any + consciousness of the inconsistency, and certainly with no apology for + it,—names founded sometimes on the history of plants, sometimes on + their qualities, sometimes on their forms, sometimes on their products, + and sometimes on their poetical associations.</p> + + <p>On their history—as 'Gentian' from King Gentius, and Funkia from + Dr. Funk.</p> + + <p>On their qualities—as 'Scrophularia' from its (quite + uncertified) use in scrofula.</p> + + <p>On their forms—as the 'Caryophylls' from having petals like + husks of nuts.</p> + + <p>On their products—as 'Cocos nucifera' from its nuts.</p> + + <p>And on their poetical associations,—as the Star of Bethlehem + from its imagined resemblance to the light of that seen by the Magi.</p> + + <p>3. Now, this variety of grounds for nomenclature might patiently, and + even with advantage, be permitted, <!-- Page 178 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page178"></a>[178]</span> provided the grounds + themselves were separately firm, and the inconsistency of method + advisedly allowed, and, in each case, justified. If the histories of King + Gentius and Dr. Funk are indeed important branches of human + knowledge;—if the Scrophulariaceĉ do indeed cure King's + Evil;—if pinks be best described in their likeness to + nuts;—and the Star of Bethlehem verily remind us of Christ's + Nativity,—by all means let these and other such names be evermore + retained. But if Dr. Funk be not a person in any special manner needing + either stellification or florification; if neither herb nor flower can + avail, more than the touch of monarchs, against hereditary pain; if it be + no better account of a pink to say it is nut-leaved, than of a nut to say + it is pink-leaved; and if the modern mind, incurious respecting the + journeys of wise men, has already confused, in its Bradshaw's Bible, the + station of Bethlehem with that of Bethel,<a name="NtA_48" + href="#Nt_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> it is certainly time to take some order + with the partly false, partly useless, and partly forgotten literature of + the Fields; and, before we bow our children's memories to the burden of + it, ensure that there shall be matter worth carriage in the load.</p> + + <p>4. And farther, in attempting such a change, we must be clear in our + own minds whether we wish our nomenclature to tell us something about the + plant itself, or only to tell us the place it holds in relation to other + plants: as, for instance, in the Herb-Robert, would it be well to <!-- + Page 179 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page179"></a>[179]</span> + christen it, shortly, 'Rob Roy,' because it is pre-eminently red, and so + have done with it;—or rather to dwell on its family connections, + and call it 'Macgregoraceous'?</p> + + <p>5. Before we can wisely decide this point, we must resolve whether our + botany is intended mainly to be useful to the vulgar, or satisfactory to + the scientific élite. For if we give names characterizing individuals, + the circle of plants which any country possesses may be easily made known + to the children who live in it: but if we give names founded on the + connexion between these and others at the Antipodes, the parish + school-master will certainly have double work; and it may be doubted + greatly whether the parish school-boy, at the end of the lecture, will + have half as many ideas.</p> + + <p>6. Nevertheless, when the features of any great order of plants are + constant, and, on the whole, represented with great clearness both in + cold and warm climates, it may be desirable to express this their + citizenship of the world in definite nomenclature. But my own method, so + far as hitherto developed, consists essentially in fastening the thoughts + of the pupil on the special character of the plant, in the place where he + is likely to see it; and therefore, in expressing the power of its race + and order in the wider world, rather by reference to mythological + associations than to botanical structure.</p> + + <p>7. For instance, Plate VII. represents, of its real size, an ordinary + spring flower in our English mountain fields. It is an average + example,—not one of rare size under rare <!-- Page 180 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page180"></a>[180]</span> + conditions,—rather smaller than the average, indeed, that I might + get it well into my plate. It is one of the flowers whose names I think + good to change; but I look carefully through the existing titles + belonging to it and its fellows, that I may keep all I expediently can. I + find, in the first place, that Linnĉus called one group of its relations, + Ophryds, from Ophrys,—Greek for the eyebrow,—on account of + their resemblance to the brow of an animal frowning, or to the + overshadowing casque of a helmet. I perceive this to be really a very + general aspect of the flower; and therefore, no less than in respect to + Linnĉus, I adopt this for the total name of the order, and call them + 'Ophrydĉ,' or, shortly, 'Ophryds.'</p> + + <p>8. Secondly: so far as I know these flowers myself, I perceive them to + fall practically into three divisions,—one, growing in English + meadows and Alpine pastures, and always adding to their beauty; another, + growing in all sorts of places, very ugly itself, and adding to the + ugliness of its indiscriminated haunts; and a third, growing mostly up in + the air, with as little root as possible, and of gracefully fantastic + forms, such as this kind of nativity and habitation might presuppose. For + the present, I am satisfied to give names to these three groups only. + There may be plenty of others which I do not know, and which other people + may name, according to their knowledge. But in all these three kinds + known to me, I perceive one constant characteristic to be <i>some</i> + manner of <i>distortion</i> and I desire that fact,—marking a <!-- + Page 181 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page181"></a>[181]</span> + spiritual (in my sense of the word) character of extreme + mystery,—to be the first enforced on the mind of the young learner. + It is exhibited to the English child, primarily, in the form of the stalk + of each flower, attaching it to the central virga. This stalk is always + twisted once and a half round, as if somebody had been trying to wring + the blossom off; and the name of the family, in Proserpina, will + therefore be 'Contorta'<a name="NtA_49" href="#Nt_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> + in Latin, and 'Wreathe-wort' in English.</p> + + <p>Farther: the beautiful power of the one I have drawn in its spring + life, is in the opposition of its dark purple to the primrose in England, + and the pale yellow anemone in the Alps. And its individual name will be, + therefore, 'Contorta purpurea'—<i>Purple</i> Wreathe-wort.</p> + + <p>And in drawing it, I take care to dwell on this strength of its color, + and to show thoroughly that it is a <i>dark</i> blossom,<a name="NtA_50" + href="#Nt_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> before I trouble myself about its minor + characters.</p> + + <p>9. The second group of this kind of flowers live, as I said, in all + sorts of places; but mostly, I think, in disagreeable ones,—torn + and irregular ground, under alternations of unwholesome heat and shade, + and among swarms of nasty insects. I cannot yet venture on any bold + general statement about them, but I think that is mostly their way; and + at all events, they themselves are in the <!-- Page 182 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page182"></a>[182]</span> habit of dressing in + livid and unpleasant colors; and are distinguished from all other flowers + by twisting, not only their stalks, but one of their petals, not once and + a half only, but two or three times round, and putting it far out at the + same time, as a foul jester would put out his tongue: while also the + singular power of grotesque mimicry, which, though strong also in the + other groups of their race, seems in the others more or less playful, is, + in these, definitely degraded, and, in aspect, malicious.</p> + + <p>10. Now I find the Latin name 'Satyrium' attached already to one sort + of these flowers; and we cannot possibly have a better one for all of + them. It is true that, in its first Greek form, Dioscorides attaches it + to a white, not a livid, flower; and I dare say there are some white ones + of the breed: but, in its full sense, the term is exactly right for the + entire group of ugly blossoms of which the characteristic is the spiral + curve and protraction of their central petal: and every other form of + Satyric ugliness which I find among the Ophryds, whatever its color, will + be grouped with them. And I make them central, because this humour runs + through the whole order, and is, indeed, their distinguishing sign.</p> + + <p>11. Then the third group, living actually in the air, and only holding + fast by, without nourishing itself from, the ground, rock, or tree-trunk + on which it is rooted, may of course most naturally and accurately be + called 'Aeria,' as it has long been popularly known in English by the + name of Air-plant. <!-- Page 183 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page183"></a>[183]</span></p> + + <p>Thus we have one general name for all these creatures, 'Ophryd'; and + three family or group names, Contorta, Satyrium, and Aeria,—every + one of these titles containing as much accurate fact about the thing + named as I can possibly get packed into their syllables: and I will + trouble my young readers with no more divisions of the order. And if + their parents, tutors, or governors, after this fair warning, choose to + make them learn, instead, the seventy-seven different names with which + botanist-heraldries have beautifully ennobled the family,—all I can + say is, let them at least begin by learning them themselves. They will be + found in due order in pages 1084, 1085 of Loudon's Cyclopĉdia.<a + name="NtA_51" href="#Nt_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a></p> + + <p>12. But now, farther: the student will observe that the name of the + total order is Greek; while the three family ones are Latin, although the + central one is originally Greek also.</p> + + <p>I adopt this as far as possible for a law through my whole plant + nomenclature.</p> + + <p>13. Farther: the terminations of the Latin family names will be, for + the most part, of the masculine, <!-- Page 184 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page184"></a>[184]</span> feminine, and neuter + forms, us, a, um, with these following attached conditions.</p> + + <p>(<span class="scac">I.</span>) Those terminating in 'us,' though often + of feminine words, as the central Arbor, will indicate either real + masculine strength (quereus, laurus), or conditions of dominant majesty + (cedrus), of stubbornness and enduring force (crataegus), or of + peasant-like commonalty and hardship (juncus); softened, as it may + sometimes happen, into gentleness and beneficence (thymus). The + occasional forms in 'er' and 'il' will have similar power (acer, + basil).</p> + + <p>(<span class="scac">II.</span>) Names with the feminine termination + 'a,' if they are real names of girls, will always mean flowers that are + perfectly pretty and perfectly good (Lucia, Viola, Margarita, Clarissa). + Names terminating in 'a' which are not also accepted names of girls, may + sometimes be none the less honourable, (Primula, Campanula,) but for the + most part will signify either plants that are only good and worthy in a + nursy sort of way, (Salvia,) or that are good without being pretty, + (Lavandula,) or pretty without being good, (Kalmia). But no name + terminating in 'a' will be attached to a plant that is neither good nor + pretty.</p> + + <p>(<span class="scac">III.</span>) The neuter names terminating in 'um' + will always indicate some power either of active or suggestive evil, + (Conîum, Solanum, Satyrium,) or a relation, more or less definite, to + death; but this relation to death may sometimes be noble, or + pathetic,—"which <!-- Page 185 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page185"></a>[185]</span> to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the + oven,"—Lilium.</p> + + <p>But the leading position of these neuters in the plant's double name + must be noticed by students unacquainted with Latin, in order to + distinguish them from plural genitives, which will always, of course, be + the second word, (Francesca Fontium, Francesca of the Springs.)</p> + + <p>14. Names terminating in 'is' and 'e,' if definitely names of women, + (Iris, Amaryllis, Alcestis, Daphne,) will always signify flowers of great + beauty, and noble historic association. If not definitely names of women, + they will yet indicate some specialty of sensitiveness, or association + with legend (Berberis, Clematis). No neuters in 'e' will be admitted.</p> + + <p>15. Participial terminations (Impatiens), with neuters in 'en' + (Cyclamen), will always be descriptive of some special quality or + form,—leaving it indeterminate if good or bad, until explained. It + will be manifestly impossible to limit either these neuters, or the + feminines in 'is' to Latin forms; but we shall always know by their + termination that they cannot be generic names, if we are strict in + forming these last on a given method.</p> + + <p>16. How little method there is in our present formation of them, I am + myself more and more surprised as I consider. A child is shown a rose, + and told that he is to call every flower like that, 'Rosaceous';<a + name="NtA_52" href="#Nt_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> he is next <!-- Page 186 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page186"></a>[186]</span> shown a lily, + and told that he is to call every flower like that, + 'Liliaceous';—so far well; but he is next shown a daisy, and is not + at all allowed to call every flower like that, 'Daisaceous,' but he must + call it, like the fifth order of architecture, 'Composite'; and being + next shown a pink, he is not allowed to call other pinks 'Pinkaceous,' + but 'Nut-leafed'; and being next shown a pease-blossom, he is not allowed + to call other pease-blossoms 'Peasaceous,' but, in a brilliant burst of + botanical imagination, he is incited to call it by two names instead of + one, 'Butterfly-aceous' from its flower, and 'Pod-aceous' from its + seed;—the inconsistency of the terms thus enforced upon him being + perfected in their inaccuracy, for a daisy is not one whit more composite + than Queen of the meadow, or Jura Jacinth;<a name="NtA_53" + href="#Nt_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> and 'legumen' is not Latin for a pod, + but 'siliqua,'—so that no good scholar could remember Virgil's + 'siliqua quassante legumen,' without overthrowing all his Pisan + nomenclature.</p> + + <p>17. Farther. If we ground our names of the higher orders on the + distinctive characters of <i>form</i> in plants, these are so many, and + so subtle, that we are at once involved in more investigations than a + young learner has ever time to follow successfully, and they must be at + all times liable to dislocations and rearrangements on the discovery of + any new link in the infinitely entangled <!-- Page 187 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page187"></a>[187]</span> chain. But if we found + our higher nomenclature at once on historic fact, and relative conditions + of climate and character, rather than of form, we may at once distribute + our flora into unalterable groups, to which we may add at our pleasure, + but which will never need disturbance; far less, reconstruction.</p> + + <p>18. For instance,—and to begin,—it is an historical fact + that for many centuries the English nation believed that the Founder of + its religion, spiritually, by the mouth of the King who spake of all + herbs, had likened himself to two flowers,—the Rose of Sharon, and + Lily of the Valley. The fact of this belief is one of the most important + in the history of England,—that is to say, of the mind or heart of + England: and it is connected solemnly with the heart of Italy also, by + the closing cantos of the Paradiso.</p> + + <p>I think it well therefore that our two first generic, or at least + commandant, names heading the out-laid and in-laid divisions of plants, + should be of the rose and lily, with such meaning in them as may remind + us of this fact in the history of human mind.</p> + + <p>It is also historical that the personal appearing of this Master of + our religion was spoken of by our chief religious teacher in these terms: + "The Grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men." + And it is a constant fact that this 'grace' or 'favor' of God is spoken + of as "giving us to eat of the Tree of Life."</p> + + <p>19. Now, comparing the botanical facts I have to express, with these + historical ones, I find that the rose tribe <!-- Page 188 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page188"></a>[188]</span> has been formed among + flowers, not in distant and monstrous geologic ĉras, but in the human + epoch;—that its 'grace' or favor has been in all countries so felt + as to cause its acceptance everywhere for the most perfect physical type + of womanhood;—and that the characteristic fruit of the tribe is so + sweet, that it has become symbolic at once of the subtlest temptation, + and the kindest ministry to the earthly passion of the human race. + "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love."</p> + + <p>20. Therefore I shall call the entire order of these flowers + 'Charites,' (Graces,) and they will be divided into these five genera, + Rosa, Persica, Pomum, Rubra, and Fragaria. Which sequence of names I do + not think the young learner will have difficulty in remembering; nor in + understanding why I distinguish the central group by the fruit instead of + the flower. And if he once clearly master the structure and relations of + these five genera, he will have no difficulty in attaching to them, in a + satellitic or subordinate manner, such inferior groups as that of the + Silver-weed, or the Tormentilla; but all he will have to learn by heart + and rote, will be these six names; the Greek Master-name, Charites, and + the five generic names, in each case belonging to plants, as he will soon + find, of extreme personal interest to him.</p> + + <p>21. I have used the word 'Order' as the name of our widest groups, in + preference to 'Class,' because these widest groups will not always + include flowers like each other in form, or equal to each other in + vegetative rank; <!-- Page 189 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page189"></a>[189]</span> but they will be 'Orders,' literally like + those of any religious or chivalric association, having some common link + rather intellectual than national,—the Charites, for instance, + linked by their kindness,—the Oreiades, by their mountain + seclusion, as Sisters of Charity or Monks of the Chartreuse, irrespective + of ties of relationship. Then beneath these orders will come, what may be + rightly called, either as above in Greek derivation, 'Genera,' or in + Latin, 'Gentes,' for which, however, I choose the Latin word, because + Genus is disagreeably liable to be confused on the ear with 'genius'; but + Gens, never; and also 'nomen gentile' is a clearer and better expression + than 'nomen generosum,' and I will not coin the barbarous one, + 'genericum.' The name of the Gens, (as 'Lucia,') with an attached + epithet, as 'Verna,' will, in most cases, be enough to characterize the + individual flower; but if farther subdivision be necessary, the third + order will be that of Families, indicated by a 'nomen familiare' added in + the third place of nomenclature, as Lucia Verna,—Borealis; and no + farther subdivision will ever be admitted. I avoid the word + 'species'—originally a bad one, and lately vulgarized beyond + endurance—altogether. And varieties belonging to narrow localities, + or induced by horticulture, may be named as they please by the people + living near the spot, or by the gardener who grows them; but will not be + acknowledged by Proserpina. Nevertheless, the arbitrary reduction under + Ordines, Gentes, and Familiĉ, <!-- Page 190 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page190"></a>[190]</span> is always to be remembered as one of + massive practical convenience only; and the more subtle arborescence of + the infinitely varying structures may be followed, like a human + genealogy, as far as we please, afterwards; when once we have got our + common plants clearly arranged and intelligibly named.</p> + + <p>22. But now we find ourselves in the presence of a new difficulty, the + greatest we have to deal with in the whole matter.</p> + + <p>One new nomenclature, to be thoroughly good, must be acceptable to + scholars in the five great languages, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and + English; and it must be acceptable by them in teaching the native + children of each country. I shall not be satisfied, unless I can feel + that the little maids who gather their first violets under the Acropolis + rock, may receive for them Ĉschylean words again with joy. I shall not be + content, unless the mothers watching their children at play in the + Ceramicus of Paris, under the scarred ruins of her Kings' palace, may yet + teach them there to know the flowers which the Maid of Orleans gathered + at Domremy. I shall not be satisfied unless every word I ask from the + lips of the children of Florence and Rome, may enable them better to + praise the flowers that are chosen by the hand of Matilda,<a + name="NtA_54" href="#Nt_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> and bloom around the tomb + of Virgil.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 191 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page191"></a>[191]</span></p> + + <p>23. Now in this first example of nomenclature, the Master-name, being + <i>pure</i> Greek, may easily be accepted by Greek children, remembering + that certain also of their own poets, if they did not call the flower a + Grace itself, at least thought of it as giving gladness to the Three in + their dances.<a name="NtA_55" href="#Nt_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> But for + French children the word 'Grâce' has been doubly and trebly corrupted; + first, by entirely false theological scholarship, mistaking the 'Favor' + or Grace done by God to good men, for the 'Misericordia,' or mercy, shown + by Him to bad ones; and so, in practical life, finally substituting + 'Grâce' as a word of extreme and mortal prayer, for 'Merci,' and of late + using 'Merci' in a totally ridiculous and perverted power, for the giving + of thanks (or refusal of offered good): while the literally derived word + 'Charite' has become, in the modern mind, a gift, whether from God or + man, only to the wretched, never to the happy: and lastly, 'Grâce' in its + physical sense has been perverted, by their social vulgarity, into an + idea, whether with respect to form or motion, commending itself rather to + the ballet-master than either to the painter or the priest.</p> + + <p>For these reasons, the Master name of this family, for my French + pupils, must be simply 'Rhodiades,' which will bring, for them, the + entire group of names into easily remembered symmetry; and the English + form of <!-- Page 192 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page192"></a>[192]</span> the same name, Rhodiad, is to be used by + English scholars also for all tribes of this group except the five + principal ones.</p> + + <p>24. Farther, in every gens of plants, one will be chosen as the + representative, which, if any, will be that examined and described in the + course of this work, if I have opportunity of doing so.</p> + + <p>This representative flower will always be a wild one, and of the + simplest form which completely expresses the character of the plant; + existing divinely and unchangeably from age to age, ungrieved by man's + neglect, and inflexible by his power.</p> + + <p>And this divine character will be expressed by the epithet 'Sacred,' + taking the sense in which we attach it to a dominant and christened + majesty, when it belongs to the central type of any forceful + order;—'Quercus sacra,' 'Laurus sacra,' etc.,—the word + 'Benedicta,' or 'Benedictus,' being used instead, if the plant be too + humble to bear, without some discrepancy and unbecomingness, the higher + title; as 'Carduus Benedictus,' Holy Thistle.</p> + + <p>25. Among the gentes of flowers bearing girls' names, the dominant one + will be simply called the Queen, 'Rose Regina,' 'Rose the Queen' (the + English wild rose); 'Clarissa Regina,' 'Clarissa the Queen' (Mountain + Pink); 'Lucia Regina,' 'Lucy the Queen' (Spring Gentian), or in simpler + English, 'Lucy of Teesdale,' as 'Harry of Monmouth.' The ruling flowers + of groups <!-- Page 193 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page193"></a>[193]</span> which bear names not yet accepted for + names of girls, will be called simply 'Domina,' or shortly 'Donna.' + 'Rubra domina' (wild raspberry): the wild strawberry, because of her use + in heraldry, will bear a name of her own, exceptional, 'Cora + coronalis.'</p> + + <p>26. These main points being understood, and concessions made, we may + first arrange the greater orders of land plants in a group of twelve, + easily remembered, and with very little forcing. There must be + <i>some</i> forcing always to get things into quite easily tenable form, + for Nature always has her ins and outs. But it is curious how fitly and + frequently the number of twelve may be used for memoria technica; and in + this instance the Greek derivative names fall at once into harmony with + the most beautiful parts of Greek mythology, leading on to early + Christian tradition.</p> + + <p>27. Their series will be, therefore, as follows: the principal + subordinate groups being at once placed under each of the great ones. The + reasons for occasional appearance of inconsistency will be afterwards + explained, and the English and French forms given in each case are the + terms which would be used in answering the rapid question, 'Of what order + is this flower?' the answer being, It is a 'Cyllenid,' a 'Pleiad,' or a + 'Vestal,' as one would answer of a person, he is a Knight of St. John or + Monk of St. Benedict; while to the question, of what gens, we answer, a + Stella or an Erica, as one would answer of a person, a Stuart or + Plantagenet. <!-- Page 194 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page194"></a>[194]</span></p> + +<h3><span class="scac">I</span>. CHARITES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. CHARIS. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. RHODIADE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Rosa. Persica. Pomum. Rubra. Fragaria.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">II</span>. URANIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. URANID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. URANIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Lucia. Campanula. Convoluta.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">III</span>. CYLLENIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. CYLLENID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. NEPHELIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Stella. Francesca. Primula.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">IV</span>. OREIADES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. OREIAD. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. OREADE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Erica. Myrtilla. Aurora.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">V</span>. PLEIADES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. PLEIAD. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. PLEIADE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Silvia. Anemone.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">VI</span>. ARTEMIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. ARTEMID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. ARTEMIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Clarissa. Lychnis. Scintilla. Mica.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">VII</span>. VESTALES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. VESTAL. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. VESTALE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Mentha. Melitta. Basil. Salvia. Lavandula. Thymus.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">VIII</span>. CYTHERIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. CYTHERID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. CYTHERIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Viola. Veronica. Giulietta.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 195 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page195"></a>[195]</span></p> + +<h3><span class="scac">IX</span>. HELIADES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. ALCESTID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. HELIADE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Clytia. Margarita. Alcestis. Falconia. Carduus.</p> + +<h3><span class="scac">X</span>. DELPHIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. DELPHID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. DELPHIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Laurus. Granata. Myrtus.</p> + +<h3><span class="correction" title="'II.' in original"><span class="scac">XI</span>.</span> HESPERIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. HESPERID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. HESPERIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Aurantia. Aglee.</p> + +<h3>XII. ATHENAIDES.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">Eng</span>. ATHENAID. <span class="sc">Fr</span>. ATHENAIDE.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">Olea. Fraxinus.</p> + + <p>I will shortly note the changes of name in their twelve orders, and + the reasons for them.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">I.</span> <span + class="sc">Charites</span>.—The only change made in the + nomenclature of this order is the slight one of 'rubra' for 'rubus': + partly to express true sisterhood with the other Charites; partly to + enforce the idea of redness, as characteristic of the race, both in the + lovely purple and russet of their winter leafage, and in the exquisite + bloom of scarlet on the stems in strong young shoots. They have every + right to be placed among the Charites, first because the raspberry is + really a more important fruit in domestic economy than the strawberry; + and, secondly, because the wild bramble is often in its wandering sprays + even more graceful than the rose; and in blossom and <!-- Page 196 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page196"></a>[196]</span> fruit the + best autumnal gift that English Nature has appointed for her village + children.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">II.</span> <span + class="sc">Uranides</span>.—Not merely because they are all of the + color of the sky, but also sacred to Urania in their divine purity. + 'Convoluta' instead of 'convolvulus,' chiefly for the sake of euphony; + but also because pervinca is to be included in this group.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">III.</span> <span + class="sc">Cyllenides</span>.—Named from Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, + because the three races included in the order alike delight in rocky + ground, and in the cold or moist air of mountain-clouds.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">IV.</span> <span + class="sc">Oreiades</span>.—Described in next chapter.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">V.</span> <span + class="sc">Pleiades</span>.—From the habit of the flowers belonging + to this order to get into bright local clusters. Silvia, for the + wood-sorrel, will I hope be an acceptable change to my girl-readers.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">VI.</span> <span + class="sc">Artemides</span>.—Dedicate to Artemis for their + expression of energy, no less than purity. This character was rightly + felt in them by whoever gave the name 'Dianthus' to their leading race; a + name which I should have retained if it had not been bad Greek. I wish + them, by their name 'Clarissa' to recall the memory of St. Clare, as + 'Francesca' that of St. Francis.<a name="NtA_56" + href="#Nt_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> The <!-- Page 197 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page197"></a>[197]</span> 'issa,' not without + honour to the greatest of our English moral story-tellers, is added for + the practical reason, that I think the sound will fasten in the minds of + children the essential characteristic of the race, the cutting of the + outer edge of the petal as if with scissors.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">VII.</span> <span + class="sc">Vestales</span>.—I allow this Latin form, because + Hestiades would have been confused with Heliades. The order is named 'of + the hearth,' from its manifold domestic use, and modest blossoming.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">VIII.</span> <span + class="sc">Cytherides</span>.—Dedicate to Venus, but in all purity + and peace of thought. Giulietta, for the coarse, and more than ordinarily + false, Polygala.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">IX.</span> <span + class="sc">Heliades</span>.—The sun-flowers.<a name="NtA_57" + href="#Nt_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> In English, Alcestid, in honour to + Chaucer and the Daisy.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">X.</span> <span + class="sc">Delphides</span>.—Sacred to Apollo. Granata, changed + from Punica, in honor to Granada and the Moors.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">XI.</span> <span + class="sc">Hesperides</span>.—Already a name given to the order. + <!-- Page 198 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page198"></a>[198]</span> + Aegle, prettier and more classic than Limonia, includes the idea of + brightness in the blossom.</p> + + <p><span class="scac">XII.</span> <span + class="sc">Athenaides</span>.—I take Fraxinus into this group, + because the mountain ash, in its hawthorn-scented flower, scarletest of + berries, and exquisitely formed and finished leafage, belongs wholly to + the floral decoration of our native rocks, and is associated with their + human interests, though lightly, not less spiritually, than the olive + with the mind of Greece.</p> + + <p>28. The remaining groups are in great part natural; but I separate for + subsequent study five orders of supreme domestic utility, the Mallows, + Currants, Pease,<a name="NtA_58" href="#Nt_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> + Cresses, and Cranesbills, from those which, either in fruit or blossom, + are for finer pleasure or higher beauty. I think it will be generally + interesting for children to learn those five names as an easy lesson, and + gradually discover, wondering, the world that they include. I will give + their terminology at length, separately.</p> + + <p>29. One cannot, in all groups, have all the divisions of equal + importance; the Mallows are only placed with the other four for their + great value in decoration of cottage gardens in autumn: and their softly + healing <!-- Page 199 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page199"></a>[199]</span> qualities as a tribe. They will mentally + connect the whole useful group with the three great Ĉsculapiadĉ, + Cinchona, Coffea, and Camellia.</p> + + <p>30. Taking next the water-plants, crowned in the DROSIDĈ, which + include the five great families, Juncus, Jacinthus, Amaryllis, Iris, and + Lilium, and are masculine in their Greek name because their two first + groups, Juncus and Jacinthus, are masculine, I gather together the three + orders of TRITONIDES, which are notably trefoil; the NAIADES, notably + quatrefoil, but for which I keep their present pretty name; and the + BATRACHIDES,<a name="NtA_59" href="#Nt_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a> notably + cinqfoil, for which I keep their present ugly one, only changing it from + Latin into Greek.</p> + + <p>31. I am not sure of being forgiven so readily for putting the + Grasses, Sedges, Mosses, and Lichens together, under the great general + head of Demetridĉ. But it seems to me the mosses and lichens belong no + less definitely to Demeter, in being the first gatherers of earth on + rock, and the first coverers of its sterile surface, than the grass which + at last prepares it to the foot and to the food of man. And with the + mosses I shall take all the especially moss-plants which otherwise are + homeless or companionless, Drosera, and the like, and as a connecting + link with the flowers belonging to the Dark <!-- Page 200 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page200"></a>[200]</span> Kora, the two strange + orders of the Ophryds and Agarics.</p> + + <p>32. Lastly will come the orders of flowers which may be thought of as + belonging for the most part to the Dark Kora of the lower + world,—having at least the power of death, if not its terror, given + them, together with offices of comfort and healing in sleep, or of + strengthening, if not too prolonged, action on the nervous power of life. + Of these, the first will be the DIONYSIDĈ,—Hedera, Vitis, Liana; + then the DRACONIDĈ,—Atropa, Digitalis, Linaria; and, lastly, the + MOIRIDĈ,—Conîum, Papaver, Solanum, Arum, and Nerium.</p> + + <p>33. As I see this scheme now drawn out, simple as it is, the scope of + it seems not only far too great for adequate completion by my own labour, + but larger than the time likely to be given to botany by average scholars + would enable them intelligently to grasp: and yet it includes, I suppose, + not the tenth part of the varieties of plants respecting which, in + competitive examination, a student of physical science is now expected to + know, or at least assert on hearsay, <i>something</i>.</p> + + <p>So far as I have influence with the young, myself, I would pray them + to be assured that it is better to know the habits of one plant than the + names of a thousand; and wiser to be happily familiar with those that + grow in the nearest field, than arduously cognisant of all that plume the + isles of the Pacific, or illumine the Mountains of the Moon. <!-- Page + 201 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page201"></a>[201]</span></p> + + <p>Nevertheless, I believe that when once the general form of this system + in Proserpina has been well learned, much other knowledge may be easily + attached to it, or sheltered under the eaves of it: and in its own + development, I believe everything may be included that the student will + find useful, or may wisely desire to investigate, of properly European + botany. But I am convinced that the best results of his study will be + reached by a resolved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal idea, and + primal nomenclature.</p> + + <p>34. I do not think the need of revisal of our present scientific + classification could be more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that + laurels and roses are confused, even by Dr. Lindley, in the mind of his + feminine readers; the English word laurel, in the index to his first + volume of Ladies' Botany, referring them to the cherries, under which the + common laurel is placed as 'Prunus Laurocerasus,' while the true laurel, + 'Laurus nobilis,' must be found in the index of the second volume, under + the Latin form 'Laurus.'</p> + + <p>This accident, however, illustrates another, and a most important + point to be remembered, in all arrangements whether of plants, minerals, + or animals. No single classification can possibly be perfect, or anything + <i>like</i> perfect. It must be, at its best, a ground, or <i>warp</i> of + arrangement only, through which, or over which, the cross threads of + another,—yes, and of many others,—must be woven in our minds. + Thus the almond, though in <!-- Page 202 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page202"></a>[202]</span> the form and colour of its flower, and + method of its fruit, rightly associated with the roses, yet by the + richness and sweetness of its kernel must be held mentally connected with + all plants that bear nuts. These assuredly must have something in their + structure common, justifying their being gathered into a conceived or + conceivable group of 'Nuciferĉ,' in which the almond, hazel, walnut, + cocoa-nut, and such others would be considered as having relationship, at + least in their power of secreting a crisp and sweet substance which is + not wood, nor bark, nor pulp, nor seed-pabulum reducible to softness by + boiling;—but quite separate substance, for which I do not know that + there at present exists any botanical name,—of which, hitherto, I + find no general account, and can only myself give so much, on reflection, + as that it is crisp and close in texture, and always contains some kind + of oil or milk.</p> + + <p>35. Again, suppose the arrangement of plants could, with respect to + their flowers and fruits, be made approximately complete, they must + instantly be broken and reformed by comparison of their stems and leaves. + The three <i>creeping</i> families of the Charites,—Rosa, Rubra, + and Fragaria,—must then be frankly separated from the elastic + Persica and knotty Pomum; of which one wild and lovely species, the + hawthorn, is no less notable for the massive accumulation of wood in the + stubborn stem of it, than the wild rose for her lovely power of wreathing + her garlands at pleasure wherever they are <!-- Page 203 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page203"></a>[203]</span> fairest, the stem + following them and sustaining, where they will.</p> + + <p>36. Thus, as we examine successively each part of any plant, new + sisterhoods, and unthought-of fellowships, will be found between the most + distant orders; and ravines of unexpected separation open between those + otherwise closely allied. Few botanical characters are more definite than + the leaf structure illustrated in Plate VI., which has given to one group + of the Drosidĉ the descriptive name of Ensatĉ, (see above, Chapter IX., + <a href="#c9p11">§ 11</a>,) but this conformation would not be wisely + permitted to interfere in the least with the arrangement founded on the + much more decisive floral aspects of the Iris and Lily. So, in the fifth + volume of 'Modern Painters,' the sword-like, or rather rapier-like, + leaves of the pine are opposed, for the sake of more vivid realization, + to the shield-like leaves of the greater number of inland trees; but it + would be absurd to allow this difference any share in botanical + arrangement,—else we should find ourselves thrown into sudden + discomfiture by the wide-waving and opening foliage of the palms and + ferns.</p> + + <p>37. But through all the defeats by which insolent endeavors to sum the + orders of Creation must be reproved, and in the midst of the successes by + which patient insight will be surprised, the fact of the + <i>confirmation</i> of species in plants and animals must remain always a + miraculous one. What outstretched sign of constant Omnipotence can be + more awful, than that the susceptibility to <!-- Page 204 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page204"></a>[204]</span> external influences, + with the reciprocal power of transformation, in the organs of the plant; + and the infinite powers of moral training and mental conception over the + nativity of animals, should be so restrained within impassable limits, + and by inconceivable laws, that from generation to generation, under all + the clouds and revolutions of heaven with its stars, and among all the + calamities and convulsions of the Earth with her passions, the numbers + and the names of her Kindred may still be counted for her in unfailing + truth;—still the fifth sweet leaf unfold for the Rose, and the + sixth spring for the Lily; and yet the wolf rave tameless round the folds + of the pastoral mountains, and yet the tiger flame through the forests of + the night.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 205 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page205"></a>[205]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">CORA AND KRONOS.</p> + + <p>1. Of all the lovely wild plants—and few, mountain-bred, in + Britain, are other than lovely,—that fill the clefts and crest the + ridges of my Brantwood rock, the dearest to me, by far, are the clusters + of whortleberry which divide possession of the lower slopes with the wood + hyacinth and pervenche. They are personally and specially dear to me for + their association in my mind with the woods of Montanvert; but the plant + itself, irrespective of all accidental feeling, is indeed so beautiful in + all its ways—so delicately strong in the spring of its leafage, so + modestly wonderful in the formation of its fruit, and so pure in choice + of its haunts, not capriciously or unfamiliarly, but growing in + luxuriance through all the healthiest and sweetest seclusion of mountain + territory throughout Europe,—that I think I may without any sharp + remonstrance be permitted to express for this once only, personal feeling + in my nomenclature, calling it in Latin 'Myrtilla Cara,' and in French + 'Myrtille Chérie,' but retaining for it in English its simply classic + name, 'Blue Whortle.' <!-- Page 206 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page206"></a>[206]</span></p> + + <p>2. It is the most common representative of the group of Myrtillĉ, + which, on reference to our classification, will be found central between + the Ericĉ and Aurorĉ. The distinctions between these three families may + be easily remembered, and had better be learned before going farther; but + first let us note their fellowship. They are all Oreiades, mountain + plants; in specialty, they are all strong in stem, low in stature, and + the Ericĉ and Aurorĉ glorious in the flush of their infinitely exulting + flowers, ("the rapture of the heath"—above spoken of, p. 96.) But + all the essential loveliness of the Myrtillĉ is in their leaves and + fruit: the first always exquisitely finished and grouped like the most + precious decorative work of sacred painting; the second, red or purple, + like beads of coral or amethyst. Their minute flowers have rarely any + general part or power in the colors of mountain ground; but, examined + closely, they are one of the chief joys of the traveller's rest among the + Alps; and full of exquisiteness unspeakable, in their several bearings + and miens of blossom, so to speak. Plate VIII. represents, however + feebly, the proud bending back of her head by Myrtilla Regina:<a + name="NtA_60" href="#Nt_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> an action as beautiful in + <i>her</i> as it is terrible in the Kingly Serpent of Egypt.</p> + + <p>3. The formal differences between these three families are trenchant + and easily remembered. The Ericĉ <!-- Page 207 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page207"></a>[207]</span> are all quatrefoils, + and quatrefoils of the most studied and accomplished symmetry; and they + bear no berries, but only dry seeds. The Myrtillĉ and Aurorĉ are both + Cinqfoil; but the Myrtillĉ are symmetrical in their blossom, and the + Aurorĉ unsymmetrical. Farther, the Myrtillĉ are not absolutely + determinate in the number of their foils, (this being essentially a + characteristic of flowers exposed to much hardship,) and are thus + sometimes quatrefoil, in sympathy with the Ericĉ. But the Aurorĉ are + strictly cinqfoil. These last are the only European form of a larger + group, well named 'Azalea' from the Greek <span title="aza" class="grk" + >ἀζα</span>, dryness, and its adjective <span + title="azalea" class="grk" + >ἀζαλέα</span>, dry or parched; and + <i>this</i> name must be kept for the world-wide group, (including under + it Rhododendron, but not Kalmia,) because there is an under-meaning in + the word Aza, enabling it to be applied to the substance of dry earth, + and indicating one of the great functions of the Oreiades, in common with + the mosses,—the collection of earth upon rocks.</p> + + <p>4. Neither the Ericĉ, as I have just said, nor Aurorĉ bear useful + fruit; and the Ericĉ are named from their consequent worthlessness in the + eyes of the Greek farmer; they were the plants he 'tore up' for his bed, + or signal-fire, his word for them including a farther sense of crushing + or bruising into a heap. The Westmoreland shepherds now, alas! burn them + remorselessly on the ground, (and a year since had nearly set the copse + of Brantwood on fire just above the house.) The sense of <!-- Page 208 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page208"></a>[208]</span> parched and + fruitless existence is given to the heaths, with beautiful application of + the context, in our English translation of Jeremiah xvii. 6; but I find + the plant there named is, in the Septuagint, Wild Tamarisk; the mountains + of Palestine being, I suppose, in that latitude, too low for heath, + unless in the Lebanon.</p> + + <p>5. But I have drawn the reader's thoughts to this great race of the + Oreiades at present, because they place for us in the clearest light a + question which I have finally to answer before closing the first volume + of Proserpina; namely, what is the real difference between the three + ranks of Vegetative Humility, and Noblesse—the Herb, the Shrub, and + the Tree?</p> + + <p>6. Between the herb, which perishes annually, and the plants which + construct year after year an increasing stem, there is, of course, no + difficulty of discernment; but between the plants which, like these + Oreiades, construct for themselves richest intricacy of supporting stem, + yet scarcely rise a fathom's height above the earth they gather and + adorn,—between these, and the trees that lift cathedral aisles of + colossal shade on Andes and Lebanon,—where is the limit of kind to + be truly set?</p> + + <p>7. We have the three orders given, as no botanist could, in twelve + lines by Milton:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd</p> + <p>Op'ning their various colours, and made gay</p> + <p>Her bosom smelling sweet; and, these scarce blown,</p> + <p>Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept</p> +<!-- Page 209 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page209"></a>[209]</span> + <p>The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed</p> + <p>Embattel'd in her field; and th' <i>humble shrub,</i></p> + <p><i>And bush with frizzled hair implicit</i>: last</p> + <p>Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread</p> + <p>Their branches hung with copious fruits, or gemm'd</p> + <p>Their blossoms; with high woods the hills were crown'd;</p> + <p>With tufts the valleys and each fountain side;</p> + <p>With borders long the rivers."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Only to learn, and be made to understand, these twelve lines + thoroughly would teach a youth more of true botany than an entire + Cyclopĉdia of modern nomenclature and description: they are, like all + Milton's work, perfect in accuracy of epithet, while consummate in + concentration. Exquisite in touch, as infinite in breadth, they gather + into their unbroken clause of melodious compass the conception at once of + the Columbian prairie, the English cornfield, the Syrian vineyard, and + the Indian grove. But even Milton has left untold, and for the instant + perhaps unthought of, the most solemn difference of rank between the low + and lofty trees, not in magnitude only, nor in grace, but in + duration.</p> + + <p>8. Yet let us pause before passing to this greater subject, to dwell + more closely on what he has told us so clearly,—the difference in + Grace, namely, between the trees that rise 'as in dance,' and 'the bush + with frizzled hair.' For the bush form is essentially one taken by + vegetation in some kind of distress; scorched by heat, discouraged by + darkness, or bitten by frost; it is the form in which isolated knots of + earnest plant life stay <!-- Page 210 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page210"></a>[210]</span> the flux of fiery sands, bind the rents + of tottering crags, purge the stagnant air of cave or chasm, and fringe + with sudden hues of unhoped spring the Arctic edge of retreating + desolation.</p> + + <p>On the other hand, the trees which, as in sacred dance, make the + borders of the rivers glad with their procession, and the mountain ridges + statelier with their pride, are all expressions of the vegetative power + in its accomplished felicities; gathering themselves into graceful + companionship with the fairest arts and serenest life of man; and + providing not only the sustenance and the instruments, but also the + lessons and the delights, of that life, in perfectness of order, and + unblighted fruition of season and time.</p> + + <p>9. 'Interitura'—yet these not to-day, nor to-morrow, nor with + the decline of the summer's sun. We describe a plant as small or great; + and think we have given account enough of its nature and being. But the + chief question for the plant, as for the human creature, is the Number of + its days; for to the tree, as to its master, the words are forever + true—"As thy Day is, so shall thy Strength be."</p> + + <p>10. I am astonished hourly, more and more, at the apathy and stupidity + which have prevented me hitherto from learning the most simple facts at + the base of this question! Here is this myrtille bush in my + hand—its cluster of some fifteen or twenty delicate green branches + knitting themselves downwards into the stubborn brown <!-- Page 211 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page211"></a>[211]</span> of a stem on + which my knife makes little impression. I have not the slightest idea how + old it is, still less how old it might one day have been if I had not + gathered it; and, less than the least, what hinders it from becoming as + old as it likes! What doom is there over these bright green sprays, that + they may never win to any height or space of verdure, nor persist beyond + their narrow scope of years?</p> + + <p>11. And the more I think the more I bewilder myself; for these bushes, + which are pruned and clipped by the deathless Gardener into these lowly + thickets of bloom, do not strew the ground with fallen branches and faded + clippings in any wise,—it is the pining umbrage of the patriarchal + trees that tinges the ground and betrays the foot beneath them: but, + under the heather and the Alpine rose.—Well, what <i>is</i> under + them, then? I never saw, nor thought of looking,—will look + presently under my own bosquets and beds of lingering heather-blossom: + beds indeed they were only a month since, a foot deep in flowers, and + close in tufted cushions, and the mountain air that floated over them + rich in honey like a draught of metheglin.</p> + + <p>12. Not clipped, nor pruned, I think, after all,—nor dwarfed in + the gardener's sense; but pausing in perpetual youth and strength, + ordained out of their lips of roseate infancy. Rose-trees—the + botanists have falsely called the proudest of them; yet not trees in any + wise, they, nor doomed to know the edge of axe at their <!-- Page 212 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page212"></a>[212]</span> roots, nor + the hoary waste of time, or searing thunderstroke, on sapless branches. + Continual morning for them, and <i>in</i> them; they themselves an + Aurora, purple and cloudless, stayed on all the happy hills. That shall + be our name for them, in the flushed Phœnician colour of their + height, in calm or tempest of the heavenly sea; how much holier than the + depth of the Tyrian! And the queen of them on our own Alps shall be + 'Aurora Alpium.'<a name="NtA_61" href="#Nt_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a></p> + + <p>13. There is one word in the Miltonian painting of them which I must + lean on specially; for the accurate English of it hides deep morality no + less than botany. 'With hair <i>implicit</i>.' The interweaving of + complex band, which knits the masses of heath or of Alpine rose into + their dense tufts and spheres of flower, is to be noted both in these, + and in stem structure of a higher order like that of the stone pine, for + an expression of the instinct of the plant gathering itself into + protective unity, whether against cold or heat, while the forms of the + trees which have no hardship to sustain are uniformly based on the effort + of each spray to <i>separate</i> itself from its fellows to the utmost, + and obtain around its own leaves the utmost space of air.</p> + + <p>In vulgar modern English, the term 'implicit' used of Trust or Faith, + has come to signify only its serenity. But the Miltonian word gives the + <i>reason</i> of serenity: <!-- Page 213 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page213"></a>[213]</span> the root and branch intricacy of closest + knowledge and fellowship.</p> + + <p>14. I have said that Milton has told us more in these few lines than + any botanist could. I will prove my saying by placing in comparison with + them two passages of description by the most imaginative and generally + well-trained scientific man since Linnĉus—Humboldt—which, + containing much that is at this moment of special use to us, are curious + also in the confusion even of the two orders of annual and perennial + plants, and show, therefore, the extreme need of most careful initial + work in this distinction of the reign of Cora from that of Kronos.</p> + + <p>"The disk of the setting sun appeared like a globe of fire suspended + over the savannah; and its last rays, as they swept the earth, illumined + the extremities of the grass, strongly agitated by the evening breeze. In + the low and humid places of the equinoxial zone, even when the gramineous + plants and reeds present the aspect of a meadow, of turf, a rich + decoration of the picture is usually wanting. I mean that variety of wild + flowers which, scarcely rising above the grass, seem to lie upon a smooth + bed of verdure. Between the tropics, the strength and luxury of + vegetation give such a development to plants, that the smallest of the + dicotyledonous family become shrubs.<a name="NtA_62" + href="#Nt_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> It would seem as if the <!-- Page 214 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page214"></a>[214]</span> liliaceous + plants, mingled with the gramina, assumed the place of the flowers of our + meadows. Their form is indeed striking; they dazzle by the variety and + splendor of their colours; but, too high above the soil, they disturb + that harmonious relation which exists among the plants that compose our + meadows and our turf. Nature, in her beneficence, has given the landscape + under every zone its peculiar type of beauty.</p> + + <p>"After proceeding four hours across the savannahs, we entered into a + little wood composed of shrubs and small trees, which is called El + Pejual; no doubt because of the great abundance of the 'Pejoa' + (Gaultheria odorata,) a plant with very odoriferous leaves. The steepness + of the mountain became less considerable, and we felt an indescribable + pleasure in examining the plants of this region. Nowhere, perhaps, can be + found collected together in so small a space of ground, productions so + beautiful, and so remarkable in regard to the geography of plants. At the + height of a thousand toises, the lofty savannahs of the hills terminate + in a zone of shrubs, which by their appearance, their tortuous branches, + their stiff leaves, and the dimensions and beauty of their purple + flowers, remind us of what is called in the Cordilleras of the Andes the + vegetation of the <i>paramos</i><a name="NtA_63" + href="#Nt_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> and the <i>punas</i>. We find there the + <!-- Page 215 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page215"></a>[215]</span> + family of the Alpine rhododendrons, the thibaudias, the andromedas, the + vacciniums, and those befarias<a name="NtA_64" + href="#Nt_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a> with resinous leaves, which we have + several times compared to the rhododendron of our European Alps.</p> + + <p>"Even when nature does not produce the same species in analogous + climates, either in the plains of isothermal parallels, or on table-lands + the temperature of which resembles that of places nearer the poles, we + still remark a striking resemblance of appearance and physiognomy in the + vegetation of the most distant countries. This phenomenon is one of the + most curious in the history of organic forms. I say the history; for in + vain would reason forbid man to form hypotheses on the origin of things: + he is not the less tormented with these insoluble problems of the + distribution of beings."</p> + + <p>15. Insoluble—yes, assuredly, poor little beaten phantasms of + palpitating clay that we are—and who asked us to solve it? Even + this Humboldt, quiet-hearted and modest watcher of the ways of Heaven, in + the real make of him, came at last to be so far puffed up by his vain + science in declining years that he must needs write a Kosmos of things in + the Universe, forsooth, as if he knew all about them! when he was not + able meanwhile, (and does not seem even to have desired the ability,) to + put the slightest Kosmos into his own 'Personal Narrative'; but leaves + one to gather what one wants out of <!-- Page 216 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page216"></a>[216]</span> its wild growth; or + rather, to wash or winnow what may be useful out of its débris, without + any vestige either of reference or index; and I must look for these + fragmentary sketches of heath and grass through chapter after chapter + about the races of the Indian and religion of the Spaniard,—these + also of great intrinsic value, but made useless to the general reader by + interspersed experiment on the drifts of the wind and the depths of the + sea.</p> + + <p>16. But one more fragment out of a note (vol. iii., p. 494) I must + give, with reference to an order of the Rhododendrons as yet wholly + unknown to me.</p> + + <p>"The name of vine tree, 'uvas camaronas' (Shrimp grapes?) is given in + the Andes to plants of the genus Thibaudia on account of their <i>large + succulent fruit</i>. Thus the ancient botanists give the name of Bear's + vine, 'Uva Ursi,' and vine of Mount Ida, 'Vitis Idea,' to an Arbutus and + Myrtillus which belong, like the Thibaudiĉ, to the family of the + Ericineĉ."</p> + + <p>Now, though I have one entire bookcase and half of another, and a + large cabinet besides, or about fifteen feet square of books on botany + beside me here, and a quantity more at Oxford, I have no means whatever, + in all the heap, of finding out what a Thibaudia is like. Loudon's + Cyclopĉdia, the only general book I have, tells me only that it will grow + well in camellia houses, that its flowers develope at Christmas, and that + they are beautifully varied like a fritillary: whereupon I am very + anxious to see them, and taste their fruit, and be able to <!-- Page 217 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page217"></a>[217]</span> tell my + pupils something intelligible of them,—a new order, as it seems to + me, among my Oreiades. But for the present I can make no room for them, + and must be content, for England and the Alps, with my single class, + Myrtilla, including all the fruit-bearing and (more or less) + myrtle-leaved kinds; and Azalea for the fruitless flushing of the loftier + tribes; taking the special name 'Aurora' for the red and purple ones of + Europe, and resigning the already accepted 'Rhodora' to those of the + Andes and Himalaya.</p> + + <p>17. Of which also, with help of earnest Indian botanists, I hope + nevertheless to add some little history to that of our own Oreiades; but + shall set myself on the most familiar of them first, as I partly hinted + in taking for the frontispiece of this volume two unchecked shoots of our + commonest heath, in their state of full lustre and decline. And now I + must go out and see and think—and for the first time in my + life—what becomes of all these fallen blossoms, and where my own + mountain Cora hides herself in winter; and where her sweet body is laid + in its death.</p> + + <p>Think of it with me, for a moment before I go. That harvest of + amethyst bells, over all Scottish and Irish and Cumberland hill and + moorland; what substance is there in it, yearly gathered out of the + mountain winds,—stayed there, as if the morning and evening clouds + had been caught out of them and woven into flowers; 'Ropes of + sea-sand'—but that is child's magic <!-- Page 218 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page218"></a>[218]</span> merely, compared to + the weaving of the Heath out of the cloud. And once woven, how much of it + is forever worn by the Earth? What weight of that transparent tissue, + half crystal and half comb of honey, lies strewn every year dead under + the snow?</p> + + <p>I must go and look, and can write no more to-day; nor to-morrow + neither. I must gather slowly what I see, and remember; and meantime + leaving, to be dealt with afterwards, the difficult and quite separate + question of the production of <i>wood</i>, I will close this first volume + of Proserpina with some necessary statements respecting the operations, + serviceable to other creatures than themselves, in which the lives of the + noblest plants are ended: honourable in this service equally, though + evanescent, some,—in the passing of a breeze—or the dying of + a day;—and patient some, of storm and time, serene in fruitful + sanctity, through all the uncounted ages which Man has polluted with his + tears.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 219 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page219"></a>[219]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE SEED AND HUSK.</p> + + <p>1. Not the least sorrowful, nor least absurd of the confusions brought + on us by unscholarly botanists, blundering into foreign languages, when + they do not know how to use their own, is that which has followed on + their practice of calling the seed-vessels of flowers 'egg-vessels,'<a + name="NtA_65" href="#Nt_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> in Latin; thus involving + total loss of the power of the good old English word 'husk,' and the good + old French one, 'cosse.' For all the treasuries of plants (see Chapter + IV., <a href="#c4p17">§ 17</a>) may be best conceived, and described, + generally, as consisting of 'seed' and 'husk,'—for the most part + two or more seeds, in a husk composed of two or more parts, as pease in + their shell, pips in an orange, or kernels in a walnut; but whatever + their number, or the method of their enclosure, let the student keep + clear in his mind, for the base of all study of fructification, the broad + distinction between the seed, as one thing, and the husk as another: the + seed, essential to the continuance of the plant's race; and the husk, + <!-- Page 220 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page220"></a>[220]</span> + adapted, primarily, to its guard and dissemination; but secondarily, to + quite other and far more important functions.</p> + + <p>2. For on this distinction follows another practical one of great + importance. A seed may serve, and many do mightily serve, for the food of + man, when boiled, crushed, or otherwise industriously prepared by man + himself, for his mere <i>sustenance</i>. But the <i>husk</i> of the seed + is prepared in many cases for the delight of his eyes, and the pleasure + of his palate, by Nature herself, and is then called a 'fruit.'</p> + + <p>3. The varieties of structure both in seed and husk, and yet more, the + manner in which the one is contained, and distributed by, the other, are + infinite; and in some cases the husk is apparently wanting, or takes some + unrecognizable form. But in far the plurality of instances the two parts + of the plant's treasury are easily distinguishable, and must be + separately studied, whatever their apparent closeness of relation, or, + (as in all natural things,) the equivocation sometimes taking place + between the one and the other. To me, the especially curious point in + this matter is that, while I find the most elaborate accounts given by + botanists of the stages of growth in each of these parts of the treasury, + they never say of what use the guardian is to the guarded part, + irrespective of its service to man. The mechanical action of the husk in + containing and scattering the seeds, they indeed often notice and insist + on; but they do not tell <!-- Page 221 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page221"></a>[221]</span> us of what, if any, nutritious or + fostering use the rind is to a chestnut, or an orange's pulp to its pips, + or a peach's juice to its stone.</p> + + <p>4. Putting aside this deeper question for the moment, let us make sure + we understand well, and define safely, the separate parts themselves. A + seed consists essentially of a store, or sack, containing substance to + nourish a germ of life, which is surrounded by such substance, and in the + process of growth is first fed by it. The germ of life itself rises into + two portions, and not more than two, in the seeds of two-leaved plants; + but this symmetrical dualism must not be allowed to confuse the student's + conception, of the <i>three</i> organically separate parts,—the + tough skin of a bean, for instance; the softer contents of it which we + boil to eat; and the small germ from which the root springs when it is + sown. A bean is the best type of the whole structure. An almond out of + its shell, a peach-kernel, and an apple-pip are also clear and perfect, + though varied types.</p> + + <p>5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect simplicity of type in + the pod of a bean, or the globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers + in which it is absent or imperfect; and when it contains only one seed, + it may be so small and closely united with the seed it contains, that + both will be naturally thought of as one thing only. Thus, in a + dandelion, the little brown grains, which may be blown away, each with + its silken parachute, are every one of them a complete husk and <!-- Page + 222 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page222"></a>[222]</span> seed + together. But the majority of instances (and those of plants the most + serviceable to man) in which the seed-vessel has entirely a separate + structure and mechanical power, justify us in giving it the normal term + 'husk,' as the most widely applicable and intelligible.</p> + + <p>6. The change of green, hard, and tasteless vegetable substance into + beautifully coloured, soft, and delicious substance, which produces what + we call a fruit, is, in most cases, of the husk only; in others, of the + part of the stalk which immediately sustains the seed; and in a very few + instances, not properly a change, but a distinct formation, of fruity + substance between the husk and seed. Normally, however, the husk, like + the seed, consists always of three parts; it has an outer skin, a central + substance of peculiar nature, and an inner skin, which holds the seed. + The main difficulty, in describing or thinking of the completely ripened + product of any plant, is to discern clearly which is the inner skin of + the husk, and which the outer skin of the seed. The peach is in this + respect the best general type,—the woolly skin being the outer one + of the husk; the part we eat, the central substance of the husk; and the + hard shell of the stone, the inner skin of the husk. The bitter kernel + within is the seed.</p> + + <p>7. In this case, and in the plum and cherry, the two parts under + present examination—husk and seed—separate naturally; the + fruity part, which is the body of the husk, adhering firmly to the shell, + which is its inner <!-- Page 223 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page223"></a>[223]</span> coat. But in the walnut and almond, the + two outer parts of the husk separate from the interior one, which becomes + an apparently independent 'shell.' So that when first I approached this + subject I divided the general structure of a treasury into <i>three</i> + parts—husk, shell, and kernel; and this division, when we once have + mastered the main one, will be often useful. But at first let the student + keep steadily to his conception of the two constant parts, husk and seed, + reserving the idea of shells and kernels for one group of plants + only.</p> + + <p>8. It will not be always without difficulty that he maintains the + distinction, when the tree pretends to have changed it. Thus, in the + chestnut, the inner coat of the husk becomes brown, adheres to the seed, + and seems part of it; and we naturally call only the thick, green, + prickly coat, the husk. But this is only one of the deceiving tricks of + Nature, to compel our attention more closely. The real place of + separation, to <i>her</i> mind, is between the mahogany-coloured shell + and the nut itself, and that more or less silky and flossy coating within + the brown shell is the true lining of the entire 'husk.' The paler brown + skin, following the rugosities of the nut, is the true sack or skin of + the seed. Similarly in the walnut and almond.</p> + + <p>9. But, in the apple, two new tricks are played us. First, in the + brown skin of the ripe pip, we might imagine we saw the part + correspondent to the mahogany skin of the chestnut, and therefore the + inner coat of the <!-- Page 224 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page224"></a>[224]</span> husk. But it is not so. The brown skin of + the pips belongs to them properly, and is all their own. It is the true + skin or sack of the seed. The inner coat of the husk is the smooth, + white, scaly part of the core that holds them.</p> + + <p>Then,—for trick number two. We should as naturally imagine the + skin of the apple, which we peel off, to be correspondent to the skin of + the peach; and therefore, to be the outer part of the husk. But not at + all. The outer part of the husk in the apple is melted away into the + fruity mass of it, and the red skin outside is the skin of its + <i>stalk</i>, not of its seed-vessel at all!</p> + + <p>10. I say 'of its stalk,'—that is to say, of the part of the + stalk immediately sustaining the seed, commonly called the torus, and + expanding into the calyx. In the apple, this torus incorporates itself + with the husk completely; then refines its own external skin, and colours + <i>that</i> variously and beautifully, like the true skin of the husk in + the peach, while the withered leaves of the calyx remain in the 'eye' of + the apple.</p> + + <p>But in the 'hip' of the rose, the incorporation with the husk of the + seed does not take place. The torus, or,—as in this flower from its + peculiar form it is called,—the tube of the calyx, alone forms the + frutescent part of the hip; and the complete seeds, husk and all, (the + firm triangular husk enclosing an almond-shaped kernel,) are grouped + closely in its interior cavity, while the calyx remains on the top in a + large and scarcely withering star. <!-- Page 225 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page225"></a>[225]</span> In the nut, the calyx + remains green and beautiful, forming what we call the husk of a filbert; + and again we find Nature amusing herself by trying to make us think that + this strict envelope, almost closing over the single seed, is the same + thing to the nut that its green shell is to a walnut!</p> + + <p>11. With still more capricious masquing, she varies and hides the + structure of her 'berries.'</p> + + <p>The strawberry is a hip turned inside-out, the frutescent receptacle + changed into a scarlet ball, or cone, of crystalline and delicious coral, + in the outside of which the separate seeds, husk and all, are imbedded. + In the raspberry and blackberry, the interior mound remains sapless; and + the rubied translucency of dulcet substance is formed round each separate + seed, <i>upon</i> its husk; not a part of the husk, but now an entirely + independent and added portion of the plant's bodily form.</p> + + <p>12. What is thus done for each seed, on the <i>out</i>side of the + receptacle, in the raspberry, is done for each seed, <i>in</i>side the + calyx, in a pomegranate; which is a hip in which the seeds have become + surrounded with a radiant juice, richer than claret wine; while the seed + itself, within the generous jewel, is succulent also, and spoken of by + Tournefort as a "baie succulente." The tube of the calyx, brown-russet + like a large hip, externally, is yet otherwise divided, and separated + wholly from the cinque-foiled, and cinque-celled rose, both in number of + petal and division of treasuries; the calyx has eight points, and nine + cells. <!-- Page 226 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page226"></a>[226]</span></p> + + <p>13. Lastly, in the orange, the fount of fragrant juice is interposed + between the seed and the husk. It is wholly independent of both; the + Aurantine rind, with its white lining and divided compartments, is the + true husk; the orange pips are the true seeds; and the eatable part of + the fruit is formed between them, in clusters of delicate little flasks, + as if a fairy's store of scented wine had been laid up by her in the + hollow of a chestnut shell, between the nut and rind; and then the green + changed to gold.</p> + + <p>14. I have said '<i>lastly</i>'—of the orange, for fear of the + reader's weariness only; not as having yet represented, far less + exhausted, the variety of frutescent form. But these are the most + important types of it; and before I can explain the relation between + these, and another, too often confounded with them—the + <i>granular</i> form of the seed of grasses.—I must give some + account of what, to man, is far more important than the form—the + gift to him in fruit-food; and trial, in fruit-temptation.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 227 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page227"></a>[227]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">THE FRUIT GIFT.</p> + + <p>1. In the course of the preceding chapter, I hope that the reader has + obtained, or may by a little patience both obtain and secure, the idea of + a great natural Ordinance, which, in the protection given to the part of + plants necessary to prolong their race, provides, for happier living + creatures, food delightful to their taste, and forms either amusing or + beautiful to their eyes. Whether in receptacle, calyx, or true + husk,—in the cup of the acorn, the fringe of the filbert, the down + of the apricot, or bloom of the plum, the powers of Nature consult quite + other ends than the mere continuance of oaks and plum trees on the earth; + and must be regarded always with gratitude more deep than wonder, when + they are indeed seen with human eyes and human intellect.</p> + + <p>2. But in one family of plants, the <i>contents</i> also of the seed, + not the envelope of it merely, are prepared for the support of the higher + animal life; and their grain, filled with the substance which, for + universally understood name, may best keep the Latin one of + Farina,—becoming in French, 'Farine,' and in English, + 'Flour,'—both in the perfectly nourishing elements of it, and its + <!-- Page 228 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page228"></a>[228]</span> + easy and abundant multiplicability, becomes the primal treasure of human + economy.</p> + + <p>3. It has been the practice of botanists of all nations to consider + the seeds of the grasses together with those of roses and pease, as if + all could be described on the same principles, and with the same + nomenclature of parts. But the grain of corn is a quite distinct thing + from the seed of pease. In <i>it</i>, the husk and the seed envelope have + become inextricably one. All the exocarps, endocarps, epicarps, + mesocarps, shells, husks, sacks, and skins, are woven at once together + into the brown bran; and inside of that, a new substance is collected for + us, which is not what we boil in pease, or poach in eggs, or munch in + nuts, or grind in coffee;—but a thing which, mixed with water and + then baked, has given to all the nations of the world their prime word + for food, in thought and prayer,—Bread; their prime conception of + the man's and woman's labor in preparing it—("whoso putteth hand to + the <i>plough</i>"—two women shall be grinding at the + <i>mill</i>)—their prime notion of the means of cooking by + fire—("which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the + <i>oven</i>"), and their prime notion of culinary office—the "chief + <i>baker</i>," cook, or pastrycook,—(compare Bedreddin Hassan in + the Arabian Nights): and, finally, to modern civilization, the Saxon word + 'lady,' with whatever it imports.</p> + + <p>4. It has also been the practice of botanists to confuse all the + ripened products of plants under the general term <!-- Page 229 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page229"></a>[229]</span> 'fruit.' But the + essential and separate fruit-gift is of two substances, quite distinct + from flour, namely, oil and wine, under the last term including for the + moment all kinds of juice which will produce alcohol by fermentation. Of + these, oil may be produced either in the kernels of nuts, as in almonds, + or in the substance of berries, as in the olive, date, and coffee-berry. + But the sweet juice which will become medicinal in wine, can only be + developed in the husk, or in the receptacle.</p> + + <p>5. The office of the Chief Butler, as opposed to that of the Chief + Baker, and the office of the Good Samaritan, pouring in oil and wine, + refer both to the total fruit-gift in both kinds: but in the study of + plants, we must primarily separate our notion of their gifts to men into + the three elements, flour, oil, and wine; and have instantly and always + intelligible names for them in Latin, French, and English.</p> + + <p>And I think it best not to confuse our ideas of pure vegetable + substance with the possible process of fermentation:—so that rather + than 'wine,' for a constant specific term, I will take + 'Nectar,'—this term more rightly including the juices of the peach, + nectarine, and plum, as well as those of the grape, currant, and + apple.</p> + + <p>Our three separate substances will then be easily named in all three + languages:</p> + + +<table class="nob" summary="Names for flour, oil, and nectar" title="Names for flour, oil, and nectar"> + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Farina.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Oleum.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Nectar.</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Farine.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Huile.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Nectare.</p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Flour.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Oil.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Nectar.</p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p><!-- Page 230 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page230"></a>[230]</span></p> + + <p>There is this farther advantage in keeping the third common term, that + it leaves us the words Succus, Jus, Juice, for other liquid products of + plants, watery, milky, sugary, or resinous,—often indeed important + to man, but often also without either agreeable flavor or nutritious + power; and it is therefore to be observed with care that we may use the + word 'juice,' of a liquid produced by any part of a plant, but 'nectar,' + only of the juices produced in its fruit.</p> + + <p>6. But the good and pleasure of fruit is not in the juice + only;—in some kinds, and those not the least valuable, (as the + date,) it is not in the juice at all. We still stand absolutely in want + of a word to express the more or less firm <i>substance</i> of fruit, as + distinguished from all other products of a plant. And with the usual + ill-luck,—(I advisedly think of it as demoniacal + misfortune)—of botanical science, no other name has been yet used + for such substance than the entirely false and ugly one of + 'Flesh,'—Fr., 'Chair,' with its still more painful derivation + 'Charnu,' and in England the monstrous scientific term, 'Sarco-carp.'</p> + + <p>But, under the housewifery of Proserpina, since we are to call the + juice of fruit, Nectar, its substance will be as naturally and easily + called Ambrosia; and I have no doubt that this, with the other names + defined in this chapter, will not only be found practically more + convenient than the phrases in common use, but will more securely fix in + the student's mind a true conception of <!-- Page 231 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page231"></a>[231]</span> the essential + differences in substance, which, ultimately, depend wholly on their + pleasantness to human perception, and offices for human good; and not at + all on any otherwise explicable structure or faculty. It is of no use to + determine, by microscope or retort, that cinnamon is made of cells with + so many walls, or grape-juice of molecules with so many sides;—we + are just as far as ever from understanding why these particular + interstices should be aromatic, and these special parallelopipeds + exhilarating, as we were in the savagely unscientific days when we could + only see with our eyes, and smell with our noses. But to call each of + these separate substances by a name rightly belonging to it through all + the past variations of the language of educated man, will probably enable + us often to discern powers in the thing itself, of affecting the human + body and mind, which are indeed qualities infinitely more its <i>own</i>, + than any which can possibly be extracted by the point of a knife, or + brayed out with a mortar and pestle.</p> + + <p>7. Thus, to take merely instance in the three main elements of which + we have just determined the names,—flour, oil, and + ambrosia;—the differences in the kinds of pleasure which the tongue + received from the powderiness of oat-cake, or a well-boiled + potato—(in the days when oat-cake and potatoes were!)—from + the glossily-softened crispness of a well-made salad, and from the cool + and fragrant amber of an apricot, are indeed distinctions between the + essential virtues of things which <!-- Page 232 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page232"></a>[232]</span> were made to be + <i>tasted</i>, much more than to be eaten; and in their various methods + of ministry to, and temptation of, human appetites, have their part in + the history, not of elements merely, but of souls; and of the + soul-virtues, which from the beginning of the world have bade the barrel + of meal not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail; and have planted, by waters + of comfort, the fruits which are for the healing of nations.</p> + + <p>8. And, again, therefore, I must repeat, with insistance, the claim I + have made for the limitation of language to the use made of it by + educated men. The word 'carp' could never have multiplied itself into the + absurdities of endo-carps and epi-carps, but in the mouths of men who + scarcely ever read it in its original letters, and therefore never + recognized it as meaning precisely the same thing as 'fructus,' which + word, being a little more familiar with, they would have scarcely abused + to the same extent; they would not have called a walnut shell an + intra-fruct—or a grape skin an extra-fruct; but again, because, + though they are accustomed to the English 'fructify,' + 'frugivorous'—and 'usufruct,' they are unaccustomed to the Latin + 'fruor,' and unconscious therefore that the derivative 'fructus' must + always, in right use, mean an <i>enjoyed</i> thing, they generalize every + mature vegetable product under the term; and we find Dr. Gray coolly + telling us that there is no fruit so "likely to be mistaken for a seed," + as a grain of corn! a grain, whether of corn, or any other <!-- Page 233 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page233"></a>[233]</span> grass, being + precisely the vegetable structure to which frutescent change is forever + forbidden! and to which the word <i>seed</i> is primarily and perfectly + applicable!—the thing to be <i>sown</i>, not grafted.</p> + + <p>9. But to mark this total incapability of frutescent change, and + connect the form of the seed more definitely with its dusty treasure, it + is better to reserve, when we are speaking with precision, the term + 'grain' for the seeds of the grasses: the difficulty is greater in French + than in English: because they have no monosyllabic word for the + constantly granular 'seed'; but for us the terms are all simple, and + already in right use, only not quite clearly enough understood; and there + remains only one real difficulty now in our system of nomenclature, that + having taken the word 'husk' for the seed-vessel, we are left without a + general word for the true fringe of a filbert, or the chaff of a grass. I + don't know whether the French 'frange' could be used by them in this + sense, if we took it in English botany. But for the present, we can + manage well enough without it, one general term, 'chaff,' serving for all + the grasses, 'cup' for acorns, and 'fringe' for nuts.</p> + + <p>10. But I call this a <i>real</i> difficulty, because I suppose, among + the myriads of plants of which I know nothing, there may be forms of the + envelope of fruits or seeds which may, for comfort of speech, require + some common generic name. One <i>un</i>real difficulty, or shadow of + difficulty, remains in our having no entirely comprehensive <!-- Page 234 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page234"></a>[234]</span> name for seed + and seed-vessel together than that the botanists now use, 'fruit.' But + practically, even now, people feel that they can't gather figs of + thistles, and never speak of the fructification of a thistle, or of the + fruit of a dandelion. And, re-assembling now, in one view, the words we + have determined on, they will be found enough for all practical service, + and in such service always accurate, and, usually, suggestive. I repeat + them in brief order, with such farther explanation as they need.</p> + + <p>11. All ripe products of the life of flowers consist essentially of + the Seed and Husk,—these being, in certain cases, sustained, + surrounded, or provided with means of motion, by other parts of the + plant; or by developments of their own form which require in each case + distinct names. Thus the white cushion of the dandelion to which its + brown seeds are attached, and the personal parachutes which belong to + each, must be separately described for that species of plants; it is the + little brown thing they sustain and carry away on the wind, which must be + examined as the essential product of the floret;—the 'seed and + husk.'</p> + + <p>12. Every seed has a husk, holding either that seed alone, or other + seeds with it.</p> + + <p>Every perfect seed consists of an embryo, and the substance which + first nourishes that embryo; the whole enclosed in a sack or other + sufficient envelope. Three essential parts altogether. <!-- Page 235 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page235"></a>[235]</span></p> + + <p>Every perfect husk, vulgarly pericarp, or 'round-fruit,'—(as + periwig, 'round-wig,')—consists of a shell, (vulgarly endocarp,) + rind, (vulgarly mesocarp,) and skin, (vulgarly epicarp); three essential + parts altogether. But one or more of these parts may be effaced, or + confused with another; and in the seeds of grasses they all concentrate + themselves into bran.</p> + + <p>13. When a husk consists of two or more parts, each of which has a + separate shaft and volute, uniting in the pillar and volute of the + flower, each separate piece of the husk is called a 'carpel.' The name + was first given by De Candolle, and must be retained. But it continually + happens that a simple husk divides into two parts corresponding to the + two leaves of the embryo, as in the peach, or symmetrically holding + alternate seeds, as in the pea. The beautiful drawing of the pea-shell + with its seeds, in Rousseau's botany, is the only one I have seen which + rightly shows and expresses this arrangement.</p> + + <p>14. A Fruit is either the husk, receptacle, petal, or other part of a + flower <i>external to the seed</i>, in which chemical changes have taken + place, fitting it for the most part to become pleasant and healthful food + for man, or other living animals; but in some cases making it bitter or + poisonous to them, and the enjoyment of it depraved or deadly. But, as + far as we know, it is without any definite office to the seed it + contains; and the change takes <!-- Page 236 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page236"></a>[236]</span> place entirely to fit the plant to the + service of animals.<a name="NtA_66" href="#Nt_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a></p> + + <p>In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to a temperate zone, of + which the polar limit is marked by the strawberry, and the equatorial by + the orange. The more arctic regions produce even the smallest kinds of + fruit with difficulty; and the more equatorial, in coarse, oleaginous, or + over-luscious masses.</p> + + <p>15. All the most perfect fruits are developed <i>from exquisite forms + either of foliage or flower</i>. The vine leaf, in its generally + decorative power, is the most important, both in life and in art, of all + that shade the habitations of men. The olive leaf is, without any rival, + the most beautiful of the leaves of timber trees; and its blossom, though + minute, of extreme beauty. The apple is essentially the fruit of the + rose, and the peach of her only rival in her own colour. The cherry and + orange blossom are the two types of floral snow.</p> + + <p>16. And, lastly, let my readers be assured, the economy of blossom and + fruit, with the distribution of water, <!-- Page 237 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page237"></a>[237]</span> will be found + hereafter the most accurate test of wise national government.</p> + + <p>For example of the action of a national government, rightly so called, + in these matters, I refer the student to the Mariegolas of Venice, + translated in Fors Clavigera; and I close this chapter, and this first + volume of Proserpina, not without pride, in the words I wrote on this + same matter eighteen years ago. "So far as the labourer's immediate + profit is concerned, it matters not an iron filing whether I employ him + in growing a peach, or in forging a bombshell. But the difference to him + is final, whether, when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage, and + give it the peach,—or drop the shell down his chimney, and blow his + roof off."</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 238 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page238"></a>[238]</span></p> + +<h3>INDEX I.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE.</p> + + <p>Plants in perfect form are said, at <span class="correction" + title="'page 29' in original">page <a href="#page26">26</a></span>, to + consist of four principal parts: root, stem, leaf, and flower. (Compare + Chapter V., <a href="#c5p2">§ 2</a>.) The reader may have been surprised + at the omission of the fruit from this list. But a plant which has borne + fruit is no longer of 'perfect' form. Its flower is dead. And, observe, + it is further said, at <span class="correction" title="'page 73' in original" + >page <a href="#page65">65</a></span>, (and compare Chapter III., <a + href="#c3p2">§ 2</a>,) that the use of the fruit is to produce the + flower: not of the flower to produce the fruit. Therefore, the plant in + perfect blossom, is itself perfect. Nevertheless, the formation of the + fruit, practically, is included in the flower, and so spoken of in the + fifteenth line of the same page.</p> + + <p>Each of these four main parts of a plant consist normally of a certain + series of minor parts, to which it is well to attach easily remembered + names. In this section of my index I will not admit the confusion of idea + involved by alphabetical arrangement of these names, but will sacrifice + facility of reference to clearness of explanation, and taking the four + great parts of the plant in <!-- Page 239 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page239"></a>[239]</span> succession, I will give the list of the + minor and constituent parts, with their names as determined in + Proserpina, and reference to the pages where the reasons for such + determination are given, endeavouring to supply, at the same time, any + deficiencies which I find in the body of the text.</p> + +<p class="cenhead"><span class="sc">I. The Root.</span></p> + + <p>Origin of the word Root <a href="#page27">27</a></p> + + <p>The offices of the root are threefold: namely, Tenure, Nourishment, + and Animation <a href="#page27">27</a>-<a href="#page34">34</a></p> + + <p>The essential parts of a Root are two: the Limbs and Fibres <a + href="#page33">33</a></p> + + <p>I. <span class="sc">The Limb</span> is the gathered mass of fibres, or + at least of fibrous substance, which extends itself in search of + nourishment <a href="#page32">32</a></p> + + <p>II. <span class="sc">The Fibre</span> is the organ by which the + nourishment is received <a href="#page32">32</a></p> + + <p>The inessential or accidental parts of roots, which are attached to + the roots of some plants, but not to those of others, (and are, indeed, + for the most part absent,) are three: namely, Store-Houses, Refuges, and + Ruins <a href="#page34">34</a></p> + + <p>III. Store-houses contain the food of the future plant <a + href="#page34">34</a></p> + +<p><!-- Page 240 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page240"></a>[240]</span></p> + + <p>IV. <span class="sc">Refuges</span> shelter the future plant itself + for a time <a href="#page35">35</a></p> + + <p>V. <span class="sc">Ruins</span> form a basis for the growth of the + future plant in its proper order <a href="#page36">36</a></p> + + <p>Root-Stocks, the accumulation of such ruins in a vital order <a + href="#page37">37</a></p> + + <p>General questions relating to the office and chemical power of roots + <a href="#page38">38</a></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>The nomenclature of Roots will not be extended, in Proserpina, beyond + the five simple terms here given: though the ordinary botanical + ones—corm, bulb, tuber, etc.—will be severally explained in + connection with the plants which they specially characterize.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="cenhead">II. <span class="sc">The Stem.</span></p> + + <p>Derivation of word <a href="#page137">137</a></p> + + <p>The channel of communication between leaf and root <a + href="#page153">153</a></p> + + <p>In a perfect plant it consists of three parts:</p> + + <p>I. <span class="sc">The Stem (Stemma)</span> proper.—A growing + or advancing shoot which sustains all the other organs of the plant <a + href="#page136">136</a></p> + + <p>It may grow by adding thickness to its sides without advancing; but + its essential characteristic is the vital power of Advance <a + href="#page136">136</a> <!-- Page 241 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page241"></a>[241]</span></p> + + <p>It may be round, square, or polygonal, but is always roundly minded <a + href="#page136">136</a></p> + + <p>Its structural power is Spiral <a href="#page137">137</a></p> + + <p>It is essentially branched; having subordinate leaf-stalks and + flower-stalks, if not larger branches <a href="#page139">139</a></p> + + <p>It developes the buds, leaves, and flowers of the plant.</p> + + <p>This power is not yet properly defined, or explained; and referred to + only incidentally throughout the eighth chapter <a + href="#page134">134</a>-<a href="#page138">138</a></p> + + <p>II. <span class="sc">The Leaf-Stalk (Cymba)</span> sustains, and + expands itself into, the Leaf <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a + href="#page134">134</a></p> + + <p>It is essentially furrowed above, and convex below <a + href="#page134">134</a></p> + + <p>It is to be called in Latin, the Cymba; in English, the Leaf-Stalk <a + href="#page135">135</a></p> + + <p>III. <span class="sc">The Flower-Stalk (Petiolus)</span>:</p> + + <p>It is essentially round <a href="#page130">130</a></p> + + <p>It is usually separated distinctly at its termination from the flower + <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a></p> + + <p>It is to be called in Latin, Petiolus; in English, Flower-stalk <a + href="#page130">130</a></p> + + <p>These three are the essential parts of a stem. But <!-- Page 242 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page242"></a>[242]</span> besides + these, it has, when largely developed, a permanent form: namely,</p> + + <p>IV. <span class="sc">The Trunk.</span>—A non-advancing mass of + collected stem, arrested at a given height from the ground <a + href="#page139">139</a></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>The stems of annual plants are either leafy, as of a thistle, or bare, + sustaining the flower or flower-cluster at a certain height above the + ground. Receiving therefore these following names:—-</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>V. <span class="sc">The Virga</span>.—The leafy stem of an + annual plant, not a grass, yet growing upright <a + href="#page147">147</a></p> + + <p>VI. <span class="sc">The Virgula</span>.—The leafless + flower-stem of an annual plant, not a grass, as of a primrose or + dandelion <a href="#page147">147</a></p> + + <p>VII. <span class="sc">The Filum</span>.—The running stem of a + creeping plant</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>It is not specified in the text for use; but will be necessary; so + also, perhaps, the Stelechos, or stalk proper (<a href="#c8p26">26</a>), + the branched stem of an annual plant, not a grass; one cannot well talk + of the Virga of hemlock. The 'Stolon' is explained in its classical sense + at page <a href="#page158">158</a>, but I believe botanists use it + otherwise. I shall have occasion to refer to, and complete its + explanation, in speaking of bulbous plants.</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>VIII. <span class="sc">The Caudex</span>.—The essentially + ligneous and compact part of a stem <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + +<p><!-- Page 243 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page243"></a>[243]</span></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>This equivocal word is not specified for use in the text, but I mean + to keep it for the accumulated stems of inlaid plants, palms, and the + like; for which otherwise we have no separate term.</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>IX. <span class="sc">The Avena</span>.—Not specified in the text + at all; but it will be prettier than 'baculus,' which is that I had + proposed, for the 'staff' of grasses. See page <a + href="#page179">179</a>.</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>These ten names are all that the student need remember; but he will + find some interesting particulars respecting the following three, noticed + in the text:—-</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p><span class="sc">Stips</span>.—The origin of stipend, stupid, + and stump <a href="#page148">148</a></p> + + <p><span class="sc">Stipula</span>.—The subtlest Latin term for + straw <a href="#page148">148</a></p> + + <p><span class="sc">Caulis</span> (Kale).—The peculiar stem of + branched eatable vegetables <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + + <p><span class="sc">Canna</span>.—Not noticed in the text; but + likely to be sometimes useful for the stronger stems of grasses.</p> + +<p class="cenhead">III. <span class="sc">The Leaf</span>.</p> + + <p>Derivation of word <a href="#page26">26</a></p> + + <p>The Latin form 'folium' <a href="#page41">41</a></p> + + <p>The Greek form 'petalos' <a href="#page42">42</a></p> + + <p>Veins and ribs of leaves, to be usually summed under the term 'rib' <a + href="#page44">44</a></p> + + <p>Chemistry of leaves <a href="#page46">46</a> <!-- Page 244 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page244"></a>[244]</span></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>The nomenclature of the leaf consists, in botanical books, of little + more than barbarous, and, for the general reader, totally useless + attempts to describe their forms in Latin. But their forms are infinite + and indescribable except by the pencil. I will give central types of form + in the next volume of Proserpina; which, so that the reader sees and + remembers, he may <i>call</i> anything he likes. But it is necessary that + names should be assigned to certain classes of leaves which are + essentially different from each other in character and tissue, not merely + in form. Of these the two main divisions have been already given: but I + will now add the less important ones which yet require distinct + names.</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>I. <span class="sc">Apolline</span>.—Typically represented by + the laurel <a href="#page51">51</a></p> + + <p>II. <span class="sc">Arethusan</span>.—Represented by the alisma + <a href="#page52">52</a></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>It ought to have been noticed that the character of serration, within + reserved limits, is essential to an Apolline leaf, and absolutely refused + by an Arethusan one.</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>III. <span class="sc">Dryad</span>.—Of the ordinary leaf tissue, + neither manifestly strong, nor admirably tender, but serviceably + consistent, which we find generally to be the substance of the leaves of + forest trees. Typically represented by those of the oak.</p> + + <p>IV. <span class="sc">Abietine</span>.—Shaft or sword-shape, as + the leaves of firs and pines.</p> + + <p>V. <span class="sc">Cressic</span>.—Delicate and light, with + smooth tissue, as the leaves of cresses, and clover. <!-- Page 245 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page245"></a>[245]</span></p> + + <p>VI. <span class="sc">Salvian</span>.—Soft and woolly, like + miniature blankets, easily folded, as the leaves of sage.</p> + + <p>VII. <span class="sc">Cauline</span>.—Softly succulent, with + thick central ribs, as of the cabbage.</p> + + <p>VIII. <span class="sc">Aloeine</span>.—Inflexibly succulent, as + of the aloe or houseleek.</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>No rigid application of these terms must ever be attempted; but they + direct the attention to important general conditions, and will often be + found to save time and trouble in description.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="cenhead">IV. <span class="sc">The Flower</span>.</p> + + <p>Its general nature and function <a href="#page65">65</a></p> + + <p>Consists essentially of Corolla and Treasury <a + href="#page78">78</a></p> + + <p>Has in perfect form the following parts:—</p> + + <p>I. <span class="sc">The Torus</span>.—Not yet enough described + in the text. It is the expansion of the extremity of the flower-stalk, in + preparation for the support of the expanding flower <a + href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a></p> + + <p>II. <span class="sc">The Involucrum</span>.—Any kind of wrapping + or propping condition of leafage at the base of a flower may properly + come under this head; but the manner of prop or protection differs in + different kinds, and I will not at present give generic names to these + peculiar forms.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 246 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page246"></a>[246]</span></p> + + <p>III. <span class="sc">The Calyx</span> (The Hiding-place).—The + outer whorl of leaves, under the protection of which the real flower is + brought to maturity. Its separate leaves are called <span + class="sc">Sepals</span> <a href="#page80">80</a></p> + + <p>IV. <span class="sc">The Corolla</span> (The Cup).—The inner + whorl of leaves, forming the flower itself. Its separate leaves are + called <span class="sc">Petals</span> <a href="#page71">71</a></p> + + <p>V. <span class="sc">The Treasury</span>.—The part of the flower + that contains its seeds.</p> + + <p>VI. <span class="sc">The Pillar</span>.—The part of the flower + above its treasury, by which the power of the pollen is carried down to + the seeds <a href="#page78">78</a></p> + + <p>It consists usually of two parts—the <span + class="sc">Shaft</span> and <span class="sc">Volute</span> <a + href="#page78">78</a></p> + + <p>When the pillar is composed of two or more shafts, attached to + separate treasury-cells, each cell with its shaft is called a <span + class="sc">Carpel</span> <a href="#page235">235</a></p> + + <p>VII. <span class="sc">The Stamens</span>.—The parts of the + flower which secrete its pollen <a href="#page78">78</a></p> + + <p>They consist usually of two parts, the <span + class="sc">Filament</span> and <span class="sc">Anther</span>, not yet + described.</p> + + <p>VIII. <span class="sc">The Nectary</span>.—The part of the + flower containing its honey, or any other special product of its + inflorescence. The name has often been <!-- Page 247 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="page247"></a>[247]</span> given to certain forms + of petals of which the use is not yet known. No notice has yet been taken + of this part of the flower in Proserpina.</p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>These being all the essential parts of the flower itself, other forms + and substances are developed in the seed as it ripens, which, I believe, + may most conveniently be arranged in a separate section, though not + logically to be considered as separable from the flower, but only as + mature states of certain parts of it.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p class="cenhead">V. <span class="sc">The Seed</span>.</p> + + <p>I must once more desire the reader to take notice that, under the four + sections already defined, the morphology of the plant is to be considered + as complete, and that we are now only to examine and name, farther, its + <i>product</i>; and that not so much as the germ of its own future + descendant flower, but as a separate substance which it is appointed to + form, partly to its own detriment, for the sake of higher creatures. This + product consists essentially of two parts: the Seed and its Husk.</p> + + <p>I. <span class="sc">The Seed</span>.—Defined <a + href="#page220">220</a></p> + + <p>It consists, in its perfect form, of three parts <a + href="#page222">222</a></p> + +<blockquote class="b1"> + + <p>These three parts are not yet determinately named in the text: but I + give now the names which will be usually attached to them.</p> + +</blockquote> + + <p>A. <i>The Sacque</i>.—The outside skin of a seed <a + href="#page221">221</a></p> + +<p><!-- Page 248 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page248"></a>[248]</span></p> + + <p>B. <i>The Nutrine</i>.—A word which I coin, for general + applicability, whether to the farina of corn, the substance of a nut, or + the parts that become the first leaves in a bean <a + href="#page221">221</a></p> + + <p>C. <i>The Germ</i>.—The origin of the root <a + href="#page221">221</a></p> + + <p>II. <span class="sc">The Husk</span>.—Defined <a + href="#page222">222</a></p> + + <p>Consists, like the seed when in perfect form, of three parts.</p> + + <p>A. <i>The Skin</i>.—The outer envelope of all the seed + structures <a href="#page222">222</a></p> + + <p>B. <i>The Rind</i>.—The central body of the Husk. <a + href="#page222">222</a>-<a href="#page235">235</a></p> + + <p>C. <i>The Shell</i>.—Not always shelly, yet best described by + this general term; and becoming a shell, so called, in nuts, peaches, + dates, and other such kernel-fruits <a href="#page222">222</a></p> + + <p>The products of the Seed and Husk of Plants, for the use of animals, + are practically to be massed under the three heads of <span + class="sc">Bread</span>, <span class="sc">Oil</span>, and <span + class="sc">Fruit</span>. But the substance of which bread is made is more + accurately described as Farina; and the pleasantness of fruit to the + taste depends on two elements in its substance: the juice, and the pulp + containing it, which may properly be called Nectar and Ambrosia. We have + therefore in all four essential products of the Seed and Husk—</p> + +<p><!-- Page 249 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page249"></a>[249]</span></p> + + +<table class="nob" summary="Essential products of the Seed and Husk" title="Essential products of the Seed and Husk"> + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>A. Farina.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Flour</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p><a href="#page227">227</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>B. Oleum.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Oil</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p><a href="#page229">229</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>C. Nectar.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Fruit-juice</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p><a href="#page229">229</a></p> + </td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>D. Ambrosia.</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p>Fruit-substance</p> + </td> + <td class="spacsingle" style="text-align:left"> + <p><a href="#page230">230</a></p> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + <p>Besides these all-important products of the seed, others are formed in + the stems and leaves of plants, of which no account hitherto has been + given in Proserpina. I delay any extended description of these until we + have examined the structure of wood itself more closely; this intricate + and difficult task having been remitted (p. 195) to the days of coming + spring; and I am well pleased that my younger readers should at first be + vexed with no more names to be learned than those of the vegetable + productions with which they are most pleasantly acquainted: but for older + ones, I think it well, before closing the present volume, to indicate, + with warning, some of the obscurities, and probable fallacies, with which + this vanity of science encumbers the chemistry, no less than the + morphology, of plants.</p> + + <p>Looking back to one of the first books in which our new knowledge of + organic chemistry began to be displayed, thirty years ago, I find that + even at that period the organic elements which the cuisine of the + laboratory had already detected in simple Indigo, were the + following:— <!-- Page 250 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page250"></a>[250]</span></p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Isatine, Bromisatine, Bidromisatine;</p> + <p>Chlorisatine, Bichlorisatine;</p> + <p>Chlorisatyde, Bichlorisatyde;</p> + <p>Chlorindine, Chlorindoptene, Chlorindatmit;</p> + <p>Chloranile, Chloranilam, and, Chloranilammon.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>And yet, with all this practical skill in decoction, and accumulative + industry in observation and nomenclature, so far are our scientific men + from arriving, by any decoctive process of their own knowledge, at + general results useful to ordinary human creatures, that when I wish now + to separate, for young scholars, in first massive arrangement of + vegetable productions, the Substances of Plants from their Essences; that + is to say, the weighable and measurable body of the plant from its + practically immeasurable, if not imponderable, spirit, I find in my three + volumes of close-printed chemistry, no information what ever respecting + the quality of volatility in matter, except this one sentence:—</p> + + <p>"The disposition of various substances to yield vapour is very + different: and the difference depends doubtless on the relative power of + cohesion with which they are endowed."<a name="NtA_67" + href="#Nt_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a></p> + + <p>Even in this not extremely pregnant, though extremely <!-- Page 251 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page251"></a>[251]</span> cautious, + sentence, two conditions of matter are confused, no notice being taken of + the difference in manner of dissolution between a vitally fragrant and a + mortally putrid substance.</p> + + <p>It is still more curious that when I look for more definite + instruction on such points to the higher ranks of botanists, I find in + the index to Dr. Lindley's 'Introduction to Botany'—seven hundred + pages of close print—not one of the four words 'Volatile,' + 'Essence,' 'Scent,' or 'Perfume.' I examine the index to Gray's + 'Structural and Systematic Botany,' with precisely the same success. I + next consult Professors Balfour and Grindon, and am met by the same + dignified silence. Finally, I think over the possible chances in French, + and try in Figuier's indices to the 'Histoire des Plantes' for + 'Odeur'—no such word! 'Parfum'—no such word. + 'Essence'—no such word. 'Encens'—no such word. I try at last + 'Pois de Senteur,' at a venture, and am referred to a page which + describes their going to sleep.</p> + + <p>Left thus to my own resources, I must be content for the present to + bring the subject at least under safe laws of nomenclature. It is + possible that modern chemistry may be entirely right in alleging the + absolute identity of substances such as albumen, or fibrine, whether they + occur in the animal or vegetable economies. But I do not choose to assume + this identity in my nomenclature. It may, perhaps, be very fine and very + instructive to <!-- Page 252 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="page252"></a>[252]</span> inform the pupils preparing for + competitive examination that the main element of Milk is Milkine, and of + Cheese, Cheesine. But for the practical purposes of life, all that I + think it necessary for the pupil to know is that in order to get either + milk or cheese, he must address himself to a Cow, and not to a Pump; and + that what a chemist can produce for him out of dandelions or cocoanuts, + however milky or cheesy it may look, may more safely be called by some + name of its own.</p> + + <p>This distinctness of language becomes every day more desirable, in the + face of the refinements of chemical art which now enable the ingenious + confectioner to meet the demands of an unscientific person for (suppose) + a lemon drop, with a mixture of nitric acid, sulphur, and stewed bones. + It is better, whatever the chemical identity of the products may be, that + each should receive a distinctive epithet, and be asked for and supplied, + in vulgar English, and vulgar probity, either as essence of lemons, or + skeletons.</p> + + <p>I intend, therefore,—and believe that the practice will be found + both wise and convenient,—to separate in all my works on natural + history the terms used for vegetable products from those used for animal + or mineral ones, whatever may be their chemical identity, or resemblance + in aspect. I do not mean to talk of fat in seeds, nor of flour in eggs, + nor of milk in rocks. Pace my prelatical friends, I mean to use the word + 'Alb' for vegetable albumen; and although I cannot without pedantry avoid + <!-- Page 253 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page253"></a>[253]</span> + using sometimes the word 'milky' of the white juices of plants, I must + beg the reader to remain unaffected in his conviction that there is a + vital difference between liquids that coagulate into butter, or congeal + into India-rubber. Oil, when used simply, will always mean a vegetable + product: and when I have occasion to speak of petroleum, tallow, or + blubber, I shall generally call these substances by their right + names.</p> + + <p>There are also a certain number of vegetable materials more or less + prepared, secreted, or digested for us by animals, such as wax, honey, + silk, and cochineal. The properties of these require more complex + definitions, but they have all very intelligible and well-established + names. 'Tea' must be a general term for an extract of any plant in + boiling water: though when standing alone the word will take its accepted + Chinese meaning: and essence, the general term for the condensed dew of a + vegetable vapour, which is with grace and fitness called the 'being' of a + plant, because its properties are almost always characteristic of the + species; and it is not, like leaf tissue or wood fibre, approximately the + same material in different shapes; but a separate element in each family + of flowers, of a mysterious, delightful, or dangerous influence, + logically inexplicable, chemically inconstructible, and wholly, in + dignity of nature, above all modes and faculties of form.</p> + +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 254 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page254"></a>[254]</span></p> + +<h3>INDEX II.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR +ENGLISH NAMES, ACCEPTED BY PROSERPINA.</p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Apple, <a href="#page102">102</a></p> + <p>Ash, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a></p> + <p>Aspen, <a href="#page134">134</a></p> + <p>Asphodel, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#Nt_16">36</a></p> + <p>Bay, <a href="#page51">51</a></p> + <p>Bean, <a href="#page104">104</a></p> + <p>Bed-straw, <a href="#page120">120</a></p> + <p>Bindweed, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Birch, <a href="#page172">172</a></p> + <p>Blackthorn, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a></p> + <p>Blaeberry, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a></p> + <p>Bluebell, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Bramble, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a></p> + <p>Burdock, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a></p> + <p>Burnet, <a href="#page95">95</a></p> + <p>Butterbur, <a href="#page118">118</a></p> + <p>Cabbage, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + <p>Captain-salad, <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + <p>Carrot, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page35">35</a></p> + <p>Cauliflower, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + <p>Cedar, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page113">113</a></p> + <p><span class="correction" title="'Calendine' in original">Celandine</span>, <a href="#page72">72</a></p> + <p>Cherry, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a></p> + <p>Chestnut, <a href="#page62">62</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " Spanish, <a href="#page166">166</a></p> + <p>Chicory, <a href="#page118">118</a></p> + <p>Clover, <a href="#page111">111</a></p> + <p>Colewort, <a href="#page149">149</a></p> + <p>Coltsfoot, <a href="#page110">110</a></p> + <p>Corn-cockle, <a href="#page108">108</a></p> + <p>Corn-flag, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + <p>Cowslip, <a href="#page139">139</a></p> + <p>Crocus, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a></p> + <p>Daffodil,</p> +<!-- Page 255 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page255"></a>[255]</span> + <p>Daisy, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a></p> + <p>Dandelion, <a href="#page117">117</a></p> + <p>Devil's Bit, <a href="#page147">147</a></p> + <p>Dock, <a href="#page131">131</a></p> + <p>Elm, <a href="#page52">52</a></p> + <p>Fig, <a href="#page63">63</a></p> + <p>Flag, <a href="#page104">104</a></p> + <p>Flax, <a href="#page165">165</a></p> + <p>Foils, Rock, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " Roof, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Foxglove, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page139">139</a></p> + <p>Frog-flower, <a href="#page56">56</a></p> + <p>Grape, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a></p> + <p>Grass, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a></p> + <p>Hawk's-eye, <a href="#page118">118</a></p> + <p>Hazel, <a href="#page120">120</a></p> + <p>Heath, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a></p> + <p>Hemlock, <a href="#page107">107</a></p> + <p>Herb-Robert, <a href="#page121">121</a></p> + <p>Holly, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a></p> + <p>Houseleek, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Hyacinth, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a></p> + <p>Ivy, <a href="#page111">111</a></p> + <p>Jacinth, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a></p> + <p>King-cup, <a href="#page110">110</a></p> + <p>Laurel, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " leaves, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page51">51</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a></p> + <p>Lichen, <a href="#page175">175</a></p> + <p>Lilac, <a href="#page76">76</a></p> + <p>Lily, <a href="#page1">1</a>, <a href="#Nt_16">36</a>, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + <p>Lily, St. Bruno's, <a href="#page1">1</a>, <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page10">10</a></p> + <p>Lily of the Valley, <a href="#page143">143</a></p> + <p>Lily, Water, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a></p> + <p>Ling, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a></p> + <p>Lion's-tooth, <a href="#page113">113</a></p> + <p>Liquorice, <a href="#page38">38</a></p> + <p>Lucy, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Mistletoe, <a href="#page111">111</a></p> + <p>Moss, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page175">175</a></p> + <p>Mushroom, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a></p> + <p>Myrtle, <a href="#page51">51</a></p> + <p>Nettle, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page107">107</a></p> + <p>Nightshade, <a href="#page108">108</a></p> + <p>Oak, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " blossom, <a href="#page67">67</a></p> + <p>Olive, <a href="#page51">51</a>, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a></p> + <p>Onion, <a href="#page38">38</a></p> + <p>Orange, <a href="#page51">51</a></p> + <p>Pĉony, <a href="#page129">129</a></p> + <p>Palm, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a></p> +<!-- Page 256 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page256"></a>[256]</span> + <p>Pansy, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Papilionaceĉ, <a href="#page145">145</a></p> + <p>Papyrus, <a href="#page165">165</a></p> + <p>Pea, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Peach, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Pine, <a href="#page140">140</a></p> + <p>Pineapple, <a href="#page14">14</a></p> + <p>Pink, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Plantain, <a href="#page134">134</a></p> + <p>Pomegranate, <a href="#page102">102</a></p> + <p>Poplar, <a href="#page52">52</a></p> + <p>Poppy, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page86">86</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a></p> + <p>Primrose, <a href="#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Radish, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page38">38</a></p> + <p>Ragged Robin, <a href="#page155">155</a></p> + <p>Rhubarb, <a href="#page131">131</a></p> + <p>Rice, <a href="#page52">52</a></p> + <p>Rock-foil, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Roof-foil, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Rose, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page75">75</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Rush, <a href="#page157">157</a></p> + <p>Saxifrage, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Scabious, <a href="#page147">147</a></p> + <p>Sedum, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Sorrel-wood, <a href="#page9">9</a></p> + <p>Spider Plant, <a href="#page8">8</a></p> + <p>Sponsa solis, <a href="#page118">118</a></p> + <p>Stella, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " domestica, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Stonecrop, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Sweetbriar, <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + <p>Thistle, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href="#Nt_39">144 <i>note</i></a>, <span class="correction" title="'151 note' in original"><a href="#page151">151</a></span></p> + <p>Thistle, Creeping, <a href="#Nt_38">138</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " Waste, <span class="correction" title="'154' in original"><a href="#page138">138</a></span></p> + <p>Thorns, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a></p> + <p class="i1"> " Black, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a></p> + <p>Thyme, <a href="#page118">118</a></p> + <p>Tobacco, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a></p> + <p>Tormentilla, <a href="#page110">110</a></p> + <p>Turnip, <a href="#page35">35</a></p> + <p>Vine, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#Nt_32">108</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a></p> + <p>Viola, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Wallflower, <a href="#page111">111</a></p> + <p>Wheat, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a></p> + <p>Wreathewort, <a href="#page181">181</a></p> + </div> + </div> +<hr > + +<p><!-- Page 257 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page257"></a>[257]</span></p> + +<h3>INDEX III.</h3> + +<p class="cenhead">TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR +LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, ACCEPTED BY PROSERPINA.</p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Acanthus, <a href="#page104">104</a></p> + <p>Alata, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Alisma, <a href="#page52">52</a></p> + <p>Amaryllis, <a href="#Nt_16">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a></p> + <p>Anemone, <a href="#page107">107</a></p> + <p>Artemides, <a href="#page196">196</a></p> + <p>Asphodel, <a href="#page11">11</a></p> + <p>Aurora, <a href="#page207">207</a></p> + <p>Azalea, <a href="#page207">207</a></p> + <p>Cactus, <a href="#page43">43</a></p> + <p>Campanula, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Carduus, <a href="#Nt_38">138</a></p> + <p>Charites, <a href="#page188">188</a></p> + <p>Cistus, <a href="#page69">69</a></p> + <p>Clarissa, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page155">155</a></p> + <p>Contorta, <a href="#page181">181</a></p> + <p>Convoluta, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Cyclamen, <a href="#page32">32</a></p> + <p>Drosidĉ, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a></p> + <p>Ensatĉ, <a href="#page203">203</a></p> + <p>Ericĉ, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a></p> + <p>Eryngo, <a href="#page83">83</a></p> + <p>Fragaria, <a href="#page188">188</a></p> + <p>Francesca, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p><span class="correction" title="'Frarinus' in original">Fraxinus</span>, <a href="#page195">195</a></p> + <p>Geranium, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a></p> + <p>Gladiolus, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a></p> + <p>Hyacinthus, <a href="#Nt_53">186</a></p> + <p>Hypnum, <a href="#page13">13</a></p> + <p>Iris, <a href="#Nt_16">36</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a></p> + <p>Lilium (<i>see</i> Lily), <a href="#page8">8</a></p> + <p>Lucia, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a></p> +<!-- Page 258 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="page258"></a>[258]</span> + <p>Magnolia, <a href="#page51">51</a></p> + <p>Margarita, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Myrtilla, <a href="#page206">206</a></p> + <p>Narcissus, <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + <p>Ophrys, <a href="#page180">180</a></p> + <p>Papaver, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page96">96</a></p> + <p>Persica, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Pomum, <a href="#page188">188</a></p> + <p>Primula, <a href="#page143">143</a></p> + <p>Rosa, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + <p>Rubra, <a href="#page188">188</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a></p> + <p>Satyrium, <a href="#page182">182</a></p> + <p>Stella, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a></p> + <p>Veronica, <a href="#page75">75</a></p> + <p>Viola, <a href="#page144">144</a></p> + </div> + </div> +<hr > + +<h3>Notes</h3> + +<div class="note"> + <p><a name="Nt_1" href="#NtA_1">[1]</a> At least, it throws off its + flowers on each side in a bewilderingly pretty way; a real lily can't + branch, I believe: but, if not, what is the use of the botanical books + saying "on an unbranched stem"?</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_2" href="#NtA_2">[2]</a> I have by happy chance just added + to my Oxford library the poet Gray's copy of Linnĉus, with its + exquisitely written Latin notes, exemplary alike to scholar and + naturalist.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_3" href="#NtA_3">[3]</a> It was in the year 1860, in + June.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_4" href="#NtA_4">[4]</a> Admirably engraved by Mr. + Burgess, from my pen drawing, now at Oxford. By comparing it with the + plate of the same flower in Sowerby's work, the student will at once see + the difference between attentive drawing, which gives the cadence and + relation of masses in a group, and the mere copying of each flower in an + unconsidered huddle.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_5" href="#NtA_5">[5]</a> "Histoire des Plantes." Ed. 1865, + p. 416.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_6" href="#NtA_6">[6]</a> The like of it I have now + painted, Number 281, <span class="sc">Case xii.</span>, in the + Educational Series of Oxford.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_7" href="#NtA_7">[7]</a> Properly, Florĉ Danicĉ, but it is + so tiresome to print the diphthongs that I shall always call it thus. It + is a folio series, exquisitely begun, a hundred years ago; and not yet + finished.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_8" href="#NtA_8">[8]</a> Magnified about seven times. <a + href="#Nt_12">See note</a> at end of this chapter.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_9" href="#NtA_9">[9]</a> American,—'System of + Botany,' the best technical book I have.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_10" href="#NtA_10">[10]</a> 'Dicranum cerviculatum,' + sequel to Flora Danica, Tab. <span class="scac">MMCCX</span>.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_11" href="#NtA_11">[11]</a> The reader should buy a small + specimen of this mineral; it is a useful type of many structures.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_12" href="#NtA_12">[12]</a> <span class="sc">Lucca</span>, + <i>Aug. 9th, 1874.</i>—I have left this passage as originally + written, but I believe the dome is of accumulated earth. Bringing home, + here, evening after evening, heaps of all kinds of mosses from the hills + among which the Archbishop Ruggieri was hunting the wolf and her whelps + in Ugolino's dream, I am more and more struck, every day, with their + special function as earth-gatherers, and with the enormous importance to + their own brightness, and to our service, of that dark and degraded state + of the inferior leaves. And it fastens itself in my mind mainly as their + distinctive character, that as the leaves of a tree become wood, so the + leaves of a moss become earth, while yet a normal part of the plant. Here + is a cake in my hand weighing half a pound, bright green on the surface, + with minute crisp leaves; but an inch thick beneath in what looks at + first like clay, but is indeed knitted fibre of exhausted moss. Also, I + don't at all find the generalization I made from the botanical books + likely to have occurred to me from the real things. No moss leaves that I + can find here give me the idea of resemblance to pineapple leaves; nor do + I see any, through my weak lens, clearly serrated; but I do find a + general tendency to run into a silky filamentous structure, and in some, + especially on a small one gathered from the fissures in the marble of the + cathedral, white threads of considerable length at the extremities of the + leaves, of which threads I remember no drawing or notice in the botanical + books. Figure 1 represents, magnified, a cluster of these leaves, with + the germinating stalk springing from their centre; but my scrawl was + tired and careless, and for once, Mr. Burgess has copied <i>too</i> + accurately.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_13" href="#NtA_13">[13]</a> Learn this word, at any rate; + and if you know any Greek, learn also this group of words: "<span + title="hôs rhiza en gê dipsôsêi" class="grk">ὡς + ῥίζα ἐν γῆ + διψωσῃ</span>," which you may chance to + meet with, and even to think about, some day.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_14" href="#NtA_14">[14]</a> "Duhamel, botanist of the last + century, tells us that, wishing to preserve a field of good land from the + roots of an avenue of elms which were exhausting it, he cut a ditch + between the field and avenue to intercept the roots. But he saw with + surprise those of the roots which had not been cut, go down behind the + slope of the ditch to keep out of the light, go under the ditch, and into + the field again." And the Swiss naturalist Bonnet said wittily, apropos + of a wonder of this sort, "that sometimes it was difficult to distinguish + a cat from a rosebush."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_15" href="#NtA_15">[15]</a> As the first great office of + the mosses is the gathering of earth, so that of the grasses is the + binding of it. Theirs the Enchanter's toil, not in vain,—making + ropes out of sea-sand.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_16" href="#NtA_16">[16]</a> Drosidĉ, in our school + nomenclature, is the general name, including the four great tribes, iris, + asphodel, amaryllis, and lily. See reason for this name given in the + 'Queen of the Air,' Section II.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_17" href="#NtA_17">[17]</a> The only use of a great part + of our existing nomenclature is to enable one botanist to describe to + another a plant which the other has not seen. When the science becomes + approximately perfect, all known plants will be properly figured, so that + nobody need describe them; and unknown plants be so rare that nobody will + care to learn a new and difficult language, in order to be able to give + an account of what in all probability he will never see.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_18" href="#NtA_18">[18]</a> An excellent book, + nevertheless.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_19" href="#NtA_19">[19]</a> Lindley, 'Introduction to + Botany,' vol. i., p. 21. The terms "wholly obsolete," says an + authoritative botanic friend. Thank Heaven!</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_20" href="#NtA_20">[20]</a> "You should see the girders on + under-side of the Victoria Water-lily, the most wonderful bit of + engineering, of the kind, I know of."—('Botanical friend.')</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_21" href="#NtA_21">[21]</a> Roughly, Cyllene 7,700 feet + high; Erymanthus 7,000; Mĉnalus 6,000.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_22" href="#NtA_22">[22]</a> <i>March 3rd.</i>—We now + ascend the roots of the mountain called Kastaniá, and begin to pass + between it and the mountain of Alonístena, which is on our right. The + latter is much higher than Kastaniá, and, like the other peaked summits + of the Mĉnalian range, is covered with firs, and deeply at present with + snow. The snow lies also in our pass. At a fountain in the road, the + small village of Bazeníko is half a mile on the right, standing at the + foot of the Mĉnalian range, and now covered with snow.</p> + + <p>Saetá is the most lofty of the range of mountains, which are in face + of Levídhi, to the northward and eastward; they are all a part of the + chain which extends from Mount Khelmós, and connects that great summit + with Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon. Mount Saetá is covered with + firs. The mountain between the plain of Levídhi and Alonístena, or, to + speak by the ancient nomenclature, that part of the Mĉnalian range which + separates the Orchomenia from the valleys of Helisson and Methydrium, is + clothed also with large forests of the same trees; the road across this + ridge from Lavídhi to Alonístena is now impracticable on account of the + snow.</p> + + <p>I am detained all day at Levídhi by a heavy fall of snow, which before + the evening has covered the ground to half a foot in depth, although the + village is not much elevated above the plain, nor in a more lofty + situation than Tripolitzá.</p> + + <p><i>March 4th.</i>—Yesterday afternoon and during the night the + snow fell in such quantities as to cover all the plains and adjacent + mountains; and the country exhibited this morning as fine a snow-scene as + Norway could supply. As the day advanced and the sun appeared, the snow + melted rapidly, but the sky was soon overcast again, and the snow began + to fall.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_23" href="#NtA_23">[23]</a> Just in time, finding a heap + of gold under an oak tree some thousand years old, near Arundel, I've + made them out: Eight, divided by three; that is to say, three couples of + petals, with two odd little ones inserted for form's sake. No wonder I + couldn't decipher them by memory.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_24" href="#NtA_24">[24]</a> Figs. 8 and 9 are both drawn + and engraved by Mr. Burgess.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_25" href="#NtA_25">[25]</a> Of Vespertilian science + generally, compare 'Eagles' Nest,' pp. 25 and 179.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_26" href="#NtA_26">[26]</a> The mathematical term is + 'rhomb.'</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_27" href="#NtA_27">[27]</a> <span title="hês to sperma artopoieitai." class="grk" + >ἧς τὸ σπέρμα + ἀρτοποιεῖται.</span></p> + + <p><a name="Nt_28" href="#NtA_28">[28]</a> <span title="epimêkes echousa to kephalion." class="grk" + >ἐπίμηκες + ἔχουσα τὸ + κεφάλιον.</span> + Dioscorides makes no effort to distinguish species, but gives the + different names as if merely used in different places.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_29" href="#NtA_29">[29]</a> It is also used sometimes of + the garden poppy, says Dioscorides, "<span title="dia to rhein ex autês ton opon" class="grk" + >διὰ τὸ ῥεῖν + ἐξ αὐτῆς τὸν + ὀπόν</span>"—"because the sap, opium, flows + from it."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_30" href="#NtA_30">[30]</a> See all the passages quoted by + Liddell.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_31" href="#NtA_31">[31]</a> I find this chapter rather + tiresome on re-reading it myself, and cancel some farther criticism of + the imitation of this passage by Virgil, one of the few pieces of the + Ĉneid which are purely and vulgarly imitative, rendered also false as + well as weak by the introducing sentence, "Volvitur Euryalus leto," after + which the simile of the drooping flower is absurd. Of criticism, the + chief use of which is to warn all sensible men from such business, the + following abstract of Diderot's notes on the passage, given in the + 'Saturday Review' for April 29th, 1871, is worth preserving. (Was the + French critic really not aware that Homer <i>had</i> written the lines + his own way?)</p> + + <p>"Diderot illustrates his theory of poetical hieroglyphs by no + quotations, but we can show the manner of his minute and sometimes + fanciful criticism by repeating his analysis of the passage of Virgil + wherein the death of Euryalus is described:—</p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i16">'Pulchrosque per artus</p> + <p>It cruor, inque humeros cervix collapsa recumbit;</p> + <p>Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro</p> + <p>Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo</p> + <p>Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.'</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>"The sound of 'It cruor,' according to Diderot, suggests the image of + a jet of blood; 'cervix collapsa recumbit,' the fall of a dying man's + head upon his shoulder; 'succisus' imitates the use of a cutting scythe + (not plough); 'demisere' is as soft as the eye of a flower; 'gravantur,' + on the other hand, has all the weight of a calyx, filled with rain; + 'collapsa' marks an effort and a fall, and similar double duty is + performed by 'papavera,' the first two syllables symbolizing the poppy + upright, the last two the poppy bent. While thus pursuing his minute + investigations, Diderot can scarcely help laughing at himself, and + candidly owns that he is open to the suspicion of discovering in the poem + beauties which have no existence. He therefore qualifies his eulogy by + pointing out two faults in the passage. 'Gravantur,' notwithstanding the + praise it has received, is a little too heavy for the light head of a + poppy, even when filled with water. As for 'aratro,' coming as it does + after the hiss of 'succisus,' it is altogether abominable. Had Homer + written the lines, he would have ended with some hieroglyph, which would + have continued the hiss or described the fall of a flower. To the hiss of + 'succisus' Diderot is warmly attached. Not by mistake, but in order to + justify the sound, he ventures to translate 'aratrum' into 'scythe,' + boldly and rightly declaring in a marginal note that this is not the + meaning of the word."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_32" href="#NtA_32">[32]</a> And I have too harshly called + our English vines, 'wicked weeds of Kent,' in Fors Clavigera, xxvii. 11. + Much may be said for Ale, when we brew it for our people honestly.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_33" href="#NtA_33">[33]</a> Has my reader ever + thought,—I never did till this moment,—how it perfects the + exquisite character which Scott himself loved, as he invented, till he + changed the form of the novel, that his habitual interjection should be + this word;—not but that the oath, by conscience, was happily still + remaining then in Scotland, taking the place of the mediĉval 'by St. + Andrew,' we in England, long before the Scot, having lost all sense of + the Puritanical appeal to private conscience, as of the Catholic oath, + 'by St. George;' and our uncanonized 'by George' in sonorous rudeness, + ratifying, not now our common conscience, but our individual opinion.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_34" href="#NtA_34">[34]</a> 'Jotham,' 'Sum perfectio + eorum,' or 'Consummatio eorum.' (Interpretation of name in Vulgate + index.)</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_35" href="#NtA_35">[35]</a> If you will look at the + engraving, in the England and Wales series, of Turner's Oakhampton, you + will see its use.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_36" href="#NtA_36">[36]</a> General assertions of this + kind must always be accepted under indulgence,—exceptions being + made afterwards.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_37" href="#NtA_37">[37]</a> I use 'round' rather than + 'cylindrical,' for simplicity's sake.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_38" href="#NtA_38">[38]</a> Carduus Arvensis. 'Creeping + Thistle,' in Sowerby; why, I cannot conceive, for there is no more + creeping in it than in a furzebush. But it especially haunts foul and + neglected ground; so I keep the Latin name, translating 'Waste-Thistle.' + I could not show the variety of the curves of the involucre without + enlarging; and if, on this much increased scale, I had tried to draw the + flower, it would have taken Mr. Allen and me a good month's more work. + And I had no more a month than a life, to spare: so the action only of + the spreading flower is indicated, but the involucre drawn with + precision.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_39" href="#NtA_39">[39]</a> The florets gathered in the + daisy are cinquefoils, examined closely. No system founded on colour can + be very general or unexceptionable: but the splendid purples of the + pansy, and thistle, which will be made one of the lower composite groups + under Margarita, may justify the general assertion of this order's being + purple.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_40" href="#NtA_40">[40]</a> See Miss Yonge's exhaustive + account of the name, 'History of Christian Names,' vol. i., p. 265.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_41" href="#NtA_41">[41]</a> (Du Cange.) The word + 'Margarete' is given as heraldic English for pearl, by Lady Juliana + Berners, in the book of St. Albans.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_42" href="#NtA_42">[42]</a> Recent botanical research + makes this statement more than dubitable. Nevertheless, on no other + supposition can the forms and action of tree-branches, so far as at + present known to me, be yet clearly accounted for.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_43" href="#NtA_43">[43]</a> Not always in muscular power; + but the framework on which strong muscles are to act, as that of an + insect's wing, or its jaw, is never insectile.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_44" href="#NtA_44">[44]</a> It is one of the three + cadences, (the others being of the words rhyming to 'mind' and 'way,') + used by Sir Philip Sidney in his marvellous paraphrase of the 55th + Psalm.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_45" href="#NtA_45">[45]</a> Lectures on the Families of + Speech, by the Rev. F. Farrer Longman, 1870. Page 81.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_46" href="#NtA_46">[46]</a> I only profess, you will + please to observe, to ask questions in Proserpina. Never to answer any. + But of course this chapter is to introduce some further inquiry in + another place.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_47" href="#NtA_47">[47]</a> See Introduction, pp. 5-8.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_48" href="#NtA_48">[48]</a> See Sowerby's nomenclature of + the flower, vol. ix., plate 1703.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_49" href="#NtA_49">[49]</a> Linnĉus used this term for the + oleanders; but evidently with less accuracy than usual.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_50" href="#NtA_50">[50]</a> "<span title="anthê porphuroeidê" class="grk" + >ἄνθη + πορφυροειδῆ</span>" + says Dioscorides, of the race generally,—but "<span title="anthê de hupoporphura" class="grk" + >ἄνθη δὲ + ὑποπόρφυρα</span>" + of this particular one.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_51" href="#NtA_51">[51]</a> I offer a sample of two dozen + for good papas and mammas to begin with:—</p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Angraecum.</p> + <p>Anisopetalum.</p> + <p>Brassavola.</p> + <p>Brassia.</p> + <p>Caelogyne.</p> + <p>Calopogon.</p> + <p>Corallorrhiza.</p> + <p>Cryptarrhena.</p> + <p>Eulophia.</p> + <p>Gymnadenia.</p> + <p>Microstylis.</p> + <p>Octomeria.</p> + <p>Ornithidium.</p> + <p>Ornithocephalus.</p> + <p>Platanthera.</p> + <p>Pleurothallis.</p> + <p>Pogonia.</p> + <p>Polystachya.</p> + <p>Prescotia.</p> + <p>Renanthera.</p> + <p>Rodriguezia.</p> + <p>Stenorhyncus.</p> + <p>Trizeuxis.</p> + <p>Xylobium.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p><a name="Nt_52" href="#NtA_52">[52]</a> Compare Chapter V., <a + href="#c5p7">§ 7.</a></p> + + <p><a name="Nt_53" href="#NtA_53">[53]</a> "Jacinthus Jurae," changed + from "Hyacinthus Comosus."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_54" href="#NtA_54">[54]</a> </p> + + <div class="contents"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="hg3">"Cantando, e scegliendo fior di fiore</p> + <p>Onde era picta tutta la sua via."—<i>Purg.</i>, xxviii. 35.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p><a name="Nt_55" href="#NtA_55">[55]</a> "<span title="kai theoisi terpna." class="grk" + >καὶ θεοισι + τερπνά.</span>"</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_56" href="#NtA_56">[56]</a> The four races of this order + are more naturally distinct than botanists have recognized. In Clarissa, + the petal is cloven into a fringe at the outer edge; in Lychnis, the + petal is terminated in two rounded lobes and the fringe withdrawn to the + top of the limb; in Scintilla, the petal is divided into two <i>sharp</i> + lobes, without any fringe of the limb; and in Mica, the minute and + scarcely visible flowers have simple and far separate petals. The + confusion of these four great natural races under the vulgar or + accidental botanical names of spittle-plant, shore-plant, sand plant, + etc., has become entirely intolerable by any rational student; but the + names 'Scintilla,' substituted for Stellaria, and 'Mica' for the utterly + ridiculous and probably untrue Sagina, connect themselves naturally with + Lychnis, in expression of the luminous power of the white and sparkling + blossoms.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_57" href="#NtA_57">[57]</a> Clytia will include all the + true sun-flowers, and Falconia the hawkweeds; but I have not yet + completed the analysis of this vast and complex order, so as to determine + the limits of Margarita and Alcestis.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_58" href="#NtA_58">[58]</a> The reader must observe that + the positions given in this more developed system to any flower do not + interfere with arrangements either formerly or hereafter given for + memoria technica. The name of the pea, for instance (alata), is to be + learned first among the twelve cinqfoils, p. 214, above; then transferred + to its botanical place.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_59" href="#NtA_59">[59]</a> The amphibious habit of this + race is to me of more importance than its outlaid structure.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_60" href="#NtA_60">[60]</a> "Arctostaphylos Alpina," I + believe; but scarcely recognize the flower in my botanical books.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_61" href="#NtA_61">[61]</a> 'Aurora Regina,' changed from + Rhododendron Ferrugineum.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_62" href="#NtA_62">[62]</a> I do not see what this can + mean. Primroses and cowslips can't become shrubs; nor can violets, nor + daisies, nor any other of our pet meadow flowers.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_63" href="#NtA_63">[63]</a> 'Deserts.' Punas is not in my + Spanish dictionary, and the reference to a former note is wrong in my + edition of Humboldt, vol. iii., p. 490.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_64" href="#NtA_64">[64]</a> "The Alpine rose of + equinoctial America," p. 453.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_65" href="#NtA_65">[65]</a> More literally "persons to + whom the care of eggs is entrusted."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_66" href="#NtA_66">[66]</a> A most singular sign of this + function is given to the chemistry of the changes, according to a French + botanist, to whose carefully and richly illustrated volume I shall in + future often refer my readers, "Vers l'époque de la maturité, les fruits + <i>exhalent de l'acide carbonique</i>. Ils ne presentent plus dès lors + aucun dégagement d'oxygène pendant le jour, et <i>respirent, pour ainsi + dire, à la façon des animaux</i>."—(Figuier, 'Histoire des + Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette. 1874.)</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_67" href="#NtA_67">[67]</a> 'Elements of Chemistry,' p. + 44. By Edward Turner; edited by Justus Liebig and William Gregory. Taylor + and Walton, 1840.</p> + +</div> +<hr > + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 1, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 20421-h.htm or 20421-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/2/20421/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Proserpina, Volume 1 + Studies Of Wayside Flowers + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20421] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they +are listed at the end of the text. Original page numbers are shown as {99}. + +PROSERPINA. + +STUDIES OF WAYSIDE FLOWERS, + +WHILE THE AIR WAS YET PURE + +_AMONG THE ALPS, AND IN THE SCOTLAND AND +ENGLAND WHICH MY FATHER KNEW_. + +BY + +JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., + +HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART. + + "Oh--Proserpina! + For the flowers now, which frighted, thou let'st fall + From Dis's waggon." + +VOLUME I. + +New York: +JOHN WILEY & SONS, +15 Astor Place. + +1888. + + * * * * * + + +Press of J. J. Little & Co., +Astor Place, New York. + + * * * * * + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION, 1 + + CHAPTER I. + MOSS, 12 + + CHAPTER II. + THE ROOT, 26 + + CHAPTER III. + THE LEAF, 40 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE FLOWER, 64 + + CHAPTER V. + PAPAVER RHOEAS, 86 + + CHAPTER VI. + THE PARABLE OF JOASH, 106 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM, 117 + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE STEM, 127 + + CHAPTER IX. + OUTSIDE AND IN, 151 + + CHAPTER X. + THE BARK, 170 + + CHAPTER XI. + GENEALOGY, 176 + + CHAPTER XII. + CORA AND KRONOS, 205 + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE SEED AND HUSK, 219 + + CHAPTER XIV. + THE FRUIT GIFT, 227 + + INDEX I. + DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE, 239 + + INDEX II. + ENGLISH NAMES, 255 + + INDEX III. + LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, 258 + + * * * * * + + +{1} + +PROSERPINA. + +INTRODUCTION. + +BRANTWOOD, _14th March, 1874._ + +Yesterday evening I was looking over the first book in which I studied +Botany,--Curtis's Magazine, published in 1795 at No. 3, St. George's +Crescent, Blackfriars Road, and sold by the principal booksellers in Great +Britain and Ireland. Its plates are excellent, so that I am always glad to +find in it the picture of a flower I know. And I came yesterday upon what I +suppose to be a variety of a favourite flower of mine, called, in Curtis, +"the St. Bruno's Lily." + +I am obliged to say "what I suppose to be a variety," because my pet lily +is branched,[1] while this is drawn as unbranched, and especially stated to +be so. And the page of text, in which this statement is made, is so +characteristic of botanical books, and botanical science, not to say all +science as hitherto taught for the blessing of mankind; {2} and of the +difficulties thereby accompanying its communication, that I extract the +page entire, printing it, opposite, as nearly as possible in facsimile. + +Now you observe, in this instructive page, that you have in the first +place, nine names given you for one flower; and that among these nine +names, you are not even at liberty to make your choice, because the united +authority of Haller and Miller may be considered as an accurate balance to +the single authority of Linnaeus; and you ought therefore for the present to +remain, yourself, balanced between the sides. You may be farther +embarrassed by finding that the Anthericum of Savoy is only described as +growing in Switzerland. And farther still, by finding that Mr. Miller +describes two varieties of it, which differ only in size, while you are +left to conjecture whether the one here figured is the larger or smaller; +and how great the difference is. + +Farther, If you wish to know anything of the habits of the plant, as well +as its nine names, you are informed that it grows both at the bottoms of +the mountains, and the tops; and that, with us, it flowers in May and +June,--but you are not told when, in its native country. + +The four lines of the last clause but one, may indeed be useful to +gardeners; but--although I know my good father and mother did the best they +could for me in buying this beautiful book; and though the admirable plates +of it did their work, and taught me much, I cannot wonder that neither my +infantine nor boyish mind was irresistibly attracted by the text of which +this page is one of the most favourable specimens; nor, in consequence, +that my botanical studies were--when I had attained the age of fifty--no +farther advanced than the reader will find them in the opening chapter of +this book. + +{3} + + * * * * * + + [318] + + ANTHERICUM LILIASTRUM, SAVOY ANTHERICUM, + or ST. BRUNO'S LILY. + + _Class and Order._ + + HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. + + _Generic Character._ + + _Cor._ 6-petala, patens. _Caps._ ovata. + + _Specific Character and Synonyms._ + + ANTHERICUM _Liliastrum_ foliis planis, scapo simplicissimo, corollis + campanulatis, staminibus declinatis. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. + Murr. p. 330._ _Ait. Kew. v. _I._ p. 449._ + + HEMEROCALLIS floribus patulis secundis. _Hall. Hist. n. 1230._ + + PHALANGIUM magno flore. _Bauh. Pin. 29._ + + PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum majus. _Clus. cur. app. alt._ + + PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum. The Savoye Spider-wort. _Park. Parad. p. + 150. tab. 151. f. 1._ + + * * * * * + + Botanists are divided in their opinions respecting the genus of this + plant; LINNAEUS considers it as an _Anthericum_, HALLER and MILLER make + it an _Hemerocallis_. + + It is a native of Switzerland, where, HALLER informs us it grows + abundantly in the Alpine meadows, and even on the summits of the + mountains; with us it flowers in May and June. + + It is a plant of great elegance, producing on an unbranched stem about + a foot and a half high, numerous flowers of a delicate white colour, + much smaller but resembling in form those of the common white lily, + possessing a considerable degree of fragrance, their beauty is + heightened by the rich orange colour of their antherae; unfortunately + they are but of short duration. + + MILLER describes two varieties of it differing merely in size. + + A loamy soil, a situation moderately moist, with an eastern or western + exposure, suits this plant best; so situated, it will increase by its + roots, though not very fast, and by parting of these in the autumn, it + is usually propagated. + + PARKINSON describes and figures it in his _Parad. Terrest._, observing + that "divers allured by the beauty of its flowers, had brought it into + these parts." + + * * * * * + +{4} + +Which said book was therefore undertaken, to put, if it might be, some +elements of the science of botany into a form more tenable by ordinary +human and childish faculties; or--for I can scarcely say I have yet any +tenure of it myself--to make the paths of approach to it more pleasant. In +fact, I only know, of it, the pleasant distant effects which it bears to +simple eyes; and some pretty mists and mysteries, which I invite my young +readers to pierce, as they may, for themselves,--my power of guiding them +being only for a little way. + +Pretty mysteries, I say, as opposed to the vulgar and ugly mysteries of the +so-called science of botany,--exemplified sufficiently in this chosen page. +Respecting which, please observe farther;--Nobody--I can say this very +boldly--loves Latin more dearly than I; but, precisely because I do love it +(as well as for other reasons), I have always insisted that books, whether +scientific or not, ought to be written either in Latin, or English; and not +in a doggish mixture of the refuse of both. + +Linnaeus wrote a noble book of universal Natural History in Latin. It is one +of the permanent classical treasures of the world. And if any scientific +man thinks his labors are worth the world's attention, let him, also, write +{5} what he has to say in Latin, finishedly and exquisitely, if it take him +a month to a page.[2] + +But if--which, unless he be one chosen of millions, is assuredly the +fact--his lucubrations are only of local and temporary consequence, let him +write, as clearly as he can, in his native language. + +This book, accordingly, I have written in English; (not, by the way, that I +_could_ have written it in anything else--so there are small thanks to me); +and one of its purposes is to interpret, for young English readers, the +necessary European Latin or Greek names of flowers, and to make them vivid +and vital to their understandings. But two great difficulties occur in +doing this. The first, that there are generally from three or four, up to +two dozen, Latin names current for every flower; and every new botanist +thinks his eminence only to be properly asserted by adding another. + +The second, and a much more serious one, is of the Devil's own +contriving--(and remember I am always quite serious when I speak of the +Devil,)--namely, that the most current and authoritative names are apt to +be founded on some unclean or debasing association, so that to interpret +them is to defile the reader's mind. I will give no instance; too many will +at once occur to any {6} learned reader, and the unlearned I need not vex +with so much as one: but, in such cases, since I could only take refuge in +the untranslated word by leaving other Greek or Latin words also +untranslated, and the nomenclature still entirely senseless,--and I do not +choose to do this,--there is only one other course open to me, namely, to +substitute boldly, to my own pupils, other generic names for the plants +thus faultfully hitherto titled. + +As I do not do this for my own pride, but honestly for my reader's service, +I neither question nor care how far the emendations I propose may be now or +hereafter adopted. I shall not even name the cases in which they have been +made for the serious reason above specified; but even shall mask those +which there was real occasion to alter, by sometimes giving new names in +cases where there was no necessity of such kind. Doubtless I shall be +accused of doing myself what I violently blame in others. I do so; but with +a different motive--of which let the reader judge as he is disposed. The +practical result will be that the children who learn botany on the system +adopted in this book will know the useful and beautiful names of plants +hitherto given, in all languages; the useless and ugly ones they will not +know. And they will have to learn one Latin name for each plant, which, +when differing from the common one, I trust may yet by some scientific +persons be accepted, and with ultimate advantage. + +The learning of the one Latin name--as, for instance, Gramen striatum--I +hope will be accurately enforced {7} always;--but not less carefully the +learning of the pretty English one--"Ladielace Grass"--with due observance +that "Ladies' laces hath leaves like unto Millet in fashion, with many +white vaines or ribs, and silver strakes running along through the middest +of the leaves, fashioning the same like to laces of white and green silk, +very beautiful and faire to behold." + +I have said elsewhere, and can scarcely repeat too often, that a day will +come when men of science will think their names disgraced, instead of +honoured, by being used to barbarise nomenclature; I hope therefore that my +own name may be kept well out of the way; but, having been privileged to +found the School of Art in the University of Oxford, I think that I am +justified in requesting any scientific writers who may look kindly upon +this book, to add such of the names suggested in it as they think deserving +of acceptance, to their own lists of synonyms, under the head of "Schol. +Art. Oxon." + +The difficulties thrown in the way of any quiet private student by existing +nomenclature may be best illustrated by my simply stating what happens to +myself in endeavouring to use the page above facsimile'd. Not knowing how +far St. Bruno's Lily might be connected with my own pet one, and not having +any sufficient book on Swiss botany, I take down Loudon's Encyclopaedia of +Plants, (a most useful book, as far as any book in the present state of the +science _can_ be useful,) and find, under the head of Anthericum, the Savoy +Lily indeed, but only the {8} following general information:--"809. +Anthericum. A name applied by the Greeks to the stem of the asphodel, and +not misapplied to this set of plants, which in some sort resemble the +asphodel. Plants with fleshy leaves, and spikes of bright _yellow_ flowers, +easily cultivated if kept dry." + +Hunting further, I find again my Savoy lily called a spider-plant, under +the article Hemerocallis, and the only information which the book gives me +under Hemerocallis, is that it means 'beautiful day' lily; and then, "This +is an ornamental genus of the easiest culture. The species are remarkable +among border flowers for their fine _orange_, _yellow_, or _blue_ flowers. +The Hemerocallis coerulea has been considered a distinct genus by Mr. +Salisbury, and called Saussurea." As I correct this sheet for press, +however, I find that the Hemerocallis is now to be called 'Funkia,' "in +honour of Mr. Funk, a Prussian apothecary." + +All this while, meantime, I have a suspicion that my pet Savoy Lily is not, +in existing classification, an Anthericum, nor a Hemerocallis, but a +Lilium. It is, in fact, simply a Turk's cap which doesn't curl up. But on +trying 'Lilium' in Loudon, I find no mention whatever of any wild branched +white lily. + +I then try the next word in my specimen page of Curtis; but there is no +'Phalangium' at all in Loudon's index. And now I have neither time nor mind +for more search, but will give, in due place, such account as I can {9} of +my own dwarf branched lily, which I shall call St. Bruno's, as well as this +Liliastrum--no offence to the saint, I hope. For it grows very gloriously +on the limestones of Savoy, presumably, therefore, at the Grande +Chartreuse; though I did not notice it there, and made a very unmonkish use +of it when I gathered it last:--There was a pretty young English lady at +the table-d'hote, in the Hotel du Mont Blanc at St. Martin's,[3] and I +wanted to get speech of her, and didn't know how. So all I could think of +was to go half-way up the Aiguille de Varens, to gather St. Bruno's lilies; +and I made a great cluster of them, and put wild roses all around them as I +came down. I never saw anything so lovely; and I thought to present this to +her before dinner,--but when I got down, she had gone away to Chamouni. My +Fors always treated me like that, in affairs of the heart. + +I had begun my studies of Alpine botany just eighteen years before, in +1842, by making a careful drawing of wood-sorrel at Chamouni; and bitterly +sorry I am, now, that the work was interrupted. For I drew, then, very +delicately; and should have made a pretty book if I could have got peace. +Even yet, I can manage my point a little, and would far rather be making +outlines of flowers, than writing; and I meant to have drawn every English +and Scottish wild flower, like this cluster of bog heather +opposite,[4]--back, and profile, and front. But 'Blackwood's {10} +Magazine,' with its insults to Turner, dragged me into controversy; and I +have not had, properly speaking, a day's peace since; so that in 1868 my +botanical studies were advanced only as far as the reader will see in next +chapter; and now, in 1874, must end altogether, I suppose, heavier thoughts +and work coming fast on me. So that, finding among my notebooks, two or +three, full of broken materials for the proposed work on flowers; and, +thinking they may be useful even as fragments, I am going to publish them +in their present state,--only let the reader note that while my other books +endeavour, and claim, so far as they reach, to give trustworthy knowledge +of their subjects, this one only shows how such knowledge may be obtained; +and it is little more than a history of efforts and plans,--but of both, I +believe, made in right methods. + +One part of the book, however, will, I think, be found of permanent value. +Mr. Burgess has engraved on wood, in reduced size, with consummate skill, +some of the excellent old drawings in the Flora Danica, and has +interpreted, and facsimile'd, some of his own and my drawings from nature, +with a vigour and precision unsurpassed in woodcut illustration, which +render these outlines the best exercises in black and white I have yet been +able to {11} prepare for my drawing pupils. The larger engravings by Mr. +Allen may also be used with advantage as copies for drawings with pen or +sepia. + +ROME, _10th May_ (_my father's birthday_). + +I found the loveliest blue asphodel I ever saw in my life, yesterday, in +the fields beyond Monte Mario,--a spire two feet high, of more than two +hundred stars, the stalks of them all deep blue, as well as the flowers. +Heaven send all honest people the gathering of the like, in Elysian fields, +some day! + + * * * * * + +{12} + +CHAPTER I. + +MOSS. + +DENMARK HILL, _3rd November, 1868._ + +1. It is mortifying enough to write,--but I think thus much ought to be +written,--concerning myself, as 'the author of Modern Painters.' In three +months I shall be fifty years old: and I don't at this hour--ten o'clock in +the morning of the two hundred and sixty-eighth day of my forty-ninth +year--know what 'moss' is. + +There is nothing I have more _intended_ to know--some day or other. But the +moss 'would always be there'; and then it was so beautiful, and so +difficult to examine, that one could only do it in some quite separated +time of happy leisure--which came not. I never was like to have less +leisure than now, but I _will_ know what moss is, if possible, forthwith. + +2. To that end I read preparatorily, yesterday, what account I could find +of it in all the botanical books in the house. Out of them all, I get this +general notion of a moss,--that it has a fine fibrous root,--a stem +surrounded with spirally set leaves,--and produces its fruit in a small +case, under a cap. I fasten especially, however, on a {13} sentence of +Louis Figuier's, about the particular species, Hypnum:-- + +"These mosses, which often form little islets of verdure at the feet of +poplars and willows, are robust vegetable organisms, which do not +decay."[5] + +3. "Qui ne pourrissent point." What do they do with themselves, then?--it +immediately occurs to me to ask. And, secondly,--If this immortality +belongs to the Hypnum only? + +It certainly does not, by any means: but, however modified or limited, this +immortality is the first thing we ought to take note of in the mosses. They +are, in some degree, what the "everlasting" is in flowers. Those minute +green leaves of theirs do not decay, nor fall. + +But how do they die, or how stop growing, then?--it is the first thing I +want to know about them. And from all the books in the house, I can't as +yet find out this. Meanwhile I will look at the leaves themselves. + +4. Going out to the garden, I bring in a bit of old brick, emerald green on +its rugged surface,[6] and a thick piece of mossy turf. + +First, for the old brick: To think of the quantity of pleasure one has had +in one's life from that emerald green velvet,--and yet that for the first +time to-day I am verily going to look at it! Doing so, through a pocket +{14} lens of no great power, I find the velvet to be composed of small +star-like groups of smooth, strong, oval leaves,--intensely green, and much +like the young leaves of any other plant, except in this;--they all have a +long brown spike, like a sting, at their ends. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +5. Fastening on that, I take the Flora Danica,[7] and look through its +plates of mosses, for their leaves only; and I find, first, that this +spike, or strong central rib, is characteristic;--secondly, that the said +leaves are apt to be not only spiked, but serrated, and otherwise +angry-looking at the points;--thirdly, that they have a tendency to fold +together in the centre (Fig. 1[8]); and at last, after an hour's work at +them, it strikes me suddenly that they are more like pineapple leaves than +anything else. + +And it occurs to me, very unpleasantly, at the same time, that I don't know +what a pineapple is! + +Stopping to ascertain that, I am told that a pineapple belongs to the +'Bromeliaceae'--(can't stop to find out what that means)--nay, that of these +plants "the pineapple is the representative" (Loudon); "their habit is +acid, their leaves rigid, and toothed with spines, their {15} bracteas +often coloured with scarlet, and their flowers either white or blue"--(what +are their flowers like?) But the two sentences that most interest me, are, +that in the damp forests of Carolina, the Tillandsia, which is an +'epiphyte' (_i.e._, a plant growing on other plants,) "forms dense festoons +among the branches of the trees, vegetating among the black mould that +collects upon the bark of trees in hot damp countries; other species are +inhabitants of deep and gloomy forests, and others form, with their spring +leaves, an impenetrable herbage in the Pampas of Brazil." So they really +seem to be a kind of moss, on a vast scale. + +6. Next, I find in Gray,[9] Bromeliaceae, and--the very thing I +want--"Tillandsia, the black _moss_, or long moss, which, _like most +Bromelias_, grows on the branches of trees." So the pineapple is really a +moss; only it is a moss that flowers but 'imperfectly.' "The fine fruit is +caused by the consolidation of the imperfect flowers." (I wish we could +consolidate some imperfect English moss-flowers into little pineapples +then,--though they were only as big as filberts.) But we cannot follow that +farther now; nor consider when a flower is perfect, and when it is not, or +we should get into morals, and I don't know where else; we will go back to +the moss I have gathered, for I begin to see my way, a little, to +understanding it. + +{16} + +7. The second piece I have on the table is a cluster--an inch or two +deep--of the moss that grows everywhere, and that the birds use for +nest-building, and we for packing, and the like. It is dry, since +yesterday, and its fibres define themselves against the dark ground in warm +green, touched with a glittering light. Note that burnished lustre of the +minute leaves; they are necessarily always relieved against dark hollows, +and this lustre makes them much clearer and brighter than if they were of +dead green. In that lustre--and it is characteristic of them--they differ +wholly from the dead, aloe-like texture of the pineapple leaf; and remind +me, as I look at them closely, a little of some conditions of chaff, as on +heads of wheat after being threshed. I will hunt down that clue presently; +meantime there is something else to be noticed on the old brick. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.] + +8. Out of its emerald green cushions of minute leaves, there rise, here and +there, thin red threads, each with a little brown cap, or something like a +cap, at the top of it. These red threads shooting up out of the green +tufts, are, I believe, the fructification of the moss; fringing its surface +in the woods, and on the rocks, with the small forests of brown stems, each +carrying its pointed cap or crest--of infinitely varied 'mode,' as we shall +see presently; and, which is one of their most blessed functions, carrying +high the dew in the morning; every spear balancing its own crystal globe. + +9. And now, with my own broken memories of moss {17} and this unbroken, +though unfinished, gift of the noble labour of other people, the Flora +Danica, I can generalize the idea of the precious little plant, for myself, +and for the reader. + +All mosses, I believe, (with such exceptions and collateral groups as we +may afterwards discover, but they are not many,) that is to say, some +thousands of species, are, in their strength of existence, composed of +fibres surrounded by clusters of dry _spinous_ leaves, set close to the +fibre they grow on. Out of this leafy stern descends a fibrous root, and +ascends in its season, a capped seed. + +We must get this very clearly into our heads. Fig. 2, A, is a little tuft +of a common wood moss of Norway,[10] in its fruit season, of its real size; +but at present I want to look at the central fibre and its leaves +accurately, and understand that first. + +10. Pulling it to pieces, we find it composed of seven little +company-keeping fibres, each of which, by itself, appears as in Fig. 2, B: +but as in this, its real size, it {18} is too small, not indeed for our +respect, but for our comprehension, we magnify it, Fig. 2, C, and thereupon +perceive it to be indeed composed of, _a_, the small fibrous root which +sustains the plant; _b_, the leaf-surrounded stem which is the actual +being, and main creature, moss; and, _c_, the aspirant pillar, and cap, of +its fructification. + +11. But there is one minor division yet. You see I have drawn the central +part of the moss plant (_b_, Fig. 2,) half in outline and half in black; +and that, similarly, in the upper group, which is too small to show the +real roots, the base of the cluster is black. And you remember, I doubt +not, how often in gathering what most invited gathering, of deep green, +starry, perfectly soft and living wood-moss, you found it fall asunder in +your hand into multitudes of separate threads, each with its bright green +crest, and long root of blackness. + +That blackness at the root--though only so notable in this wood-moss and +collateral species, is indeed a general character of the mosses, with rare +exceptions. It is their funeral blackness;--that, I perceive, is the way +the moss leaves die. They do not fall--they do not visibly decay. But they +decay _in_visibly, in continual secession, beneath the ascending crest. +They rise to form that crest, all green and bright, and take the light and +air from those out of which they grew;--and those, their ancestors, darken +and die slowly, and at last become a mass of mouldering ground. In fact, as +I perceive farther, their final duty is so to die. The main work of other +leaves is {19} in their life,--but these have to form the earth out of +which all other leaves are to grow. Not to cover the rocks with golden +velvet only, but to fill their crannies with the dark earth, through which +nobler creatures shall one day seek their being. + +12. "Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss." Pope could not have known +the hundredth part of the number of 'sorts' of moss there are; and I +suppose he only chose the word because it was a monosyllable beginning with +m, and the best English general expression for despised and minute +structures of plants. But a fate rules the words of wise men, which makes +their words truer, and worth more, than the men themselves know. No other +plants have so endless variety on so similar a structure as the mosses; and +none teach so well the humility of Death. As for the death of our bodies, +we have learned, wisely, or unwisely, to look the fact of that in the face. +But none of us, I think, yet care to look the fact of the death of our +minds in the face. I do not mean death of our souls, but of our mental +work. So far as it is good _art_, indeed, and done in realistic form, it +may perhaps not die; but so far as it was only good _thought_--good, for +its time, and apparently a great achievement therein--that good, useful +thought may yet in the future become a foolish thought, and then die quite +away,--it, and the memory of it,--when better thought and knowledge come. +But the better thought could not have come if the weaker thought had not +come first, and died in sustaining the {20} better. If we think honestly, +our thoughts will not only live usefully, but even perish usefully--like +the moss--and become dark, not without due service. But if we think +dishonestly, or malignantly, our thoughts will die like evil +fungi,--dripping corrupt dew. + +13. But farther. If you have walked moorlands enough to know the look of +them, you know well those flat spaces or causeways of bright green or +golden ground between the heathy rock masses; which signify winding pools +and inlets of stagnant water caught among the rocks;--pools which the deep +moss that covers them--_blanched_, not black, at the root,--is slowly +filling and making firm; whence generally the unsafe ground in the moorland +gets known by being _mossy_ instead of heathy; and is at last called by its +riders, briefly, 'the Moss': and as it is mainly at these same mossy places +that the riding is difficult, and brings out the gifts of horse and rider, +and discomfits all followers not similarly gifted, the skilled crosser of +them got his name, naturally, of 'moss-rider,' or moss-trooper. In which +manner the moss of Norway and Scotland has been a taskmaster and Maker of +Soldiers, as yet, the strongest known among natural powers. The lightning +may kill a man, or cast down a tower, but these little tender leaves of +moss--they and their progenitors--have trained the Northern Armies. + +14. So much for the human meaning of that decay of the leaves. Now to go +back to the little creatures themselves. It seems that the upper part of +the moss fibre is {21} especially _un_decaying among leaves; and the lower +part, especially decaying. That, in fact, a plant of moss-fibre is a kind +of persistent state of what is, in other plants, annual. Watch the year's +growth of any luxuriant flower. First it comes out of the ground all fresh +and bright; then, as the higher leaves and branches shoot up, those first +leaves near the ground get brown, sickly, earthy,--remain for ever degraded +in the dust, and under the dashed slime in rain, staining, and grieving, +and loading them with obloquy of envious earth, half-killing them,--only +life enough left in them to hold on the stem, and to be guardians of the +rest of the plant from all they suffer;--while, above them, the happier +leaves, for whom they are thus oppressed, bend freely to the sunshine, and +drink the rain pure. + +The moss strengthens on a diminished scale, intensifies, and makes +perpetual, these two states,--bright leaves above that never wither, leaves +beneath that exist only to wither. + +15. I have hitherto spoken only of the fading moss as it is needed for +change into earth. But I am not sure whether a yet more important office, +in its days of age, be not its use as a colour. + +We are all thankful enough--as far as we ever are so--for green moss, and +yellow moss. But we are never enough grateful for black moss. The golden +would be nothing without it, nor even the grey. + +It is true that there are black lichens enough, and {22} brown ones: +nevertheless, the chief use of lichens is for silver and gold colour on +rocks; and it is the dead moss which gives the leopard-like touches of +black. And yet here again--as to a thing I have been looking at and +painting all my life--I am brought to pause, the moment I think of it +carefully. The black moss which gives the precious Velasquez touches, lies, +much of it, flat on the rocks; radiating from its centres--powdering in the +fingers, if one breaks it off, like dry tea. Is it a black species?--or a +black-parched state of other species, perishing for the sake of Velasquez +effects, instead of accumulation of earth? and, if so, does it die of +drought, accidentally, or, in a sere old age, naturally? and how is it +related to the rich green bosses that grow in deep velvet? And there again +is another matter not clear to me. One calls them 'velvet' because they are +all brought to an even surface at the top. Our own velvet is reduced to +such trimness by cutting. But how is the moss trimmed? By what scissors? +Carefullest Elizabethan gardener never shaped his yew hedge more daintily +than the moss fairies smooth these soft rounded surfaces of green and gold. +And just fancy the difference, if they were ragged! If the fibres had every +one of them leave to grow at their own sweet will, and to be long or short +as they liked, or, worse still, urged by fairy prizes into laboriously and +agonizingly trying which could grow longest. Fancy the surface of a spot of +competitive moss! + +16. But how is it that they are subdued into that {23} spherical obedience, +like a crystal of wavellite?[11] Strange--that the vegetable creatures +growing so fondly on rocks should form themselves in that mineral-like +manner. It is true that the tops of all well-grown trees are rounded, on a +large scale, as equally; but that is because they grow from a central stem, +while these mossy mounds are made out of independent filaments, each +growing to exactly his proper height in the sphere--short ones outside, +long in the middle. Stop, though; _is_ that so? I am not even sure of that; +perhaps they are built over a little dome of decayed moss below.[12] I must +find out how every {24} filament grows, separately--from root to cap, +through the spirally set leaves. And meanwhile I don't know very clearly so +much as what a root is--or what a leaf is. Before puzzling myself any +farther in examination either of moss or any other grander vegetable, I had +better define these primal forms of all vegetation, as well as I can--or +rather begin the definition of them, for future completion and correction. +For, as my reader must already sufficiently perceive, this book is +literally to be one of studies--not of statements. Some one said of me +once, very shrewdly, When he wants to work out a subject, he writes a book +on it. That is a very true saying in the main,--I work down or up to my +mark, and let the reader see process and progress, not caring to conceal +them. But this book will be nothing but process. I don't mean to assert +anything positively in it from the first page to the last. Whatever I say, +is to be understood only as a conditional statement--liable to, and +inviting, correction. And this the more because, as on the whole, I am at +war with the botanists, I can't ask them to help me, and then {25} call +them names afterwards. I hope only for a contemptuous heaping of coals on +my head by correction of my errors from them;--in some cases, my scientific +friends will, I know, give me forgiving aid;--but, for many reasons, I am +forced first to print the imperfect statement, as I can independently shape +it; for if once I asked for, or received help, every thought would be +frostbitten into timid expression, and every sentence broken by apology. I +should have to write a dozen of letters before I could print a line, and +the line, at last, would be only like a bit of any other botanical +book--trustworthy, it might be, perhaps; but certainly unreadable. Whereas +now, it will rather put things more forcibly in the reader's mind to have +them retouched and corrected as we go on; and our natural and honest +mistakes will often be suggestive of things we could not have discovered +but by wandering. + +On these guarded conditions, then, I proceed to study, with my reader, the +first general laws of vegetable form. + + * * * * * + +{26} + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ROOT. + +1. Plants in their perfect form consist of four principal parts,--the Root, +Stem, Leaf, and Flower. It is true that the stem and flower are parts, or +remnants, or altered states, of the leaves; and that, speaking with close +accuracy, we might say, a perfect plant consists of leaf and root. But the +division into these four parts is best for practical purposes, and it will +be desirable to note a few general facts about each, before endeavouring to +describe any one kind of plant. Only, because the character of the stem +depends on the nature of the leaf and flower, we must put it last in order +of examination; and trace the development of the plant first in root and +leaf; then in the flower and its fruit; and lastly in the stem. + +2. First, then, the Root. + +Every plant is divided, as I just said, in the main, into two parts, and +these have opposite natures. One part seeks the light; the other hates it. +One part feeds on the air; the other on the dust. + +The part that loves the light is called the Leaf. It is an old Saxon word; +I cannot get at its origin. The part that hates the light is called the +Root. {27} + +In Greek, [Greek: rhiza], Rhiza.[13] + +In Latin, Radix, "the growing thing," which shortens, in French, into Race, +and then they put on the diminutive 'ine,' and get their two words, Race, +and Racine, of which we keep Race for animals, and use for vegetables a +word of our own Saxon (and Dutch) dialect,--'root'; (connected with +Rood--an image of wood; whence at last the Holy Rood, or Tree). + +3. The Root has three great functions: + + 1st. To hold the plant in its place. + 2nd. To nourish it with earth. + 3rd. To receive vital power for it from the earth. + +With this last office is in some degree,--and especially in certain +plants,--connected, that of reproduction. + +But in all plants the root has these three essential functions. + +First, I said, to hold the Plant in its place. The Root is its Fetter. + +You think it, perhaps, a matter of course that a plant is not to be a +crawling thing? It is not a matter of course at all. A vegetable might be +just what it is now, as compared with an animal;--might live on earth and +water instead of on meat,--might be as senseless in life, as calm in death, +and in all its parts and apparent structure {28} unchanged; and yet be a +crawling thing. It is quite as easy to conceive plants moving about like +lizards, putting forward first one root and then another, as it is to think +of them fastened to their place. It might have been well for them, one +would have thought, to have the power of going down to the streams to +drink, in time of drought;--of migrating in winter with grim march from +north to south of Dunsinane Hill side. But that is not their appointed +Fate. They are--at least all the noblest of them, rooted to their spot. +Their honour and use is in giving immoveable shelter,--in remaining +landmarks, or lovemarks, when all else is changed: + + "The cedars wave on Lebanon, + But Judah's statelier maids are gone." + +4. Its root is thus a form of fate to the tree. It condemns, or indulges +it, in its place. These semi-living creatures, come what may, shall abide, +happy, or tormented. No doubt concerning "the position in which Providence +has placed _them_" is to trouble their minds, except so far as they can +mend it by seeking light, or shrinking from wind, or grasping at support, +within certain limits. In the thoughts of men they have thus become twofold +images,--on the one side, of spirits restrained and half destroyed, whence +the fables of transformation into trees; on the other, of spirits patient +and continuing, having root in themselves and in good ground, capable of +all persistent {29} effort and vital stability, both in themselves, and for +the human States they form. + +5. In this function of holding fast, roots have a power of grasp quite +different from that of branches. It is not a grasp, or clutch by +contraction, as that of a bird's claw, or of the small branches we call +'tendrils' in climbing plants. It is a dead, clumsy, but inevitable grasp, +by swelling, _after_ contortion. For there is this main difference between +a branch and root, that a branch cannot grow vividly but in certain +directions and relations to its neighbour branches; but a root can grow +wherever there is earth, and can turn in any direction to avoid an +obstacle.[14] + +6. In thus contriving access for itself where it chooses, a root contorts +itself into more serpent-like writhing than branches can; and when it has +once coiled partly round a rock, or stone, it grasps it tight, necessarily, +merely by swelling. Now a root has force enough sometimes to split rocks, +but not to crush them; so it is compelled to grasp by _flattening_ as it +thickens; and, as it must have room somewhere, it alters its own shape as +if it were made of {30} dough, and holds the rock, not in a claw, but in a +wooden cast or mould, adhering to its surface. And thus it not only finds +its anchorage in the rock, but binds the rocks of its anchorage with a +constrictor cable. + +7. Hence--and this is a most important secondary function--roots bind +together the ragged edges of rocks as a hem does the torn edge of a dress: +they literally stitch the stones together; so that, while it is always +dangerous to pass under a treeless edge of overhanging crag, as soon as it +has become beautiful with trees, it is safe also. The rending power of +roots on rocks has been greatly overrated. Capillary attraction in a willow +wand will indeed split granite, and swelling roots sometimes heave +considerable masses aside, but on the whole, roots, small and great, bind, +and do not rend.[15] The surfaces of mountains are dissolved and +disordered, by rain, and frost, and chemical decomposition, into mere heaps +of loose stones on their desolate summits; but, where the forests grow, +soil accumulates and disintegration ceases. And by cutting down forests on +great mountain slopes, not only is the climate destroyed, but the danger of +superficial landslip fearfully increased. + +8. The second function of roots is to gather for the plant the nourishment +it needs from the ground. This is {31} partly water, mixed with some kinds +of air (ammonia, etc.,) but the plant can get both water and ammonia from +the atmosphere; and, I believe, for the most part does so; though, when it +cannot get water from the air, it will gladly drink by its roots. But the +things it cannot receive from the air at all are certain earthy salts, +essential to it (as iron is essential in our own blood), and of which when +it has quite exhausted the earth, no more such plants can grow in that +ground. On this subject you will find enough in any modern treatise on +agriculture; all that I want you to note here is that this feeding function +of the root is of a very delicate and discriminating kind, needing much +searching and mining among the dust, to find what it wants. If it only +wanted water, it could get most of that by spreading in mere soft senseless +limbs, like sponge, as far, and as far down, as it could--but to get the +_salt_ out of the earth it has to _sift_ all the earth, and taste and touch +every grain of it that it can, with fine fibres. And therefore a root is +not at all a merely passive sponge or absorbing thing, but an infinitely +subtle tongue, or tasting and eating thing. That is why it is always so +fibrous and divided and entangled in the clinging earth. + +9. "Always fibrous and divided"? But many roots are quite hard and solid! + +No; the active part of the root is always, I believe, a fibre. But there is +often a provident and passive part--a savings bank of root--in which +nourishment is laid up for the plant, and which, though it may be +underground, is no {32} more to be considered its real root than the kernel +of a seed is. When you sow a pea, if you take it up in a day or two, you +will find the fibre below, which is root; the shoot above, which is plant; +and the pea as a now partly exhausted storehouse, looking very woful, and +like the granaries of Paris after the fire. So, the round solid root of a +cyclamen, or the conical one which you know so well as a carrot, are not +properly roots, but permanent storehouses,--only the fibres that grow from +them are roots. Then there are other apparent roots which are not even +storehouses, but refuges; houses where the little plant lives in its +infancy, through winter and rough weather. So that it will be best for you +at once to limit your idea of a root to this,--that it is a group of +growing fibres which taste and suck what is good for the plant out of the +ground, and by their united strength hold it in its place; only remember +the thick limbs of roots do not feed, but only the fine fibres at the ends +of them which are something between tongues and sponges, and while they +absorb moisture readily, are yet as particular about getting what they +think nice to eat as any dainty little boy or girl; looking for it +everywhere, and turning angry and sulky if they don't get it. + +10. But the root has, it seems to me, one more function, the most important +of all. I say, it seems to me, for observe, what I have hitherto told you +is all (I believe) ascertained and admitted; this that I am going to tell +you has not yet, as far as I know, been asserted by men of {33} science, +though I believe it to be demonstrable. But you are to examine into it, and +think of it for yourself. + +There are some plants which appear to derive all their food from the +air--which need nothing but a slight grasp of the ground to fix them in +their place. Yet if we were to tie them into that place, in a framework, +and cut them from their roots, they would die. Not only in these, but in +all other plants, the vital power by which they shape and feed themselves, +whatever that power may be, depends, I think, on that slight touch of the +earth, and strange inheritance of its power. It is as essential to the +plant's life as the connection of the head of an animal with its body by +the spine is to the animal. Divide the feeble nervous thread, and all life +ceases. Nay, in the tree the root is even of greater importance. You will +not kill the tree, as you would an animal, by dividing its body or trunk. +The part not severed from the root will shoot again. But in the root, and +its touch of the ground, is the life of it. My own definition of a plant +would be "a living creature whose source of vital energy is in the earth" +(or in the water, as a form of the earth; that is, in inorganic substance). +There is, however, one tribe of plants which seems nearly excepted from +this law. It is a very strange one, having long been noted for the +resemblance of its flowers to different insects; and it has recently been +proved by Mr. Darwin to be dependent on insects for its existence. Doubly +strange therefore, it seems, that in some cases this race of plants all but +reaches the independent life of {34} insects. It rather _settles_ upon +boughs than roots itself in them; half of its roots may wave in the air. + +11. What vital power is, men of science are not a step nearer knowing than +they were four thousand years ago. They are, if anything, farther from +knowing now than then, in that they imagine themselves nearer. But they +know more about its limitations and manifestations than they did. They have +even arrived at something like a proof that there is a fixed quantity of it +flowing out of things and into them. But, for the present, rest content +with the general and sure knowledge that, fixed or flowing, measurable or +immeasurable--one with electricity or heat or light, or quite distinct from +any of them--life is a delightful, and its negative, death, a dreadful +thing, to human creatures; and that you can give or gather a certain +quantity of life into plants, animals, and yourself by wisdom and courage, +and by their reverses can bring upon them any quantity of death you please, +which is a much more serious point for you to consider than what life and +death are. + +12. Now, having got a quite clear idea of a root properly so called, we may +observe what those storehouses, refuges, and ruins are, which we find +connected with roots. The greater number of plants feed and grow at the +same time; but there are some of them which like to feed first and grow +afterwards. For the first year, or, at all events, the first period of +their life, they gather material for their future life out of the ground +and out {35} of the air, and lay it up in a storehouse as bees make combs. +Of these stores--for the most part rounded masses tapering downwards into +the ground--some are as good for human beings as honeycombs are; only not +so sweet. We steal them from the plants, as we do from the bees, and these +conical upside-down hives or treasuries of Atreus, under the names of +carrots, turnips, and radishes, have had important influence on human +fortunes. If we do not steal the store, next year the plant lives upon it, +raises its stem, flowers and seeds out of that abundance, and having +fulfilled its destiny, and provided for its successor, passes away, root +and branch together. + +13. There is a pretty example of patience for us in this; and it would be +well for young people generally to set themselves to grow in a carrotty or +turnippy manner, and lay up secret store, not caring to exhibit it until +the time comes for fruitful display. But they must not, in after-life, +imitate the spendthrift vegetable, and blossom only in the strength of what +they learned long ago; else they soon come to contemptible end. Wise people +live like laurels and cedars, and go on mining in the earth, while they +adorn and embalm the air. + +14. Secondly, Refuges. As flowers growing on trees have to live for some +time, when they are young in their buds, so some flowers growing on the +ground have to live for a while, when they are young, _in_ what we call +their {36} roots. These are mostly among the Drosidae[16] and other humble +tribes, loving the ground; and, in their babyhood, liking to live quite +down in it. A baby crocus has literally its own little dome--domus, or +duomo--within which in early spring it lives a delicate convent life of its +own, quite free from all worldly care and dangers, exceedingly ignorant of +things in general, but itself brightly golden and perfectly formed before +it is brought out. These subterranean palaces and vaulted cloisters, which +we call bulbs, are no more roots than the blade of grass is a root, in +which the ear of corn forms before it shoots up. + +15. Thirdly, Ruins. The flowers which have these subterranean homes form +one of many families whose roots, as well as seeds, have the power of +reproduction. The succession of some plants is trusted much to their seeds: +a thistle sows itself by its down, an oak by its acorns; the companies of +flying emigrants settle where they may; and the shadowy tree is content to +cast down its showers of nuts for swines' food with the chance that here +and there one may become a ship's bulwark. But others among plants are less +careless, or less proud. Many are anxious for their children to grow in the +place where they grew themselves, and secure this not merely by letting +their fruit fall at their feet, on the chance of its growing up {37} beside +them, but by closer bond, bud springing forth from root, and the young +plant being animated by the gradually surrendered life of its parent. +Sometimes the young root is formed above the old one, as in the crocus, or +beside it, as in the amaryllis, or beside it in a spiral succession, as in +the orchis; in these cases the old root always perishes wholly when the +young one is formed; but in a far greater number of tribes, one root +connects itself with another by a short piece of intermediate stem; and +this stem does not at once perish when the new root is formed, but grows on +at one end indefinitely, perishing slowly at the other, the scars or ruins +of the past plants being long traceable on its sides. When it grows +entirely underground it is called a root-stock. But there is no essential +distinction between a root-stock and a creeping stem, only the root-stock +may be thought of as a stem which shares the melancholy humour of a root in +loving darkness, while yet it has enough consciousness of better things to +grow towards, or near, the light. In one family it is even fragrant where +the flower is not, and a simple houseleek is called 'rhodiola rosea,' +because its root-stock has the scent of a rose. + +16. There is one very unusual condition of the root-stock which has become +of much importance in economy, though it is of little in botany; the +forming, namely, of knots at the ends of the branches of the underground +stem, where the new roots are to be thrown out. Of these knots, or +'tubers,' (swollen things,) one kind, belonging to {38} the tobacco tribe, +has been singularly harmful, together with its pungent relative, to a +neighbouring country of ours, which perhaps may reach a higher destiny than +any of its friends can conceive for it, if it can ever succeed in living +without either the potato, or the pipe. + +17. Being prepared now to find among plants many things which are like +roots, yet are not; you may simplify and make fast your true idea of a root +as a fibre or group of fibres, which fixes, animates, and partly feeds the +leaf. Then practically, as you examine plants in detail, ask first +respecting them: What kind of root have they? Is it large or small in +proportion to their bulk, and why is it so? What soil does it like, and +what properties does it acquire from it? The endeavour to answer these +questions will soon lead you to a rational inquiry into the plant's +history. You will first ascertain what rock or earth it delights in, and +what climate and circumstances; then you will see how its root is fitted to +sustain it mechanically under given pressures and violences, and to find +for it the necessary sustenance under given difficulties of famine or +drought. Lastly you will consider what chemical actions appear to be going +on in the root, or its store; what processes there are, and elements, which +give pungency to the radish, flavour to the onion, or sweetness to the +liquorice; and of what service each root may be made capable under +cultivation, and by proper subsequent treatment, either to animals or men. + +18. I shall not attempt to do any of this for you; I {39} assume, in giving +this advice, that you wish to pursue the science of botany as your chief +study; I have only broken moments for it, snatched from my chief +occupations, and I have done nothing myself of all this I tell you to do. +But so far as you can work in this manner, even if you only ascertain the +history of one plant, so that you know that accurately, you will have +helped to lay the foundation of a true science of botany, from which the +mass of useless nomenclature,[17] now mistaken for science, will fall away, +as the husk of a poppy falls from the bursting flower. + + * * * * * + +{40} + +CHAPTER III. + +THE LEAF. + +1. In the first of the poems of which the English Government has appointed +a portion to be sung every day for the instruction and pleasure of the +people, there occurs this curious statement respecting any person who will +behave himself rightly: "He shall be like a tree planted by the river side, +that bears its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither; and you +will see that whatever he does will prosper." + +I call it a curious statement, because the conduct to which this prosperity +is promised is not that which the English, as a nation, at present think +conducive to prosperity: but whether the statement be true or not, it will +be easy for you to recollect the two eastern figures under which the +happiness of the man is represented,--that he is like a tree bearing fruit +"in its season;" (not so hastily as that the frost pinch it, nor so late +that no sun ripens it;) and that "his leaf shall not fade." I should like +you to recollect this phrase in the Vulgate--"folium ejus non +defluet"--shall not fall _away_,--that is to say, shall not fall so as to +leave any visible bareness in winter time, but {41} only that others may +come up in its place, and the tree be always green. + +2. Now, you know, the fruit of the tree is either for the continuance of +its race, or for the good, or harm, of other creatures. In no case is it a +good to the tree itself. It is not indeed, properly, a part of the tree at +all, any more than the egg is part of the bird, or the young of any +creature part of the creature itself. But in the leaf is the strength of +the tree itself. Nay, rightly speaking, the leaves _are_ the tree itself. +Its trunk sustains; its fruit burdens and exhausts; but in the leaf it +breathes and lives. And thus also, in the eastern symbolism, the fruit is +the labour of men for others; but the leaf is their own life. "He shall +bring forth fruit, in his time; and his own joy and strength shall be +continual." + +3. Notice next the word 'folium.' In Greek, [Greek: phullon], 'phyllon.' + +"The thing that is born," or "put forth." "When the branch is tender, and +putteth forth her leaves, ye know that summer is nigh." The botanists say, +"The leaf is an expansion of the bark of the stem." More accurately, the +bark is a contraction of the tissue of the leaf. For every leaf is born out +of the earth, and breathes out of the air; and there are many leaves that +have no stems, but only roots. It is 'the springing thing'; this thin film +of life; rising, with its _edge_ out of the ground--infinitely feeble, +infinitely fair. With Folium, in Latin, is rightly associated the word +Flos; for the flower is only a group of {42} singularly happy leaves. From +these two roots come foglio, feuille, feuillage, and fleur;--blume, +blossom, and bloom; our foliage, and the borrowed foil, and the connected +technical groups of words in architecture and the sciences. + +4. This _thin_ film, I said. That is the essential character of a leaf; to +be thin,--widely spread out in proportion to its mass. It is the opening of +the substance of the earth to the air, which is the giver of life. The +Greeks called it, therefore, not only the born or blooming thing, but the +spread or expanded thing--"[Greek: petalon]." Pindar calls the beginnings +of quarrel, "petals of quarrel." Recollect, therefore, this form, Petalos; +and connect it with Petasos, the expanded cap of Mercury. For one great use +of both is to give shade. The root of all these words is said to be [GREEK: +PET] (Pet), which may easily be remembered in Greek, as it sometimes occurs +in no unpleasant sense in English. + +5. But the word 'petalos' is connected in Greek with another word, meaning, +to fly,--so that you may think of a bird as spreading its petals to the +wind; and with another, signifying Fate in its pursuing flight, the +overtaking thing, or overflying Fate. Finally, there is another Greek word +meaning 'wide,' [Greek: platus] (platys); whence at last our 'plate'--a +thing made broad or extended--but especially made broad or 'flat' out of +the solid, as in a lump of clay extended on the wheel, or a lump of metal +extended by the hammer. So the first we call Platter; the second Plate, +when of the precious metals. Then putting _b_ for {43} _p_, and _d_ for +_t_, we get the blade of an oar, and blade of grass. + +6. Now gather a branch of laurel, and look at it carefully. You may read +the history of the being of half the earth in one of those green oval +leaves--the things that the sun and the rivers have made out of dry ground. +Daphne--daughter of Enipeus, and beloved by the Sun,--that fable gives you +at once the two great facts about vegetation. Where warmth is, and +moisture--there, also, the leaf. Where no warmth--there is no leaf; where +there is no dew--no leaf. + +7. Look, then, to the branch you hold in your hand. That you _can_ so hold +it, or make a crown of it, if you choose, is the first thing I want you to +note of it;--the proportion of size, namely, between the leaf and _you_. +Great part of your life and character, as a human creature, has depended on +that. Suppose all leaves had been spacious, like some palm leaves; solid, +like cactus stem; or that trees had grown, as they might of course just as +easily have grown, like mushrooms, all one great cluster of leaf round one +stalk. I do not say that they are divided into small leaves only for your +delight, or your service, as if you were the monarch of everything--even in +this atom of a globe. You are made of your proper size; and the leaves of +theirs: for reasons, and by laws, of which neither the leaves nor you know +anything. Only note the harmony between both, and the joy we may have in +this division and mystery of the frivolous and tremulous petals, {44} which +break the light and the breeze,--compared to what with the frivolous and +tremulous mind which is in us, we could have had out of domes, or +penthouses, or walls of leaf. + +8. Secondly; think awhile of its dark clear green, and the good of it to +you. Scientifically, you know green in leaves is owing to 'chlorophyll,' +or, in English, to 'greenleaf.' It may be very fine to know that; but my +advice to you, on the whole, is to rest content with the general fact that +leaves are green when they do not grow in or near smoky towns; and not by +any means to rest content with the fact that very soon there will not be a +green leaf in England, but only greenish-black ones. And thereon resolve +that you will yourself endeavour to promote the growing of the green wood, +rather than of the black. + +9. Looking at the back of your laurel-leaves, you see how the central rib +or spine of each, and the lateral branchings, strengthen and carry it. I +find much confused use, in botanical works, of the words Vein and Rib. For, +indeed, there are veins _in_ the ribs of leaves, as marrow in bones; and +the projecting bars often gradually depress themselves into a transparent +net of rivers. But the _mechanical_ force of the framework in carrying the +leaf-tissue is the point first to be noticed; it is that which admits, +regulates, or restrains the visible motions of the leaf; while the system +of circulation can only be studied through the microscope. But the ribbed +leaf bears itself to the wind, as the webbed foot of a bird does to the +{45} water, and needs the same kind, though not the same strength, of +support; and its ribs always are partly therefore constituted of strong +woody substance, which is knit out of the tissue; and you can extricate +this skeleton framework, and keep it, after the leaf-tissue is dissolved. +So I shall henceforward speak simply of the leaf and its ribs,--only +specifying the additional veined structure on necessary occasions. + +10. I have just said that the ribs--and might have said, farther, the stalk +that sustains them--are knit out of the _tissue_ of the leaf. But what is +the leaf tissue itself knit out of? One would think that was nearly the +first thing to be discovered, or at least to be thought of, concerning +plants,--namely, how and of what they are made. We say they 'grow.' But you +know that they can't grow out of nothing;--this solid wood and rich tracery +must be made out of some previously existing substance. What is the +substance?--and how is it woven into leaves.--twisted into wood? + +11. Consider how fast this is done, in spring. You walk in February over a +slippery field, where, through hoar-frost and mud, you perhaps hardly see +the small green blades of trampled turf. In twelve weeks you wade through +the same field up to your knees in fresh grass; and in a week or two more, +you mow two or three solid haystacks off it. In winter you walk by your +currant-bush, or your vine. They are shrivelled sticks--like bits of black +tea in the canister. You pass again in May, and {46} the currant-bush looks +like a young sycamore tree; and the vine is a bower: and meanwhile the +forests, all over this side of the round world, have grown their foot or +two in height, with new leaves--so much deeper, so much denser than they +were. Where has it all come from? Cut off the fresh shoots from a single +branch of any tree in May. Weigh them; and then consider that so much +weight has been added to every such living branch, everywhere, this side +the equator, within the last two months. What is all that made of? + +12. Well, this much the botanists really know, and tell us,--It is made +chiefly of the breath of animals: that is to say, of the substance which, +during the past year, animals have breathed into the air; and which, if +they went on breathing, and their breath were not made into trees, would +poison them, or rather suffocate them, as people are suffocated in +uncleansed pits, and dogs in the Grotta del Cane. So that you may look upon +the grass and forests of the earth as a kind of green hoar-frost, frozen +upon it from our breath, as, on the window-panes, the white arborescence of +ice. + +13. But how is it made into wood? + +The substances that have been breathed into the air are charcoal, with +oxygen and hydrogen,--or, more plainly, charcoal and water. Some necessary +earths,--in smaller quantity, but absolutely essential,--the trees get from +the ground; but, I believe all the charcoal they want, and most of the +water, from the air. Now the question is, where and how do they take it in, +and digest it into wood? {47} + +14. You know, in spring, and partly through all the year, except in frost, +a liquid called 'sap' circulates in trees, of which the nature, one should +have thought, might have been ascertained by mankind in the six thousand +years they have been cutting wood. Under the impression always that it _had +been_ ascertained, and that I could at any time know all about it, I have +put off till to-day, 19th October, 1869, when I am past fifty, the knowing +anything about it at all. But I will really endeavour now to ascertain +something, and take to my botanical books, accordingly, in due order. + +(1) Dresser's "Rudiments of Botany." 'Sap' not in the index; only Samara, +and Sarcocarp,--about neither of which I feel the smallest curiosity. (2) +Figuier's "Histoire des Plantes."[18] 'Seve,' not in index; only Serpolet, +and Sherardia arvensis, which also have no help in them for me. (3) +Balfour's "Manual of Botany." 'Sap,'--yes, at last. "Article 257. Course of +fluids in exogenous stems." I don't care about the course just now: I want +to know where the fluids come from. "If a plant be plunged into a weak +solution of acetate of lead,"--I don't in the least want to know what +happens. "From the minuteness of the tissue, it is not easy to determine +the vessels through which the sap moves." Who said it was? If it had been +easy, I should have done it myself. "Changes take place in the composition +of the {48} sap in its upward course." I dare say; but I don't know yet +what its composition is before it begins going up. "The Elaborated Sap by +Mr. Schultz has been called 'latex.'" I wish Mr. Schultz were in a hogshead +of it, with the top on. "On account of these movements in the latex, the +laticiferous vessels have been denominated cinenchymatous." I do not +venture to print the expressions which I here mentally make use of. + +15. Stay,--here, at last, in Article 264, is something to the purpose: "It +appears then that, in the case of Exogenous plants, the fluid matter in the +soil, containing different substances in solution, is sucked up by the +extremities of the roots." Yes, but how of the pine trees on yonder +rock?--Is there any sap in the rock, or water either? The moisture must be +seized during actual rain on the root, or stored up from the snow; stored +up, any way, in a tranquil, not actively sappy, state, till the time comes +for its change, of which there is no account here. + +16. I have only one chance left now. Lindley's "Introduction to Botany." +'Sap,'--yes,--'General motion of.' II. 325. "The course which is taken by +the sap, after entering a plant, is the first subject for consideration." +My dear doctor, I have learned nearly whatever I know of plant structure +from you, and am grateful; and that it is little, is not your fault, but +mine. But this--let me say it with all sincere respect--is not what you +should have told me here. You know, far better than I, that 'sap' never +does enter a plant at all; but only salt, or earth and water, {49} and that +the roots alone could not make it; and that, therefore, the course of it +must be, in great part, the result or process of the actual making. But I +will read now, patiently; for I know you will tell me much that is worth +hearing, though not perhaps what I want. + +Yes; now that I have read Lindley's statement carefully, I find it is full +of precious things; and this is what, with thinking over it, I can gather +for you. + +17. First, towards the end of January,--as the light enlarges, and the +trees revive from their rest,--there is a general liquefaction of the blood +of St. Januarius in their stems; and I suppose there is really a great deal +of moisture rapidly absorbed from the earth in most cases; and that this +absorption is a great help to the sun in drying the winter's damp out of it +for us: then, with that strange vital power,--which scientific people are +usually as afraid of naming as common people are afraid of naming +Death,--the tree gives the gathered earth and water a changed existence; +and to this new-born liquid an upward motion from the earth, as our blood +has from the heart; for the life of the tree is out of the earth; and this +upward motion has a mechanical power in pushing on the growth. "_Forced +onward_ by the current of sap, the plumule ascends," (Lindley, p. +132,)--this blood of the tree having to supply, exactly as our own blood +has, not only the forming powers of substance, but a continual evaporation, +"approximately seventeen times more than that of the human body," while the +force of motion in the sap "is {50} sometimes five times greater than that +which impels the blood in the crural artery of the horse." + +18. Hence generally, I think we may conclude thus much,--that at every pore +of its surface, under ground and above, the plant in the spring absorbs +moisture, which instantly disperses itself through its whole system "by +means of some permeable quality of the membranes of the cellular tissue +invisible to our eyes even by the most powerful glasses" (p. 326); that in +this way subjected to the vital power of the tree, it becomes sap, properly +so called, which passes downwards through this cellular tissue, slowly and +secretly; and then upwards, through the great vessels of the tree, +violently, stretching out the supple twigs of it as yon see a flaccid +waterpipe swell and move when the cock is turned to fill it. And the tree +becomes literally a fountain, of which the springing streamlets are clothed +with new-woven garments of green tissue, and of which the silver spray +stays in the sky,--a spray, now, of leaves. + +19. That is the gist of the matter; and a very wonderful gist it is, to my +mind. The secret and subtle descent--the violent and exulting resilience of +the tree's blood,--what guides it?--what compels? The creature has no heart +to beat like ours; one cannot take refuge from the mystery in a 'muscular +contraction.' Fountain without supply--playing by its own force, for ever +rising and falling all through the days of Spring, spending itself at last +in gathered clouds of leaves, and iris of blossom. + +Very wonderful; and it seems, for the present, that {51} we know nothing +whatever about its causes;--nay, the strangeness of the reversed arterial +and vein motion, without a heart, does not seem to strike anybody. Perhaps, +however, it may interest you, as I observe it does the botanists, to know +that the cellular tissue through which the motion is effected is called +Parenchym, and the woody tissue, Bothrenchym; and that Parenchym is +divided, by a system of nomenclature which "has some advantages over that +more commonly in use,"[19] into merenchyma, conenchyma, ovenchyma, +atractenchyma, cylindrenchyma, colpenchyma, cladenchyma, and prismenchyma. + +20. Take your laurel branch into your hand again. There are, as you must +well know, innumerable shapes and orders of leaves;--there are some like +claws; some like fingers, and some like feet; there are endlessly cleft +ones, and endlessly clustered ones, and inscrutable divisions within +divisions of the fretted verdure; and wrinkles, and ripples, and +stitchings, and hemmings, and pinchings, and gatherings, and crumplings, +and clippings, and what not. But there is nothing so constantly noble as +the pure leaf of the laurel, bay, orange, and olive; numerable, sequent, +perfect in setting, divinely simple and serene. I shall call these noble +leaves 'Apolline' leaves. They characterize many orders of plants, great +and small,--from the magnolia to the myrtle, and exquisite 'myrtille' {52} +of the hills, (bilberry); but wherever you find them, strong, lustrous, +dark green, simply formed, richly scented or stored,--you have nearly +always kindly and lovely vegetation, in healthy ground and air. + +21. The gradual diminution in rank beneath the Apolline leaf, takes place +in others by the loss of one or more of the qualities above named. The +Apolline leaf, I said, is strong, lustrous, full in its green, rich in +substance, simple in form. The inferior leaves are those which have lost +strength, and become thin, like paper; which have lost lustre, and become +dead by roughness of surface, like the nettle,--(an Apolline leaf may +become dead by _bloom_, like the olive, yet not lose beauty); which have +lost colour and become feeble in green, as in the poplar, or _crudely_ +bright, like rice; which have lost substance and softness, and have nothing +to give in scent or nourishment; or become flinty or spiny; finally, which +have lost simplicity, and become cloven or jagged. Many of these losses are +partly atoned for by gain of some peculiar loveliness. Grass and moss, and +parsley and fern, have each their own delightfulness; yet they are all of +inferior power and honour, compared to the Apolline leaves. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.] + +22. You see, however, that though your laurel leaf has a central stem, and +traces of ribs branching from it, in a vertebrated manner, they are so +faint that we cannot take it for a type of vertebrate structure. But the +two figures of elm and alisma leaf, given in Modern Painters (vol. iii.), +and now here repeated, Fig. 3, will clearly enough {53} show the opposition +between this vertebrate form, branching again usually at the edges, _a_, +and the softly opening lines diffused at the stem, and gathered at the +point of the leaf _b_, which, as you almost without doubt know already are +characteristic of a vast group of plants, including especially all the +lilies, grasses, and palms, which for the most part are the signs of local +or temporary moisture in hot countries;--local, as of fountains and +streams; temporary, as of rain or inundation. + +But temporary, still more definitely in the day, than in the year. When you +go out, delighted, into the dew of the morning, have you ever considered +why it is so rich upon the grass;--why it is _not_ upon the trees? It _is_ +partly on the trees, but yet your memory of it will be always chiefly of +its gleam upon the lawn. On many {54} trees you will find there is none at +all. I cannot follow out here the many inquiries connected with this +subject, but, broadly, remember the branched trees are fed chiefly by +rain,--the unbranched ones by dew, visible or invisible; that is to say, at +all events by moisture which they can gather for themselves out of the air; +or else by streams and springs. Hence the division of the verse of the song +of Moses: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distil as +the dew: as the _small_ rain upon the tender _herb_, and as the showers +upon the grass." + +23. Next, examining the direction of the veins in the leaf of the alisma, +_b_, Fig. 3, you see they all open widely, as soon as they can, towards the +thick part of the leaf; and then taper, apparently with reluctance, pushing +each other outwards, to the point. If the leaf were a lake of the same +shape, and its stem the entering river, the lines of the currents passing +through it would, I believe, be nearly the same as that of the veins in the +aquatic leaf. I have not examined the fluid law accurately, and I do not +suppose there is more real correspondence than may be caused by the leaf's +expanding in every permitted direction, as the water would, with all the +speed it can; but the resemblance is so close as to enable you to fasten +the relation of the unbranched leaves to streams more distinctly in your +mind,--just as the toss of the palm leaves from their stem may, I think, in +their likeness to the springing of a fountain, remind you of their relation +to the desert, and their necessity, therein, to life of man and beast. {55} + +24. And thus, associating these grass and lily leaves always with +fountains, or with dew, I think we may get a pretty general name for them +also. You know that Cora, our Madonna of the flowers, was lost in Sicilian +Fields: you know, also, that the fairest of Greek fountains, lost in +Greece, was thought to rise in a Sicilian islet; and that the real +springing of the noble fountain in that rock was one of the causes which +determined the position of the greatest Greek city of Sicily. So I think, +as we call the fairest branched leaves 'Apolline,' we will call the fairest +flowing ones 'Arethusan.' But remember that the Apolline leaf represents +only the central type of land leaves, and is, within certain limits, of a +fixed form; while the beautiful Arethusan leaves, alike in flowing of their +lines, change their forms indefinitely,--some shaped like round pools, and +some like winding currents, and many like arrows, and many like hearts, and +otherwise varied and variable, as leaves ought to be,--that rise out of the +waters, and float amidst the pausing of their foam. + +25. Brantwood, _Easter Day_, 1875.--I don't like to spoil my pretty +sentence, above; but on reading it over, I suspect I wrote it confusing the +water-lily leaf, and other floating ones of the same kind, with the +Arethusan forms. But the water-lily and water-ranunculus leaves, and such +others, are to the orders of earth-loving leaves what ducks and swans are +to birds; (the swan is the water-lily of birds;) they are _swimming_ +leaves; not properly watery creatures, or able to live under water like +fish, (unless {56} when dormant), but just like birds that pass their lives +on the surface of the waves--though they must breathe in the air. + +And these natant leaves, as they lie on the water surface, do not want +strong ribs to carry them,[20] but have very delicate ones beautifully +branching into the orbed space, to keep the tissue nice and flat; while, on +the other hand, leaves that really have to grow under water, sacrifice +their tissue, and keep only their ribs, like coral animals; ('Ranunculus +heterophyllus,' 'other-leaved Frog-flower,' and its like,) just as, if you +keep your own hands too long in water, they shrivel at the finger-ends. + +26. So that you must not attach any great botanical importance to the +characters of contrasted aspects in leaves, which I wish you to express by +the words 'Apolline' and 'Arethusan'; but their mythic importance is very +great, and your careful observance of it will help you completely to +understand the beautiful Greek fable of Apollo and Daphne. There are indeed +several Daphnes, and the first root of the name is far away in another +field of thought altogether, connected with the Gods of Light. But +etymology, the best of servants, is an unreasonable master; and Professor +Max Mueller trusts his deep-reaching knowledge of the first ideas connected +with the names of Athena {57} and Daphne, too implicitly, when he supposes +this idea to be retained in central Greek theology. 'Athena' originally +meant only the dawn, among nations who knew nothing of a Sacred Spirit. But +the Athena who catches Achilles by the hair, and urges the spear of Diomed, +has not, in the mind of Homer, the slightest remaining connection with the +mere beauty of daybreak. Daphne chased by Apollo, may perhaps--though I +doubt even this much of consistence in the earlier myth--have meant the +Dawn pursued by the Sun. But there is no trace whatever of this first idea +left in the fable of Arcadia and Thessaly. + +27. The central Greek Daphne is the daughter of one of the great _river_ +gods of Arcadia; her mother is the Earth. Now Arcadia is the Oberland of +Greece; and the crests of Cyllene, Erymanthus, and Maenalus[21] surround it, +like the Swiss forest cantons, with walls of rock, and shadows of pine. And +it divides itself, like the Oberland, into three regions: first, the region +of rock and snow, sacred to Mercury and Apollo, in which Mercury's birth on +Cyllene, his construction of the lyre, and his stealing the oxen of Apollo, +are all expressions of the enchantments of cloud and sound, mingling with +the sunshine, on the cliffs of Cyllene. + + "While the mists + Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes + {58} + And phantoms from the crags and solid earth + As fast as a musician scatters sounds + Out of his instrument." + +Then came the pine region, sacred especially to Pan and Maenalus, the son of +Lycaon and brother of Callisto; and you had better remember this +relationship carefully, for the sake of the meaning of the constellations +of Ursa Major and the Mons Maenalius, and of their wolf and bear traditions; +(compare also the strong impression on the Greek mind of the wild +leafiness, nourished by snow, of the Boeotian Cithaeron,--"Oh, thou +lake-hollow, full of divine leaves, and of wild creatures, nurse of the +snow, darling of Diana," (Phoenissae, 801)). How wild the climate of this +pine region is, you may judge from the pieces in the note below[22] out of +Colonel Leake's diary in {59} crossing the Maenalian range in spring. And +then, lastly, you have the laurel and vine region, full of sweetness and +Elysian beauty. + +28. Now as Mercury is the ruling power of the hill enchantment, so Daphne +of the leafy peace. She is, in her first life, the daughter of the mountain +river, the mist of it filling the valley; the Sun, pursuing, and effacing +it, from dell to dell, is, literally, Apollo pursuing Daphne, and _adverse_ +to her; (not, as in the earlier tradition, the Sun pursuing only his own +light). Daphne, thus hunted, cries to her mother, the Earth, which opens, +and receives her, causing the laurel to spring up in her stead. That is to +say, wherever the rocks protect the mist from the sunbeam, and suffer it to +water the earth, there the laurel and other richest vegetation fill the +hollows, giving a better glory to the sun itself. For sunshine, on the +torrent spray, {60} on the grass of its valley, and entangled among the +laurel stems, or glancing from their leaves, became a thousandfold lovelier +and more sacred than the same sunbeams, burning on the leafless +mountain-side. + +And farther, the leaf, in its connection with the river, is typically +expressive, not, as the flower was, of human fading and passing away, but +of the perpetual flow and renewal of human mind and thought, rising "like +the rivers that run among the hills"; therefore it was that the youth of +Greece sacrificed their hair--the sign of their continually renewed +strength,--to the rivers, and to Apollo. Therefore, to commemorate Apollo's +own chief victory over death--over Python, the corrupter,--a laurel branch +was gathered every ninth year in the vale of Tempe; and the laurel leaf +became the reward or crown of all beneficent and enduring work of man--work +of inspiration, born of the strength of the earth, and of the dew of +heaven, and which can never pass away. + +29. You may doubt at first, even because of its grace, this meaning in the +fable of Apollo and Daphne; you will not doubt it, however, when you trace +it back to its first eastern origin. When we speak carelessly of the +traditions respecting the Garden of Eden, (or in Hebrew, remember, Garden +of Delight,) we are apt to confuse Milton's descriptions with those in the +book of Genesis. Milton fills his Paradise with flowers; but no flowers are +spoken of in Genesis. We may indeed conclude that in speaking of every herb +of the field, flowers are included. But they {61} are not named. The things +that are _named_ in the Garden of Delight are trees only. + +The words are, "every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for +food;" and as if to mark the idea more strongly for us in the Septuagint, +even the ordinary Greek word for tree is not used, but the word [Greek: +xulon],--literally, every 'wood,' every piece of _timber_ that was pleasant +or good. They are indeed the "vivi travi,"--living rafters, of Dante's +Apennine. + +Do you remember how those trees were said to be watered? Not by the four +rivers only. The rivers could not supply the place of rain. No rivers do; +for in truth they are the refuse of rain. No storm-clouds were there, nor +hidings of the blue by darkening veil; but there went up a _mist_ from the +earth, and watered the face of the ground,--or, as in Septuagint and +Vulgate, "There went forth a fountain from the earth, and gave the earth to +drink." + +30. And now, lastly, we continually think of that Garden of Delight, as if +it existed, or could exist, no longer; wholly forgetting that it is spoken +of in Scripture as perpetually existent; and some of its fairest trees as +existent also, or only recently destroyed. When Ezekiel is describing to +Pharaoh the greatness of the Assyrians, do you remember what image he gives +of them? "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches; +and his top was among the thick boughs; the waters nourished him, and the +deep brought him up, with her rivers {62} running round about his plants. +Under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; +and under his shadow dwelt all great nations." + +31. Now hear what follows. "The cedars _in the Garden of God_ could not +hide _him_. The fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees +were not like his branches; nor any tree in the Garden of God was like unto +him in beauty." + +So that you see, whenever a nation rises into consistent, vital, and, +through many generations, enduring power, _there_ is still the Garden of +God; still it is the water of life which feeds the roots of it; and still +the succession of its people is imaged by the perennial leafage of trees of +Paradise. Could this be said of Assyria, and shall it not be said of +England? How much more, of lives such as ours should be,--just, laborious, +united in aim, beneficent in fulfilment, may the image be used of the +leaves of the trees of Eden! Other symbols have been given often to show +the evanescence and slightness of our lives--the foam upon the water, the +grass on the housetop, the vapour that vanishes away; yet none of these are +images of true human life. That life, when it is real, is _not_ evanescent; +is _not_ slight; does _not_ vanish away. Every noble life leaves the fibre +of it interwoven for ever in the work of the world; by so much, evermore, +the strength of the human race has gained; more stubborn in the root, +higher towards heaven in the branch; and, "as a teil tree, and as an +oak,--whose substance is in them {63} when they cast their leaves,--so the +holy seed is in the midst thereof." + +32. Only remember on what conditions. In the great Psalm of life, we are +told that everything that a man doeth shall prosper, so only that he +delight in the law of his God, that he hath not walked in the counsel of +the wicked, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. Is it among these leaves +of the perpetual Spring,--helpful leaves for the healing of the +nations,--that we mean to have our part and place, or rather among the +"brown skeletons of leaves that lag, the forest brook along"? For other +leaves there are, and other streams that water them,--not water of life, +but water of Acheron. Autumnal leaves there are that strew the brooks, in +Vallombrosa. Remember you how the name of the place was changed: "Once +called 'Sweet water' (Aqua bella), now, the Shadowy Vale." Portion in one +or other name we must choose, all of us,--with the living olive, by the +living fountains of waters, or with the wild fig trees, whose leafage of +human soul is strewed along the brooks of death, in the eternal +Vallombrosa. + + * * * * * + +{64} + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FLOWER. + +ROME, _Whit Monday, 1874_. + +1. On the quiet road leading from under the Palatine to the little church +of St. Nereo and Achilleo, I met, yesterday morning, group after group of +happy peasants heaped in pyramids on their triumphal carts, in Whit-Sunday +dress, stout and clean, and gay in colour; and the women all with bright +artificial roses in their hair, set with true natural taste, and well +becoming them. This power of arranging wreath or crown of flowers for the +head, remains to the people from classic times. And the thing that struck +me most in the look of it was not so much the cheerfulness, as the +dignity;--in a true sense, the _becomingness_ and decorousness of the +ornament. Among the ruins of the dead city, and the worse desolation of the +work of its modern rebuilders, here was one element at least of honour, and +order;--and, in these, of delight. + +And these are the real significances of the flower itself. It is the utmost +purification of the plant, and the utmost discipline. Where its tissue is +blanched fairest, dyed purest, set in strictest rank, appointed to most +chosen office, {65} there--and created by the fact of this purity and +function--is the flower. + +2. But created, observe, by the purity and order, more than by the +function. The flower exists for its own sake,--not for the fruit's sake. +The production of the fruit is an added honour to it--is a granted +consolation to us for its death. But the flower is the end of the +seed,--not the seed of the flower. You are fond of cherries, perhaps; and +think that the use of cherry blossom is to produce cherries. Not at all. +The use of cherries is to produce cherry blossoms; just as the use of bulbs +is to produce hyacinths,--not of hyacinths to produce bulbs. Nay, that the +flower can multiply by bulb, or root, or slip, as well as by seed, may show +you at once how immaterial the seed-forming function is to the flower's +existence. A flower is to the vegetable substance what a crystal is to the +mineral. "Dust of sapphire," writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me, of the +wood hyacinths of Scotland in the spring. Yes, that is so,--each bud more +beautiful, itself, than perfectest jewel--_this_, indeed, jewel "of purest +ray serene;" but, observe you, the glory is in the purity, the serenity, +the radiance,--not in the mere continuance of the creature. + +3. It is because of its beauty that its continuance is worth Heaven's +while. The glory of it is in being,--not in begetting; and in the spirit +and substance,--not the change. For the earth also has its flesh and +spirit. Every day of spring is the earth's Whit Sunday--Fire {66} Sunday. +The falling fire of the rainbow, with the order of its zones, and the +gladness of its covenant,--you may eat of it, like Esdras; but you feed +upon it only that you may see it. Do you think that flowers were born to +nourish the blind? + +Fasten well in your mind, then, the conception of order, and purity, as the +essence of the flower's being, no less than of the crystal's. A ruby is not +made bright to scatter round it child-rubies; nor a flower, but in +collateral and added honour, to give birth to other flowers. + +Two main facts, then, you have to study in every flower: the symmetry or +order of it, and the perfection of its substance; first, the manner in +which the leaves are placed for beauty of form; then the spinning and +weaving and blanching of their tissue, for the reception of purest colour, +or refining to richest surface. + +4. First, the order: the proportion, and answering to each other, of the +parts; for the study of which it becomes necessary to know what its parts +are; and that a flower consists essentially of--Well, I really don't know +what it consists essentially of. For some flowers have bracts, and stalks, +and toruses, and calices, and corollas, and discs, and stamens, and +pistils, and ever so many odds and ends of things besides, of no use at +all, seemingly; and others have no bracts, and no stalks, and no toruses, +and no calices, and no corollas, and nothing recognizable for stamens or +pistils,--only, when they come to be reduced to this kind of poverty, one +doesn't call {67} them flowers; they get together in knots, and one calls +them catkins, or the like, or forgets their existence altogether;--I +haven't the least idea, for instance, myself, what an oak blossom is like; +only I know its bracts get together and make a cup of themselves +afterwards, which the Italians call, as they do the dome of St. Peter's, +'cupola'; and that it is a great pity, for their own sake as well as the +world's, that they were not content with their ilex cupolas, which were +made to hold something, but took to building these big ones upside-down, +which hold nothing--_less_ than nothing,--large extinguishers of the flame +of Catholic religion. And for farther embarrassment, a flower not only is +without essential consistence of a given number of parts, but it rarely +consists, alone, of _itself_. One talks of a hyacinth as of a flower; but a +hyacinth is any number of flowers. One does not talk of 'a heather'; when +one says 'heath,' one means the whole plant, not the blossom,--because +heath-bells, though they grow together for company's sake, do so in a +voluntary sort of way, and are not fixed in their places; and yet, they +depend on each other for effect, as much as a bunch of grapes. + +5. And this grouping of flowers, more or less waywardly, is the most subtle +part of their order, and the most difficult to represent. Take that cluster +of bog-heather bells, for instance, Line-study 1. You might think at first +there were no lines in it worth study; but look at it more carefully. There +are twelve bells in the {68} cluster. There may be fewer, or more; but the +bog-heath is apt to run into something near that number. They all grow +together as close as they can, and on one side of the supporting branch +only. The natural effect would be to bend the branch down; but the branch +won't have that, and so leans back to carry them. Now you see the use of +drawing the profile in the middle figure: it shows you the exactly balanced +setting of the group,--not drooping, nor erect; but with a disposition to +droop, tossed up by the leaning back of the stem. Then, growing as near as +they can to each other, those in the middle get squeezed. Here is another +quite special character. Some flowers don't like being squeezed at all +(fancy a squeezed convolvulus!); but these heather bells like it, and look +all the prettier for it,--not the squeezed ones exactly, by themselves, but +the cluster altogether, by their patience. + +Then also the outside ones get pushed into a sort of star-shape, and in +front show the colour of all their sides, and at the back the rich green +cluster of sharp leaves that hold them; all this order being as essential +to the plant as any of the more formal structures of the bell itself. + +6. But the bog-heath has usually only one cluster of flowers to arrange on +each branch. Take a spray of ling (Frontispiece), and you will find that +the richest piece of Gothic spire-sculpture would be dull and graceless +beside the grouping of the floral masses in their various life. But it is +difficult to give the accuracy of attention {69} necessary to see their +beauty without drawing them; and still more difficult to draw them in any +approximation to the truth before they change. This is indeed the fatallest +obstacle to all good botanical work. Flowers, or leaves,--and especially +the last,--can only be rightly drawn as they grow. And even then, in their +loveliest spring action, they grow as you draw them, and will not stay +quite the same creatures for half an hour. + +7. I said in my inaugural lectures at Oxford, Sec. 107, that real botany is +not so much the description of plants as their biography. Without entering +at all into the history of its fruitage, the life and death of the blossom +_itself_ is always an eventful romance, which must be completely told, if +well. The grouping given to the various states of form between bud and +flower is always the most important part of the design of the plant; and in +the modes of its death are some of the most touching lessons, or +symbolisms, connected with its existence. The utter loss and far-scattered +ruin of the cistus and wild rose,--the dishonoured and dark contortion of +the convolvulus,--the pale wasting of the crimson heath of Apennine, are +strangely opposed by the quiet closing of the brown bells of the ling, each +making of themselves a little cross as they die; and so enduring into the +days of winter. I have drawn the faded beside the full branch, and know not +which is the more beautiful. + +8. This grouping, then, and way of treating each other in their gathered +company, is the first and most subtle {70} condition of form in flowers; +and, observe, I don't mean, just now, the appointed and disciplined +grouping, but the wayward and accidental. Don't confuse the beautiful +consent of the cluster in these sprays of heath with the legal strictness +of a foxglove,--though that also has its divinity; but of another kind. +That legal order of blossoming--for which we may wisely keep the accepted +name, 'inflorescence,'--is itself quite a separate subject of study, which +we cannot take up until we know the still more strict laws which are set +over the flower itself. + +9. I have in my hand a small red poppy which I gathered on Whit Sunday on +the palace of the Caesars. It is an intensely simple, intensely floral, +flower. All silk and flame: a scarlet cup, perfect-edged all round, seen +among the wild grass far away, like a burning coal fallen from Heaven's +altars. You cannot have a more complete, a more stainless, type of flower +absolute; inside and outside, _all_ flower. No sparing of colour +anywhere--no outside coarsenesses--no interior secrecies; open as the +sunshine that creates it; fine-finished on both sides, down to the +extremest point of insertion on its narrow stalk; and robed in the purple +of the Caesars. + +Literally so. That poppy scarlet, so far as it could be painted by mortal +hand, for mortal King, stays yet, against the sun, and wind, and rain, on +the walls of the house of Augustus, a hundred yards from the spot where I +gathered the weed of its desolation. + +10. A pure _cup_, you remember it is; that much at least {71} you cannot +but remember, of poppy-form among the cornfields; and it is best, in +beginning, to think of every flower as essentially a cup. There are flat +ones, but you will find that most of these are really groups of flowers, +not single blossoms; and there are out-of-the-way and quaint ones, very +difficult to define as of any shape; but even these have a cup to begin +with, deep down in them. You had better take the idea of a cup or vase, as +the first, simplest, and most general form of true flower. + +The botanists call it a corolla, which means a garland, or a kind of crown; +and the word is a very good one, because it indicates that the flower-cup +is made, as our clay cups are, on a potter's wheel; that it is essentially +a _revolute_ form--a whirl or (botanically) 'whorl' of leaves; in reality +successive round the base of the urn they form. + +11. Perhaps, however, you think poppies in general are not much like cups. +But the flower in my hand is a--poverty-_stricken_ poppy, I was going to +write,--poverty-_strengthened_ poppy, I mean. On richer ground, it would +have gushed into flaunting breadth of untenable purple--flapped its +inconsistent scarlet vaguely to the wind--dropped the pride of its petals +over my hand in an hour after I gathered it. But this little rough-bred +thing, a Campagna pony of a poppy, is as bright and strong to-day as +yesterday. So that I can see exactly where the leaves join or lap over each +other; and when I look down into the cup, find it to be composed of four +leaves altogether,--two smaller, set within two larger. {72} + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.] + +12. Thus far (and somewhat farther) I had written in Rome; but now, putting +my work together in Oxford, a sudden doubt troubles me, whether all poppies +have two petals smaller than the other two. Whereupon I take down an +excellent little school-book on botany--the best I've yet found, thinking +to be told quickly; and I find a great deal about opium; and, apropos of +opium, that the juice of common celandine is of a bright orange colour; and +I pause for a bewildered five minutes, wondering if a celandine is a poppy, +and how many petals _it_ has: going on again--because I must, without +making up my mind, on either question--I am told to "observe the floral +receptacle of the Californian genus Eschscholtzia." Now I can't observe +anything of the sort, and I don't want to; and I wish California and all +that's in it were at the deepest bottom of the Pacific. Next I am told to +compare the poppy and waterlily; and I can't do that, neither--though I +should like to; and there's the end of the article; and it never tells me +whether one pair of petals is always smaller than the other, or not. Only I +see it says the corolla has four petals. Perhaps a celandine may be a +double poppy, and have eight, I know they're tiresome irregular things, and +I mustn't be stopped by them;[23]--at {73} any rate, my Roman poppy knew +what it was about, and had its two couples of leaves in clear +subordination, of which at the time I went on to inquire farther, as +follows. + +13. The next point is, what shape are the petals of? And that is easier +asked than answered; for when you pull them off, you find they won't lie +flat, by any means, but are each of them cups, or rather shells, +themselves; and that it requires as much conchology as would describe a +cockle, before you can properly give account of a single poppy leaf. Or of +a single _any_ leaf--for all leaves are either shells, or boats, (or solid, +if not hollow, masses,) and cannot be represented in flat outline. But, +laying these as flat as they will lie on a sheet of paper, you will find +the piece they hide of the paper they lie on can be drawn; giving +approximately the shape of the outer leaf as at A, that of the inner as at +B, Fig. 4; which you will find very difficult lines to draw, for they are +each composed of two curves, joined, as in Fig. 5; all above the line _a b_ +being the outer edge of the leaf, but joined so subtly to the side that the +least break in drawing the line spoils the form. + +14. Now every flower petal consists essentially of these two parts, +variously proportioned and outlined. It {74} expands from C to _a b_; and +closes in the external line, and for this reason. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.] + +Considering every flower under the type of a cup, the first part of the +petal is that in which it expands from the bottom to the rim; the second +part, that in which it terminates itself on reaching the rim. Thus let the +three circles, A B C, Fig 6., represent the undivided cups of the three +great geometrical orders of flowers--trefoil, quatrefoil and cinquefoil. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.] + +Draw in the first an equilateral triangle, in the second a square, in the +third a pentagon; draw the dark lines from centres to angles; (D E F): then +(_a_) the third part of D; (_b_) the fourth part of E, (_c_) the fifth part +of F, are the normal outline forms of the petals of the three {75} +families; the relations between the developing angle and limiting curve +being varied according to the depth of cup, and the degree of connection +between the petals. Thus a rose folds them over one another, in the bud; a +convolvulus twists them,--the one expanding into a flat cinquefoil of +separate petals, and the other into a deep-welled cinquefoil of connected +ones. + +I find an excellent illustration in Veronica Polita, one of the most +perfectly graceful of field plants because of the light alternate flower +stalks, each with its leaf at the base; the flower itself a quatrefoil, of +which the largest and least petals are uppermost. Pull one off its calyx +(draw, if you can, the outline of the striped blue upper petal with the +jagged edge of pale gold below), and then examine the relative shapes of +the lateral, and least upper {76} petal. Their under surface is very +curious, as if covered with white paint; the blue stripes above, in the +direction of their growth, deepening the more delicate colour with +exquisite insistence. + +A lilac blossom will give you a pretty example of the expansion of the +petals of a quatrefoil above the edge of the cup or tube; but I must get +back to our poppy at present. + +15. What outline its petals really have, however, is little shown in their +crumpled fluttering; but that very crumpling arises from a fine floral +character which we do not enough value in them. We usually think of the +poppy as a coarse flower; but it is the most transparent and delicate of +all the blossoms of the field. The rest--nearly all of them--depend on the +_texture_ of their surfaces for colour. But the poppy is painted _glass_; +it never glows so brightly as when the sun shines through it. Wherever it +is seen--against the light or with the light--always, it is a flame, and +warms the wind like a blown ruby. + +In these two qualities, the accurately balanced form, and the perfectly +infused colour of the petals, you have, as I said, the central being of the +flower. All the other parts of it are necessary, but we must follow them +out in order. + +16. Looking down into the cup, you see the green boss divided by a black +star,--of six rays only,--and surrounded by a few black spots. My +rough-nurtured poppy contents itself with these for its centre; a rich one +would have had the green boss divided by a dozen of rays, and surrounded by +a dark crowd of crested threads. {77} + +This green boss is called by botanists the pistil, which word consists of +the two first syllables of the Latin pistillum, otherwise more familiarly +Englished into 'pestle.' The meaning of the botanical word is of course, +also, that the central part of a flower-cup has to it something of the +relations that a pestle has to a mortar! Practically, however, as this +pestle has no pounding functions, I think the word is misleading as well as +ungraceful; and that we may find a better one after looking a little closer +into the matter. For this pestle is divided generally into three very +distinct parts: there is a storehouse at the bottom of it for the seeds of +the plant; above this, a shaft, often of considerable length in deep cups, +rising to the level of their upper edge, or above it; and at the top of +these shafts an expanded crest. This shaft the botanists call 'style,' from +the Greek word for a pillar; and the crest of it--I do not know +why--stigma, from the Greek word for 'spot.' The storehouse for the seeds +they call the 'ovary,' from the Latin ovum, an egg. So you have two-thirds +of a Latin word, (pistil)--awkwardly and disagreeably edged in between +pestle and pistol--for the whole thing; you have an English-Latin word +(ovary) for the bottom of it; an English-Greek word (style) for the middle; +and a pure Greek word (stigma) for the top. + +17. This is a great mess of language, and all the worse that the words +style and stigma have both of them quite different senses in ordinary and +scholarly English from this forced botanical one. And I will venture +therefore, {78} for my own pupils, to put the four names altogether into +English. Instead of calling the whole thing a pistil, I shall simply call +it the pillar. Instead of 'ovary,' I shall say 'Treasury' (for a seed isn't +an egg, but it _is_ a treasure). The style I shall call the 'Shaft,' and +the stigma the 'Volute.' So you will have your entire pillar divided into +the treasury, at its base, the shaft, and the volute; and I think you will +find these divisions easily remembered, and not unfitted to the sense of +the words in their ordinary use. + +18. Round this central, but, in the poppy, very stumpy, pillar, you find a +cluster of dark threads, with dusty pendants or cups at their ends. For +these the botanists' name 'stamens,' may be conveniently retained, each +consisting of a 'filament,' or thread, and an 'anther,' or blossoming part. + +And in this rich corolla, and pillar, or pillars, with their treasuries, +and surrounding crowd of stamens, the essential flower consists. Fewer than +these several parts, it cannot have, to be a flower at all; of these, the +corolla leads, and is the object of final purpose. The stamens and the +treasuries are only there in order to produce future corollas, though often +themselves decorative in the highest degree. + +These, I repeat, are all the essential parts of a flower. But it would have +been difficult, with any other than the poppy, to have shown you them +alone; for nearly all other flowers keep with them, all their lives, their +nurse {79} or tutor leaves,--the group which, in stronger and humbler +temper, protected them in their first weakness, and formed them to the +first laws of their being. But the poppy casts these tutorial leaves away. +It is the finished picture of impatient and luxury-loving youth,--at first +too severely restrained, then casting all restraint away,--yet retaining to +the end of life unseemly and illiberal signs of its once compelled +submission to laws which were only pain,--not instruction. + +19. Gather a green poppy bud, just when it shows the scarlet line at its +side; break it open and unpack the poppy. The whole flower is there +complete in size and colour,--its stamens full-grown, but all packed so +closely that the fine silk of the petals is crushed into a million of +shapeless wrinkles. When the flower opens, it seems a deliverance from +torture: the two imprisoning green leaves are shaken to the ground; the +aggrieved corolla smooths itself in the sun, and comforts itself as it can; +but remains visibly crushed and hurt to the end of its days. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.] + +20. Not so flowers of gracious breeding. Look at these four stages in the +young life of a primrose, Fig. 7. First confined, as strictly as the poppy +within five pinching green leaves, whose points close over it, the little +thing is content to remain a child, and finds its nursery large enough. The +green leaves unclose their points,--the little yellow ones peep out, like +ducklings. They find the light delicious, and open wide to it; and grow, +and grow, {80} and throw themselves wider at last into their perfect rose. +But they never leave their old nursery for all that; it and they live on +together; and the nursery seems a part of the flower. + +21. Which is so, indeed, in all the loveliest flowers; and, in usual +botanical parlance, a flower is said to consist of its calyx, (or _hiding_ +part--Calypso having rule over it,) and corolla, or garland part, +Proserpina having rule over it. But it is better to think of them always as +separate; for this calyx, very justly so named from its main function of +concealing the flower, in its youth is usually green, not coloured, and +shows its separate nature by pausing, or at least greatly lingering, in its +growth, and modifying itself very slightly, while the corolla is forming +{81} itself through active change. Look at the two, for instance, through +the youth of a pease blossom, Fig. 8. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.] + +The entire cluster at first appears pendent in this manner, the stalk +bending round on purpose to put it into that position. On which all the +little buds, thinking themselves ill-treated, determine not to submit to +anything of the sort, turn their points upward persistently, and determine +that--at any cost of trouble--they will get nearer the sun. Then they begin +to open, and let out their corollas. I give the process of one only (Fig. +9).[24] It chances to be engraved the reverse way from the bud; but that is +of no consequence. + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.] + +At first, you see the long lower point of the calyx thought that _it_ was +going to be the head of the family, and curls upwards eagerly. Then the +little corolla steals out; and soon does away with that impression on the +mind of the calyx. The corolla soars up with widening wings, the abashed +calyx retreats beneath; and finally the great upper leaf of corolla--not +pleased at having its back still {82} turned to the light, and its face +down--throws itself entirely back, to look at the sky, and nothing +else;--and your blossom is complete. + +Keeping, therefore, the ideas of calyx and corolla entirely distinct, this +one general point you may note of both: that, as a calyx is originally +folded tight over the flower, and has to open deeply to let it out, it is +nearly always composed of sharp pointed leaves like the segments of a +balloon; while corollas, having to open out as wide as possible to show +themselves, are typically like cups or plates, only cut into their edges +here and there, for ornamentation's sake. + +22. And, finally, though the corolla is essentially the floral group of +leaves, and usually receives the glory of colour for itself only, this +glory and delight may be given to any other part of the group; and, as if +to show us that there is no really dishonoured or degraded membership, the +stalks and leaves in some plants, near the blossom, flush in sympathy with +it, and become themselves a part of the {83} effectively visible +flower;--Eryngo--Jura hyacinth, (comosus,) and the edges of upper stems and +leaves in many plants; while others, (Geranium lucidum,) are made to +delight us with their leaves rather than their blossoms; only I suppose, in +these, the scarlet leaf colour is a kind of early autumnal glow,--a +beautiful hectic, and foretaste, in sacred youth, of sacred death. + +I observe, among the speculations of modern science, several, lately, not +uningenious, and highly industrious, on the subject of the relation of +colour in flowers, to insects--to selective development, etc., etc. There +_are_ such relations, of course. So also, the blush of a girl, when she +first perceives the faltering in her lover's step as he draws near, is +related essentially to the existing state of her stomach; and to the state +of it through all the years of her previous existence. Nevertheless, +neither love, chastity, nor blushing, are merely exponents of digestion. + +All these materialisms, in their unclean stupidity, are essentially the +work of human bats; men of semi-faculty or semi-education, who are more or +less incapable of so much as seeing, much less thinking about, colour; +among whom, for one-sided intensity, even Mr. Darwin must be often ranked, +as in his vespertilian treatise on the ocelli of the Argus pheasant, which +he imagines to be artistically gradated, and perfectly imitative of a ball +and socket. If I had him here in Oxford for a week, and could force him to +try to copy a feather by Bewick, or to draw for himself a boy's thumbed +marble, his notions of feathers, and balls, {84} would be changed for all +the rest of his life. But his ignorance of good art is no excuse for the +acutely illogical simplicity of the rest of his talk of colour in the +"Descent of Man." Peacocks' tails, he thinks, are the result of the +admiration of blue tails in the minds of well-bred peahens,--and similarly, +mandrills' noses the result of the admiration of blue noses in well-bred +baboons. But it never occurs to him to ask why the admiration of blue noses +is healthy in baboons, so that it develops their race properly, while +similar maidenly admiration either of blue noses or red noses in men would +be improper, and develop the race improperly. The word itself 'proper' +being one of which he has never asked, or guessed, the meaning. And when he +imagined the gradation of the cloudings in feathers to represent successive +generation, it never occurred to him to look at the much finer cloudy +gradations in the clouds of dawn themselves; and explain the modes of +sexual preference and selective development which had brought _them_ to +their scarlet glory, before the cock could crow thrice. Putting all these +vespertilian speculations out of our way, the human facts concerning colour +are briefly these. Wherever men are noble, they love bright colour; and +wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them--in sky, sea, +flowers, and living creatures. + +On the other hand, wherever men are ignoble and sensual, they endure +without pain, and at last even come to like (especially if artists,) +mud-colour and black, and to dislike rose-colour and white. And wherever it +is unhealthy for {85} them to live, the poisonousness of the place is +marked by some ghastly colour in air, earth, or flowers. + +There are, of course, exceptions to all such widely founded laws; there are +poisonous berries of scarlet, and pestilent skies that are fair. But, if we +once honestly compare a venomous wood-fungus, rotting into black +dissolution of dripped slime at its edges, with a spring gentian; or a puff +adder with a salmon trout, or a fog in Bermondsey with a clear sky at +Berne, we shall get hold of the entire question on its right side; and be +able afterwards to study at our leisure, or accept without doubt or +trouble, facts of apparently contrary meaning. And the practical lesson +which I wish to leave with the reader is, that lovely flowers, and green +trees growing in the open air, are the proper guides of men to the places +which their Maker intended them to inhabit; while the flowerless and +treeless deserts--of reed, or sand, or rock,--are meant to be either +heroically invaded and redeemed, or surrendered to the wild creatures which +are appointed for them; happy and wonderful in their wild abodes. + +Nor is the world so small but that we may yet leave in it also unconquered +spaces of beautiful solitude; where the chamois and red deer may wander +fearless,--nor any fire of avarice scorch from the Highlands of Alp, or +Grampian, the rapture of the heath, and the rose. + + * * * * * + +{86} + +CHAPTER V. + +PAPAVER RHOEAS. + +BRANTWOOD, _July 11th, 1875_. + +1. Chancing to take up yesterday a favourite old book, Mavor's British +Tourists, (London, 1798,) I found in its fourth volume a delightful diary +of a journey made in 1782 through various parts of England, by Charles P. +Moritz of Berlin. + +And in the fourteenth page of this diary I find the following passage, +pleasantly complimentary to England:-- + +"The slices of bread and butter which they give you with your tea are as +thin as poppy leaves. But there is another kind of bread and butter usually +eaten with tea, which is toasted by the fire, and is incomparably good. +This is called 'toast.'" + +I wonder how many people, nowadays, whose bread and butter was cut too thin +for them, would think of comparing the slices to poppy leaves? But this was +in the old days of travelling, when people did not whirl themselves past +corn-fields, that they might have more time to walk on paving-stones; and +understood that {87} poppies did not mingle their scarlet among the gold, +without some purpose of the poppy-Maker that they should be looked at. + +Nevertheless, with respect to the good and polite German's +poetically-contemplated, and finely aesthetic, tea, may it not be asked +whether poppy leaves themselves, like the bread and butter, are not, if we +may venture an opinion--_too_ thin,--im-_properly_ thin? In the last +chapter, my reader was, I hope, a little anxious to know what I meant by +saying that modern philosophers did not know the meaning of the word +'proper,' and may wish to know what I mean by it myself. And this I think +it needful to explain before going farther. + +2. In our English prayer-book translation, the first verse of the +ninety-third Psalm runs thus: "The Lord is King; and hath put on glorious +apparel." And although, in the future republican world, there are to be no +lords, no kings, and no glorious apparel, it will be found convenient, for +botanical purposes, to remember what such things once were; for when I said +of the poppy, in last chapter, that it was "robed in the purple of the +Caesars," the words gave, to any one who had a clear idea of a Caesar, and of +his dress, a better, and even _stricter_, account of the flower than if I +had only said, with Mr. Sowerby, "petals bright scarlet;" which might just +as well have been said of a pimpernel, or scarlet geranium;--but of neither +of these latter should I have said "robed in purple of Caesars." What I +meant was, first, that the poppy leaf {88} looks dyed through and through, +like glass, or Tyrian tissue; and not merely painted: secondly, that the +splendour of it is proud,--almost insolently so. Augustus, in his glory, +might have been clothed like one of these; and Saul; but not David, nor +Solomon; still less the teacher of Solomon, when He puts on 'glorious +apparel.' + +3. Let us look, however, at the two translations of the same verse. + +In the vulgate it is "Dominus regnavit; decorem indutus est;" He has put on +'becomingness,'--decent apparel, rather than glorious. + +In the Septuagint it is [Greek: euprepeia]--_well_-becomingness; an +expression which, if the reader considers, must imply certainly the +existence of an opposite idea of possible '_ill_-becomingness,'--of an +apparel which should, in just as accurate a sense, belong appropriately to +the creature invested with it, and yet not be glorious, but inglorious, and +not well-becoming, but ill-becoming. The mandrill's blue nose, for +instance, already referred to,--can we rightly speak of this as '[Greek: +euprepeia]'? Or the stings, and minute, colourless blossoming of the +nettle? May we call these a glorious apparel, as we may the glowing of an +alpine rose? + +You will find on reflection, and find more convincingly the more accurately +you reflect, that there is an absolute sense attached to such words as +'decent,' 'honourable,' 'glorious,' or '[Greek: kalos],' contrary to +another absolute sense in the words 'indecent,' 'shameful,' 'vile,' or +'[Greek: aischros].' {89} + +And that there is every degree of these absolute qualities visible in +living creatures; and that the divinity of the Mind of man is in its +essential discernment of what is [Greek: kalon] from what is [Greek: +aischron], and in his preference of the kind of creatures which are decent, +to those which are indecent; and of the kinds of thoughts, in himself, +which are noble, to those which are vile. + +4. When therefore I said that Mr. Darwin, and his school,[25] had no +conception of the real meaning of the word 'proper,' I meant that they +conceived the qualities of things only as their 'properties,' but not as +their becomingnesses;' and seeing that dirt is proper to a swine, malice to +a monkey, poison to a nettle, and folly to a fool, they called a nettle +_but_ a nettle, and the faults of fools but folly; and never saw the +difference between ugliness and beauty absolute, decency and indecency +absolute, glory or shame absolute, and folly or sense absolute. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.] + +Whereas, the perception of beauty, and the power of defining physical +character, are based on moral instinct, and on the power of defining animal +or human character. Nor is it possible to say that one flower is more +highly developed, or one animal of a higher order, than another, without +the assumption of a divine law of perfection to which the one more conforms +than the other. + +5. Thus, for instance. That it should ever have been an open question with +me whether a poppy had always {90} two of its petals less than the other +two, depended wholly on the hurry and imperfection with which the poppy +carries out its plan. It never would have occurred to me to {91} doubt +whether an iris had three of its leaves smaller than the other three, +because an iris always completes itself to its own ideal. Nevertheless, on +examining various poppies, as I have walked, this summer, up and down the +hills between Sheffield and Wakefield, I find the subordination of the +upper and lower petals entirely necessary and normal; and that the result +of it is to give two distinct profiles to the poppy cup, the difference +between which, however, we shall see better in the yellow Welsh poppy, at +present called Meconopsis Cambrica; but which, in the Oxford schools, will +be 'Papaver cruciforme'--'Crosslet Poppy,'--first, because all our +botanical names must be in Latin if possible; Greek only allowed when we +can do no better; secondly, because meconopsis is barbarous Greek; thirdly, +and chiefly, because it is little matter whether this poppy be Welsh or +English; but very needful that we should observe, wherever it grows, that +the petals are arranged in what used to be, in my young days, called a +diamond shape,[26] as at A, Fig. 10, the two narrow inner ones at right +angles to, and projecting farther than, the two outside broad ones; and +that the two broad ones, when the flower is seen in profile, as at B, show +their margins folded back, as indicated by the thicker lines, and have a +profile curve, which is only the softening, or melting away into each +other, of two straight lines. Indeed, when the flower is younger, and quite +strong, both its {92} profiles, A and B, Fig. 11, are nearly +straight-sided; and always, be it young or old, one broader than the other, +so as to give the flower, seen from above, the shape of a contracted cross, +or crosslet. + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.] + +6. Now I find no notice of this flower in Gerarde; and in Sowerby, out of +eighteen lines of closely printed descriptive text, no notice of its +crosslet form, while the petals are only stated to be "roundish-concave," +terms equally applicable to at least one-half of all flower petals in the +{93} world. The leaves are _said_ to be very deeply pinnately partite; but +_drawn_--as neither pinnate nor partite! + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.] + +And this is your modern cheap science, in ten volumes. Now I haven't a +quiet moment to spare for drawing this morning; but I merely give the main +relations of the petals, A, and blot in the wrinkles of one of the lower +ones, B, Fig. 12; and yet in this rude sketch you will feel, I believe, +there is something specific which could not belong to any other flower. But +all proper description is {94} impossible without careful profiles of each +petal laterally and across it. Which I may not find time to draw for any +poppy whatever, because they none of them have well-becomingness enough to +make it worth my while, being all more or less weedy, and ungracious, and +mingled of good and evil. Whereupon rises before me, ghostly and untenable, +the general question, 'What is a weed?' and, impatient for answer, the +particular question, What is a poppy? I choose, for instance, to call this +yellow flower a poppy, instead of a "likeness to poppy," which the +botanists meant to call it, in their bad Greek. I choose also to call a +poppy, what the botanists have called "glaucous thing," (glaucium). But +where and when shall I stop calling things poppies? This is certainly a +question to be settled at once, with others appertaining to it. + +7. In the first place, then, I mean to call every flower either one thing +or another, and not an 'aceous' thing, only half something or half another. +I mean to call this plant now in my hand, either a poppy or not a poppy; +but not poppaceous. And this other, either a thistle or not a thistle; but +not thistlaceous. And this other, either a nettle or not a nettle; but not +nettlaceous. I know it will be very difficult to carry out this principle +when tribes of plants are much extended and varied in type: I shall persist +in it, however, as far as possible; and when plants change so much that one +cannot with any conscience call them by their family name any more, I shall +put them aside somewhere among families of poor relations, not {95} to be +minded for the present, until we are well acquainted with the better bred +circles; I don't know, for instance, whether I shall call the Burnet +'Grass-rose,' or put it out of court for having no petals; but it certainly +shall not be called rosaceous; and my first point will be to make sure of +my pupils having a clear idea of the central and unquestionable forms of +thistle, grass, or rose, and assigning to them pure Latin, and pretty +English, names,--classical, if possible; and at least intelligible and +decorous. + +8. I return to our present special question, then, What is a poppy? and +return also to a book I gave away long ago, and have just begged back +again, Dr. Lindley's 'Ladies' Botany.' For without at all looking upon +ladies as inferior beings, I dimly hope that what Dr. Lindley considers +likely to be intelligible to _them_, may be also clear to their very humble +servant. + +The poppies, I find, (page 19, vol. i.) differ from crowfeet in being of a +stupifying instead of a burning nature, and in generally having two sepals +and twice two petals; "but as some poppies have three sepals, and twice +three petals, the number of these parts is not sufficiently constant to +form an essential mark." Yes, I know that, for I found a superb six-petaled +poppy, spotted like a cistus, the other day in a friend's garden. But then, +what makes it a poppy still? That it is of a stupifying nature, and itself +so stupid that it does not know how many petals it should have, is surely +not enough distinction? + +9. Returning to Lindley, and working the matter {96} farther out with his +help, I think this definition might stand. "A poppy is a flower which has +either four or six petals, and two or more treasuries, united into one; +containing a milky, stupifying fluid in its stalks and leaves, and always +throwing away its calyx when it blossoms." + +And indeed, every flower which unites all these characters, we shall, in +the Oxford schools, call 'poppy,' and 'Papaver;' but when I get fairly into +work, I hope to fix my definitions into more strict terms. For I wish all +my pupils to form the habit of asking, of every plant, these following four +questions, in order, corresponding to the subject of these opening +chapters, namely, "What root has it? what leaf? what flower? and what +stem?" And, in this definition of poppies, nothing whatever is said about +the root; and not only I don't know myself what a poppy root is like, but +in all Sowerby's poppy section, I find no word whatever about that matter. + +10. Leaving, however, for the present, the root unthought of, and +contenting myself with Dr. Lindley's characteristics, I shall place, at the +head of the whole group, our common European wild poppy, Papaver Rhoeas, +and, with this, arrange the nine following other flowers thus,--opposite. + +I must be content at present with determining the Latin names for the +Oxford schools; the English ones I shall give as they chance to occur to +me, in Gerarde and the classical poets who wrote before the English +revolution. When no satisfactory name is to be found, I must try to invent +one; as, for instance, just now, I don't like Gerarde's 'Corn-rose' for +Papaver Rhoeas, and must coin another; but this can't be done by thinking; +it will come into my head some day, by chance. I might try at it +straightforwardly for a week together, and not do it. + +{97} + + NAME IN OXFORD CATALOGUE. DIOSCORIDES. In present Botany. + 1. Papaver Rhoeas [Greek: mekon rhoias] Papaver Rhoeas + 2. P. Hortense [Greek: m. kepeute][27] P. Hortense + 3. P. Elatum [Greek: m. thulakitis][28] P. Lamottei + 4. P. Argemone P. Argemone + 5. P. Echinosum P. Hybridum + 6. P. Violaceum Roemeria Hybrida + 7. P. Cruciforme Meconopsis Cambrica + 8. P. Corniculatum [Greek: m. keratitis] Glaucium Corniculatum + 9. P. Littorale [Greek: m. paralios] Glaucium Luteum + 10. P. Chelidonium Chelidonium Majus + +{98} The Latin names must be fixed at once, somehow; and therefore I do the +best I can, keeping as much respect for the old nomenclature as possible, +though this involves the illogical practice of giving the epithet sometimes +from the flower, (violaceum, cruciforme), and sometimes from the seed +vessel, (elatum, echinosum, corniculatum). Guarding this distinction, +however, we may perhaps be content to call the six last of the group, in +English, Urchin Poppy, Violet Poppy, Crosslet Poppy, Horned Poppy, Beach +Poppy, and Welcome Poppy. I don't think the last flower pretty enough to be +connected more directly with the swallow, in its English name. + +11. I shall be well content if my pupils know these ten poppies rightly; +all of them at present wild in our own country, and, I believe, also +European in range: the head and type of all being the common wild poppy of +our cornfields for which the name 'Papaver Rhoeas,' given it by +Dioscorides, Gerarde, and Linnaeus, is entirely authoritative, and we will +therefore at once examine the meaning, and reason, of that name. + +12. Dioscorides says the name belongs to it "[Greek: dia to tacheos to +anthos apoballein]," "because it casts off its bloom {99} quickly," from +[Greek: rheo,] (rheo) in the sense of shedding.[29] And this indeed it +does,--first calyx, then corolla;--you may translate it 'swiftly ruinous' +poppy, but notice, in connection with this idea, how it droops its head +_before_ blooming; an action which, I doubt not, mingled in Homer's thought +with the image of its depression when filled by rain, in the passage of the +Iliad, which, as I have relieved your memory of three unnecessary names of +poppy families, you have memory to spare for learning. + + "[Greek: mekon d' hos heterose kare balen, het' eni kepoi] + [Greek: karpoi brithomene, notieisi te eiarineisin] + [Greek: hos heteros' emuse kare peleki barunthen.]" + +"And as a poppy lets its head fall aside, which in a garden is loaded with +its fruit, and with the soft rains of spring, so the youth drooped his head +on one side; burdened with the helmet." + +And now you shall compare the translations of this passage, with its +context, by Chapman and Pope--(or the school of Pope), the one being by a +man of pure English temper, and able therefore to understand pure Greek +temper; the other infected with all the faults of the falsely classical +school of the Renaissance. + +First I take Chapman:-- + + "His shaft smit fair Gorgythion of Priam's princely race + Who in AEpina was brought forth, a famous town in Thrace, + {100} + By Castianeira, that for form was like celestial breed. + And as a crimson poppy-flower, surcharged with his seed, + And vernal humours falling thick, declines his heavy brow, + So, a-oneside, his helmet's weight his fainting head did bow." + +Next, Pope:-- + + "He missed the mark; but pierced Gorgythio's heart, + And drenched in royal blood the thirsty dart: + (Fair Castianeira, nymph of form divine, + This offspring added to King Priam's line). + As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain, + Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain, + So sinks the youth: his beauteous head, depressed + Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast." + +13. I give you the two passages in full, trusting that you may so feel the +becomingness of the one, and the gracelessness of the other. But note +farther, in the Homeric passage, one subtlety which cannot enough be marked +even in Chapman's English, that his second word, [Greek: emuse], is +employed by him both of the stooping of ears of corn, under wind, and of +Troy stooping to its ruin;[30] and otherwise, in good Greek writers, the +word is marked as having such specific sense of men's drooping under +weight; or towards death, under the burden of fortune which they have no +more strength to sustain;[31] compare the passage {101} I quoted from +Plato, ('Crown of Wild Olive,' p. 95): "And bore lightly the burden of gold +and of possessions." {102} And thus you will begin to understand how the +poppy became in the heathen mind the type at once of power, or pride, and +of its loss; and therefore, both why Virgil represents the white nymph +Nais, "pallentes violas, et summa papavera carpens,"--gathering the pale +flags, and the highest poppies,--and the reason for the choice of this +rather than any other flower, in the story of Tarquin's message to his son. + +14. But you are next to remember the word Rhoeas in another sense. Whether +originally intended or afterwards caught at, the resemblance of the word to +'Rhoea,' a pomegranate, mentally connects itself with the resemblance of +the poppy head to the pomegranate fruit. + +And if I allow this flower to be the first we take up for careful study in +Proserpina, on account of its simplicity of form and splendour of colour, I +wish you also to remember, in connection with it, the cause of Proserpine's +eternal captivity--her having tasted a pomegranate seed,--the pomegranate +being in Greek mythology what the apple is in the Mosaic legend; and, in +the whole {103} worship of Demeter, associated with the poppy by a +multitude of ideas which are not definitely expressed, but can only be +gathered out of Greek art and literature, as we learn their symbolism. The +chief character on which these thoughts are founded is the fulness of seed +in the poppy and pomegranate, as an image of life: then the forms of both +became adopted for beads or bosses in ornamental art; the pomegranate +remains more distinctly a Jewish and Christian type, from its use in the +border of Aaron's robe, down to the fruit in the hand of Angelico's and +Botticelli's Infant Christs; while the poppy is gradually confused by the +Byzantine Greeks with grapes; and both of these with palm fruit. The palm, +in the shorthand of their art, gradually becomes a symmetrical branched +ornament with two pendent bosses; this is again confused with the Greek +iris, (Homer's blue iris, and Pindar's water-flag,)--and the Florentines, +in adopting Byzantine ornament, read it into their own Fleur-de-lys; but +insert two poppyheads on each side of the entire foil, in their finest +heraldry. + +15. Meantime the definitely intended poppy, in late Christian Greek art of +the twelfth century, modifies the form of the Acanthus leaf with its own, +until the northern twelfth century workman takes the thistle-head for the +poppy, and the thistle-leaf for acanthus. The true poppy-head remains in +the south, but gets more and more confused with grapes, till the +Renaissance carvers are content with any kind of boss full of seed, but +insist on such boss {104} or bursting globe as some essential part of their +ornament;--the bean-pod for the same reason (not without Pythagorean +notions, and some of republican election) is used by Brunelleschi for main +decoration of the lantern of Florence duomo; and, finally, the +ornamentation gets so shapeless, that M. Violet-le-Duc, in his 'Dictionary +of Ornament,' loses trace of its origin altogether, and fancies the later +forms were derived from the spadix of the arum. + +16. I have no time to enter into farther details; but through all this vast +range of art, note this singular fact, that the wheat-ear, the vine, the +fleur-de-lys, the poppy, and the jagged leaf of the acanthus-weed, or +thistle, occupy the entire thoughts of the decorative workmen trained in +classic schools, to the exclusion of the rose, true lily, and the other +flowers of luxury. And that the deeply underlying reason of this is in the +relation of weeds to corn, or of the adverse powers of nature to the +beneficent ones, expressed for us readers of the Jewish scriptures, +centrally in the verse, "thorns also, and thistles, shall it bring forth to +thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" ([Greek: chortos], grass or +corn), and exquisitely symbolized throughout the fields of Europe by the +presence of the purple 'corn-flag,' or gladiolus, and 'corn-rose' +(Gerarde's name for Papaver Rhoeas), in the midst of carelessly tended +corn; and in the traditions of the art of Europe by the springing of the +acanthus round the basket of the canephora, strictly the basket _for +bread_, the idea of bread {105} including all sacred things carried at the +feasts of Demeter, Bacchus, and the Queen of the Air. And this springing of +the thorny weeds round the basket of reed, distinctly taken up by the +Byzantine Italians in the basketwork capital of the twelfth century, (which +I have already illustrated at length in the 'Stones of Venice,') becomes +the germ of all capitals whatsoever, in the great schools of Gothic, to the +end of Gothic time, and also of all the capitals of the pure and noble +Renaissance architecture of Angelico and Perugino, and all that was learned +from them in the north, while the introduction of the rose, as a primal +element of decoration, only takes place when the luxury of English +decorated Gothic, the result of that licentious spirit in the lords which +brought on the Wars of the Roses, indicates the approach of destruction to +the feudal, artistic, and moral power of the northern nations. + +For which reason, and many others, I must yet delay the following out of +our main subject, till I have answered the other question, which brought me +to pause in the middle of this chapter, namely, 'What is a weed?' + + * * * * * + +{106} + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARABLE OF JOASH. + +1. Some ten or twelve years ago, I bought--three times twelve are +thirty-six--of a delightful little book by Mrs. Gatty, called 'Aunt Judy's +Tales'--whereof to make presents to my little lady friends. I had, at that +happy time, perhaps from four-and-twenty to six-and-thirty--I forget +exactly how many--very particular little lady friends; and greatly wished +Aunt Judy to be the thirty-seventh,--the kindest, wittiest, prettiest girl +one had ever read of, at least in so entirely proper and orthodox +literature. + +2. Not but that it is a suspicious sign of infirmity of faith in our modern +moralists to make their exemplary young people always pretty; and dress +them always in the height of the fashion. One may read Miss Edgeworth's +'Harry and Lucy,' 'Frank and Mary,' 'Fashionable Tales,' or 'Parents' +Assistant,' through, from end to end, with extremest care; and never find +out whether Lucy was tall or short, nor whether Mary was dark or fair, nor +how Miss Annaly was dressed, nor--which was my own chief point of +interest--what was the colour of {107} Rosamond's eyes. Whereas Aunt Judy, +in charming position after position, is shown to have expressed all her +pure evangelical principles with the prettiest of lips; and to have had her +gown, though puritanically plain, made by one of the best modistes in +London. + +3. Nevertheless, the book is wholesome and useful; and the nicest story in +it, as far as I recollect, is an inquiry into the subject which is our +present business, 'What is a weed?'--in which, by many pleasant devices, +Aunt Judy leads her little brothers and sisters to discern that a weed is +'a plant in the wrong place.' + +'Vegetable' in the wrong place, by the way, I think Aunt Judy says, being a +precisely scientific little aunt. But I can't keep it out of my own less +scientific head that 'vegetable' means only something going to be boiled. I +like 'plant' better for general sense, besides that it's shorter. + +Whatever we call them, Aunt Judy is perfectly right about them as far as +she has gone; but, as happens often even to the best of evangelical +instructresses, she has stopped just short of the gist of the whole matter. +It is entirely true that a weed is a plant that has got into a wrong place; +but it never seems to have occurred to Aunt Judy that some plants never +_do_! + +Who ever saw a wood anemone or a heath blossom in the wrong place? Who ever +saw nettle or hemlock in a right one? And yet, the difference between +flower and weed, (I use, for convenience sake, these words in their {108} +familiar opposition,) certainly does not consist merely in the flowers +being innocent, and the weed stinging and venomous. We do not call the +nightshade a weed in our hedges, nor the scarlet agaric in our woods. But +we do the corncockle in our fields. + +4. Had the thoughtful little tutoress gone but one thought farther, and +instead of "a vegetable in a wrong place," (which it may happen to the +innocentest vegetable sometimes to be, without turning into a weed, +therefore,) said, "A vegetable which has an innate disposition to _get_ +into the wrong place," she would have greatly furthered the matter for us; +but then she perhaps would have felt herself to be uncharitably dividing +with vegetables her own little evangelical property of original sin. + +5. This, you will find, nevertheless, to be the very essence of weed +character--in plants, as in men. If you glance through your botanical +books, you will see often added certain names--'a troublesome weed.' It is +not its being venomous, or ugly, but its being impertinent--thrusting +itself where it has no business, and hinders other people's business--that +makes a weed of it. The most accursed of all vegetables, the one that has +destroyed for the present even the possibility of European civilization, is +only called a weed in the slang of its votaries;[32] but in the finest and +truest English we call so the plant which {109} has come to us by chance +from the same country, the type of mere senseless prolific activity, the +American water-plant, choking our streams till the very fish that leap out +of them cannot fall back, but die on the clogged surface; and indeed, for +this unrestrainable, unconquerable insolence of uselessness, what name can +be enough dishonourable? + +6. I pass to vegetation of nobler rank. + +You remember, I was obliged in the last chapter to leave my poppy, for the +present, without an English specific name, because I don't like Gerarde's +'Corn-rose,' and can't yet think of another. Nevertheless, I would have +used Gerarde's name, if the corn-rose were as much a rose as the corn-flag +is a flag. But it isn't. The rose and lily have quite different relations +to the corn. The lily is grass in loveliness, as the corn is grass in use; +and both grow together in peace--gladiolus in the wheat, and narcissus in +the pasture. But the rose is of another and higher order than the corn, and +you never saw a cornfield overrun with sweetbriar or apple-blossom. + +They have no mind, they, to get into the wrong place. + +What is it, then, this temper in some plants--malicious as it +seems--intrusive, at all events, or erring,--which brings them out of their +places--thrusts them where they thwart us and offend? + +7. Primarily, it is mere hardihood and coarseness of make. A plant that can +live anywhere, will often live where it is not wanted. But the delicate and +tender ones {110} keep at home. You have no trouble in 'keeping down' the +spring gentian. It rejoices in its own Alpine home, and makes the earth as +like heaven as it can, but yields as softly as the air, if you want it to +give place. Here in England, it will only grow on the loneliest moors, +above the high force of Tees; its Latin name, for _us_ (I may as well tell +you at once) is to be 'Lucia verna;' and its English one, Lucy of Teesdale. + +8. But a plant may be hardy, and coarse of make, and able to live anywhere, +and yet be no weed. The coltsfoot, so far as I know, is the first of +large-leaved plants to grow afresh on ground that has been disturbed: fall +of Alpine debris, ruin of railroad embankment, waste of drifted slime by +flood, it seeks to heal and redeem; but it does not offend us in our +gardens, nor impoverish us in our fields. + +Nevertheless, mere coarseness of structure, indiscriminate hardihood, is at +least a point of some unworthiness in a plant. That it should have no +choice of home, no love of native land, is ungentle; much more if such +discrimination as it has, be immodest, and incline it, seemingly, to open +and much-traversed places, where it may be continually seen of strangers. +The tormentilla gleams in showers along the mountain turf; her delicate +crosslets are separate, though constellate, as the rubied daisy. But the +king-cup--(blessing be upon it always no less)--crowds itself sometimes +into too burnished flame of inevitable gold. I don't know if there was +anything in the {111} darkness of this last spring to make it brighter in +resistance; but I never saw any spaces of full warm yellow, in natural +colour, so intense as the meadows between Reading and the Thames; nor did I +know perfectly what purple and gold meant, till I saw a field of park land +embroidered a foot deep with king-cup and clover--while I was correcting my +last notes on the spring colours of the Royal Academy--at Aylesbury. + +9. And there are two other questions of extreme subtlety connected with +this main one. What shall we say of the plants whose entire destiny is +parasitic--which are not only sometimes, and _im_pertinently, but always, +and pertinently, out of place; not only out of the right place, but out of +any place of their own? When is mistletoe, for instance, in the right +place, young ladies, think you? On an apple tree, or on a ceiling? When is +ivy in the right place?--when wallflower? The ivy has been torn down from +the towers of Kenilworth; the weeds from the arches of the Coliseum, and +from the steps of the Araceli, irreverently, vilely, and in vain; but how +are we to separate the creatures whose office it is to abate the grief of +ruin by their gentleness, + + "wafting wallflower scents + From out the crumbling ruins of fallen pride, + And chambers of transgression, now forlorn," + +from those which truly resist the toil of men, and conspire against their +fame; which are cunning to consume, and {112} prolific to encumber; and of +whose perverse and unwelcome sowing we know, and can say assuredly, "An +enemy hath done this." + +10. Again. The character of strength which gives prevalence over others to +any common plant, is more or less consistently dependent on woody fibre in +the leaves; giving them strong ribs and great expanding extent; or spinous +edges, and wrinkled or gathered extent. + +Get clearly into your mind the nature of those two conditions. When a leaf +is to be spread wide, like the Burdock, it is supported by a framework of +extending ribs like a Gothic roof. The supporting function of these is +geometrical; every one is constructed like the girders of a bridge, or +beams of a floor, with all manner of science in the distribution of their +substance in the section, for narrow and deep strength; and the shafts are +mostly hollow. But when the extending space of a leaf is to be enriched +with fulness of folds, and become beautiful in wrinkles, this may be done +either by pure undulation as of a liquid current along the leaf edge, or by +sharp 'drawing'--or 'gathering' I believe ladies would call it--and +stitching of the edges together. And this stitching together, if to be done +very strongly, is done round a bit of stick, as a sail is reefed round a +mast; and this bit of stick needs to be compactly, not geometrically +strong; its function is essentially that of starch,--not to hold the leaf +up off the ground against gravity; but to stick the edges out, stiffly, in +a crimped frill. And in beautiful work of {113} this kind, which we are +meant to study, the stays of the leaf--or stay-bones--are finished off very +sharply and exquisitely at the points; and indeed so much so, that they +prick our fingers when we touch them; for they are not at all meant to be +touched, but admired. + +11. To be admired,--with qualification, indeed, always, but with extreme +respect for their endurance and orderliness. Among flowers that pass away, +and leaves that shake as with ague, or shrink like bad cloth,--these, in +their sturdy growth and enduring life, we are bound to honour; and, under +the green holly, remember how much softer friendship was failing, and how +much of other loving, folly. And yet--you are not to confuse the thistle +with the cedar that is in Lebanon; nor to forget--if the spinous nature of +it become too cruel to provoke and offend--the parable of Joash to Amaziah, +and its fulfilment: "There passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and +trode down the thistle." + +12. Then, lastly, if this rudeness and insensitiveness of nature be gifted +with no redeeming beauty; if the boss of the thistle lose its purple, and +the star of the Lion's tooth, its light; and, much more, if service be +perverted as beauty is lost, and the honied tube, and medicinal leaf, +change into mere swollen emptiness, and salt brown membrane, swayed in +nerveless languor by the idle sea,--at last the separation between the two +natures is as great as between the fruitful earth and fruitless ocean; and +between the living hands that tend the Garden of Herbs where {114} Love is, +and those unclasped, that toss with tangle and with shells. + + * * * * * + +13. I had a long bit in my head, that I wanted to write, about St. George +of the Seaweed, but I've no time to do it; and those few words of +Tennyson's are enough, if one thinks of them: only I see, in correcting +press, that I've partly misapplied the idea of 'gathering' in the leaf +edge. It would be more accurate to say it was gathered at the central rib; +but there is nothing in needlework that will represent the actual excess by +lateral growth at the edge, giving three or four inches of edge for one of +centre. But the stiffening of the fold by the thorn which holds it out is +very like the action of a ship's spars on its sails; and absolutely in many +cases like that of the spines in a fish's fin, passing into the various +conditions of serpentine and dracontic crest, connected with all the +terrors and adversities of nature; not to be dealt with in a chapter on +weeds. + +14. Here is a sketch of a crested leaf of less adverse temper, which may as +well be given, together with Plate III., in this number, these two +engravings being meant for examples of two different methods of drawing, +both useful according to character of subject. Plate III. is sketched first +with a finely-pointed pen, and common ink, on white paper; then washed +rapidly with colour, and retouched with the pen to give sharpness and +completion. {115} This method is used because the thistle leaves are full +of complex and sharp sinuosities, and set with intensely sharp spines +passing into hairs, which require many kinds of execution with the fine +point to imitate at all. In the drawing there was more look of the bloom or +woolliness on the stems, but it was useless to try for this in the +mezzotint, and I desired Mr. Allen to leave his work at the stage where it +expressed as much form as I wanted. The leaves are of the common marsh +thistle, of which more anon; and the two long lateral ones are only two +different views of the same leaf, while the central figure is a young leaf +just opening. It beat me, in its delicate bossing, and I had to leave it, +discontentedly enough. + +Plate IV. is much better work, being of an easier subject, adequately +enough rendered by perfectly simple means. Here I had only a succulent and +membranous surface to represent, with definite outlines, and merely +undulating folds; and this is sufficiently done by a careful and firm pen +outline on grey paper, with a slight wash of colour afterwards, reinforced +in the darks; then marking the lights with white. This method is classic +and authoritative, being used by many of the greatest masters, (by Holbein +continually;) and it is much the best which the general student can adopt +for expression of the action and muscular power of plants. + +The goodness or badness of such work depends absolutely on the truth of the +single line. You will find a thousand botanical drawings which will give +you a {116} delicate and deceptive resemblance of the leaf, for one that +will give you the right convexity in its backbone, the right perspective of +its peaks when they foreshorten, or the right relation of depth in the +shading of its dimples. On which, in leaves as in faces, no little +expression of temper depends. + +Meantime we have yet to consider somewhat more touching that temper itself, +in next chapter. + + * * * * * + +{117} + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM. + +1. I do not know if my readers were checked, as I wished them to be, at +least for a moment, in the close of the last chapter, by my talking of +thistles and dandelions changing into seaweed, by gradation of which, +doubtless, Mr. Darwin can furnish us with specious and sufficient +instances. But the two groups will not be contemplated in our Oxford system +as in any parental relations whatsoever. + +We shall, however, find some very notable relations existing between the +two groups of the wild flowers of dry land, which represent, in the widest +extent, and the distinctest opposition, the two characters of material +serviceableness and unserviceableness; the groups which in our English +classification will be easily remembered as those of the Thyme, and the +Daisy. + +The one, scented as with incense--medicinal--and in all gentle and humble +ways, useful. The other, scentless--helpless for ministry to the body; +infinitely dear as the bringer of light, ruby, white and gold; the three +colours of the Day, with no hue of shade in it. Therefore I {118} take it +on the coins of St. George for the symbol of the splendour or light of +heaven, which is dearest where humblest. + +2. Now these great two orders--of which the types are the thyme and the +daisy--you are to remember generally as the 'Herbs' and the 'Sunflowers.' +You are not to call them Lipped flowers, nor Composed flowers; because the +first is a vulgar term; for when you once come to be able to draw a lip, +or, in noble duty, to kiss one, you will know that no other flower in earth +is like that: and the second is an indefinite term; for a foxglove is as +much a 'composed' flower as a daisy; but it is composed in the shape of a +spire, instead of the shape of the sun. And again a thistle, which common +botany calls a composed flower, as well as a daisy, is composed in quite +another shape, being on the whole, bossy instead of flat; and of another +temper, or composition of mind, also, being connected in that respect with +butterburs, and a vast company of rough, knotty, half-black or brown, and +generally unluminous--flowers I can scarcely call them--and weeds I will +not,--creatures, at all events, in nowise to be gathered under the general +name 'Composed,' with the stars that crown Chaucer's Alcestis, when she +returns to the day from the dead. + +But the wilder and stronger blossoms of the Hawk's-eye--again you see I +refuse for them the word weed;--and the waste-loving Chicory, which the +Venetians call "Sponsa solis," are all to be held in one class with the +{119} Sunflowers; but dedicate,--the daisy to Alcestis alone; others to +Clytia, or the Physician Apollo himself: but I can't follow their mythology +yet awhile. + +3. Now in these two families you have typically Use opposed to Beauty in +_wildness_; it is their wildness which is their virtue;--that the thyme is +sweet where it is unthought of, and the daisies red, where the foot +despises them: while, in other orders, wildness is their +crime,--"Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, +brought it forth wild grapes?" But in all of them you must distinguish +between the pure wildness of flowers and their distress. It may not be our +duty to tame them; but it must be, to relieve. + +4. It chanced, as I was arranging the course of these two chapters, that I +had examples given me of distressed and happy wildness, in immediate +contrast. The first, I grieve to say, was in a bit of my own brushwood, +left uncared-for evidently many a year before it became mine. I had to cut +my way into it through a mass of thorny ruin; black, birds-nest like, +entanglement of brittle spray round twisted stems of ill-grown birches +strangling each other, and changing half into roots among the rock clefts; +knotted stumps of never-blossoming blackthorn, and choked stragglings of +holly, all laced and twisted and tethered round with an untouchable, almost +unhewable, thatch, a foot thick, of dead bramble and rose, laid over rotten +ground through which the water soaked ceaselessly, undermining it into +merely unctuous {120} clods and clots, knitted together by mossy sponge. It +was all Nature's free doing! she had had her way with it to the uttermost; +and clearly needed human help and interference in her business; and yet +there was not one plant in the whole ruinous and deathful riot of the +place, whose nature was not in itself wholesome and lovely; but all lost +for want of discipline. + +5. The other piece of wild growth was among the fallen blocks of limestone +under Malham Cove. Sheltered by the cliff above from stress of wind, the +ash and hazel wood spring there in a fair and perfect freedom, without a +diseased bough, or an unwholesome shade. I do not know why mine is all +encumbered with overgrowth, and this so lovely that scarce a branch could +be gathered but with injury;--while underneath, the oxalis, and the two +smallest geraniums (Lucidum and Herb-Robert) and the mossy saxifrage, and +the cross-leaved bed-straw, and the white pansy, wrought themselves into +wreaths among the fallen crags, in which every leaf rejoiced, and was at +rest. + +6. Now between these two states of equally natural growth, the point of +difference that forced itself on me (and practically enough, in the work I +had in my own wood), was not so much the withering and waste of the one, +and the life of the other, as the thorniness and cruelty of the one, and +the softness of the other. In Malham Cove, the stones of the brook were +softer with moss than any silken pillow--the crowded oxalis leaves yielded +to the pressure of the hand, and were not felt--the cloven {121} leaves of +the Herb-Robert and orbed clusters of its companion overflowed every rent +in the rude crags with living balm; there was scarcely a place left by the +tenderness of the happy things, where one might not lay down one's forehead +on their warm softness, and sleep. But in the waste and distressed ground, +the distress had changed itself to cruelty. The leaves had all perished, +and the bending saplings, and the wood of trust;--but the thorns were +there, immortal, and the gnarled and sapless roots, and the dusty +treacheries of decay. + +7. Of which things you will find it good to consider also otherwise than +botanically. For all these lower organisms suffer and perish, or are +gladdened and flourish, under conditions which are in utter precision +symbolical, and in utter fidelity representative, of the conditions which +induce adversity and prosperity in the kingdoms of men: and the Eternal +Demeter,--Mother, and Judge,--brings forth, as the herb yielding seed, so +also the thorn and the thistle, not to herself, but _to thee_. + +8. You have read the words of the great Law often enough;--have you ever +thought enough of them to know the difference between these two appointed +means of Distress? The first, the Thorn, is the type of distress _caused by +crime_, changing the soft and breathing leaf into inflexible and wounding +stubbornness. The second is the distress appointed to be the means and +herald of good,--Thou shalt see the stubborn thistle bursting, into glossy +purple, which outredden, all voluptuous garden roses. {122} + +9. It is strange that, after much hunting, I cannot find authentic note of +the day when Scotland took the thistle for her emblem; and I have no space +(in this chapter at least) for tradition; but, with whatever lightness of +construing we may receive the symbol, it is actually the truest that could +have been found, for some conditions of the Scottish mind. There is no +flower which the Proserpina of our Northern Sicily cherishes more dearly: +and scarcely any of us recognize enough the beautiful power of its +close-set stars, and rooted radiance of ground leaves; yet the stubbornness +and ungraceful rectitude of its stem, and the besetting of its wholesome +substance with that fringe of offence, and the forwardness of it, and +dominance,--I fear to lacess some of my dearest friends if I went on:--let +them rather, with Bailie Jarvie's true conscience,[33] take their Scott +from the inner shelf in their heart's library which all true Scotsmen give +him, and trace, with the swift reading of memory, the characters of Fergus +M'Ivor, Hector M'Intyre, Mause Headrigg, Alison Wilson, Richie {123} +Moniplies, and Andrew Fairservice; and then say, if the faults of all +these, drawn as they are with a precision of touch like a Corinthian +sculptor's of the acanthus leaf, can be found in anything like the same +strength in other races, or if so stubbornly folded and starched moni-plies +of irritating kindliness, selfish friendliness, lowly conceit, and +intolerable fidelity, are native to any other spot of the wild earth of the +habitable globe. + +10. Will you note also--for this is of extreme interest--that these +essential faults are all mean faults;--what we may call ground-growing +faults; conditions of semi-education, of hardly-treated homelife, or of +coarsely-minded and wandering prosperity. How literally may we go back from +the living soul symbolized, to the strangely accurate earthly symbol, in +the prickly weed. For if, with its bravery of endurance, and carelessness +in choice of home, we find also definite faculty and habit of migration, +volant mechanism for choiceless journey, not divinely directed in +pilgrimage to known shrines; but carried at the wind's will by a Spirit +which listeth _not_--it will go hard but that the plant shall become, if +not dreaded, at least despised; and, in its wandering and reckless +splendour, disgrace the garden of the sluggard, and possess the inheritance +of the prodigal: until even its own nature seems contrary to good, and the +invocation of the just man be made to it as the executor of Judgment, "Let +thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." + +11. Yet to be despised--either for men or flowers--may {124} be no +ill-fortune; the real ill-fortune is only to be despicable. These faults of +human character, wherever found, observe, belong to it as +ill-trained--incomplete; confirm themselves only in the vulgar. There is no +base pertinacity, no overweening conceit, in the Black Douglas, or +Claverhouse, or Montrose; in these we find the pure Scottish temper, of +heroic endurance and royal pride; but, when, in the pay, and not deceived, +but purchased, idolatry of Mammon, the Scottish persistence and pride +become knit and vested in the spleuchan, and your stiff Covenanter makes +his covenant with Death, and your Old Mortality deciphers only the +senseless legends of the eternal gravestone,--you get your weed, +earth-grown, in bitter verity, and earth-devastating, in bitter strength. + +12. I have told you, elsewhere, we are always first to study national +character in the highest and purest examples. But if our knowledge is to be +complete, we have to study also the special diseases of national character. +And in exact opposition to the most solemn virtue of Scotland, the domestic +truth and tenderness breathed in all Scottish song, you have this special +disease and mortal cancer, this woody-fibriness, literally, of temper and +thought: the consummation of which into pure lignite, or rather black +Devil's charcoal--the sap of the birks of Aberfeldy become cinder, and the +blessed juices of them, deadly gas,--you may know in its pure blackness +best in the work of the greatest of these ground-growing Scotchmen, Adam +Smith. {125} + +13. No man of like capacity, I believe, born of any other nation, could +have deliberately, and with no momentary shadow of suspicion or question, +formalized the spinous and monstrous fallacy that human commerce and policy +are _naturally_ founded on the desire of every man to possess his +neighbour's goods. + +_This_ is the 'release unto us Barabbas,' with a witness; and the +deliberate systematization of that cry, and choice, for perpetual +repetition and fulfilment in Christian statesmanship, has been, with the +strange precision of natural symbolism and retribution, signed, (as of old, +by strewing of ashes on Kidron,) by strewing of ashes on the brooks of +Scotland; waters once of life, health, music, and divine tradition; but to +whose festering scum you may now set fire with a candle; and of which, +round the once excelling palace of Scotland, modern sanitary science is now +helplessly contending with the poisonous exhalations. + +14. I gave this chapter its heading, because I had it in my mind to work +out the meaning of the fable in the ninth chapter of Judges, from what I +had seen on that thorny ground of mine, where the bramble was king over all +the trees of the wood. But the thoughts are gone from me now; and as I +re-read the chapter of Judges,--now, except in my memory, unread, as it +chances, for many a year,--the sadness of that story of Gideon fastens on +me, and silences me. _This_ the end of his angel visions, and dream-led +victories, the slaughter of all his {126} sons but this youngest,[34]--and +he never again heard of in Israel! + +You Scottish children of the Rock, taught through all your once pastoral +and noble lives by many a sweet miracle of dew on fleece and ground,--once +servants of mighty kings, and keepers of sacred covenant; have you indeed +dealt truly with your warrior kings, and prophet saints, or are these ruins +of their homes, and shrines, dark with the fire that fell from the curse of +Jerubbael? + + * * * * * + +{127} + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STEM. + +1. As I read over again, with a fresh mind, the last chapter, I am struck +by the opposition of states which seem best to fit a weed for a weed's +work,--stubbornness, namely, and flaccidity. On the one hand, a sternness +and a coarseness of structure which changes its stem into a stake, and its +leaf into a spine; on the other, an utter flaccidity and ventosity of +structure, which changes its stem into a riband, and its leaf into a +bubble. And before we go farther--for we are not yet at the end of our +study of these obnoxious things--we had better complete an examination of +the parts of a plant in general, by ascertaining what a Stem proper is; and +what makes it stiffer, or hollower, than we like it;--how, to wit, the +gracious and generous strength of ash differs from the spinous obstinacy of +blackthorn,--and how the geometric and enduring hollowness of a stalk of +wheat differs from the soft fulness of that of a mushroom. To which end, I +will take up a piece of study, not of black, but white, thorn, written last +spring. {128} + +2. I suppose there is no question but that all nice people like hawthorn +blossom. + +I want, if I can, to find out to-day, 25th May, 1875, what it is we like it +so much for: holding these two branches of it in my hand--one full out, the +other in youth. This full one is a mere mass of symmetrically +balanced--snow, one was going vaguely to write, in the first impulse. But +it is nothing of the sort. White,--yes, in a high degree; and pure, +totally; but not at all dazzling in the white, nor pure in an insultingly +rivalless manner, as snow would be; yet pure somehow, certainly; and white, +absolutely, in spite of what might be thought failure,--imperfection--nay, +even distress and loss in it. For every little rose of it has a green +darkness in the centre--not even a pretty green, but a faded, yellowish, +glutinous, unaccomplished green; and round that, all over the surface of +the blossom, whose shell-like petals are themselves deep sunk, with grey +shadows in the hollows of them--all above this already subdued brightness, +are strewn the dark points of the dead stamens--manifest more and more, the +longer one looks, as a kind of grey sand, sprinkled without sparing over +what looked at first unspotted light. And in all the ways of it the lovely +thing is more like the spring frock of some prudent little maid of +fourteen, than a flower;--frock with some little spotty pattern on it to +keep it from showing an unintended and inadvertent spot,--if Fate should +ever inflict such a thing! Undeveloped, thinks Mr. Darwin,--the poor {129} +short-coming, ill-blanched thorn blossom--going to be a Rose, some day +soon; and, what next?--who knows?--perhaps a Paeony! + +3. Then this next branch, in dawn and delight of youth, set with opening +clusters of yet numerable blossom, four, and five, and seven, edged, and +islanded, and ended, by the sharp leaves of freshest green, deepened under +the flowers, and studded round with bosses, better than pearl beads of St. +Agnes' rosary,--folded, over and over, with the edges of their little +leaves pouting, as the very softest waves do on flat sand where one meets +another; then opening just enough to show the violet colour within--which +yet isn't violet colour, nor even "meno che le rose," but a different +colour from every other lilac that one ever saw;--faint and faded even +before it sees light, as the filmy cup opens over the depth of it, then +broken into purple motes of tired bloom, fading into darkness, as the cup +extends into the perfect rose. + +This, with all its sweet change that one would so fain stay, and soft +effulgence of bud into softly falling flower, one has watched--how often; +but always with the feeling that the blossoms are thrown over the green +depth like white clouds--never with any idea of so much as asking what +holds the cloud there. Have each of the innumerable blossoms a separate +stalk? and, if so, how is it that one never thinks of the stalk, as one +does with currants? + +4. Turn the side of the branch to you;--Nature never meant you to see it +so; but now it is all stalk below, and {130} stamens above,--the petals +nothing, the stalks all tiny trees, always dividing their branches mainly +into three--one in the centre short, and the two lateral, long, with an +intermediate extremely long one, if needed, to fill a gap, so contriving +that the flowers shall all be nearly at the same level, or at least surface +of ball, like a guelder rose. But the cunning with which the tree conceals +its structure till the blossom is fallen, and then--for a little while, we +had best look no more at it, for it is all like grape-stalks with no +grapes. + +These, whether carrying hawthorn blossom and haw, or grape blossom and +grape, or peach blossom and peach, you will simply call the 'stalk,' +whether of flower or fruit. A 'stalk' is essentially round, like a pillar; +and has, for the most part, the power of first developing, and then shaking +off, flower and fruit from its extremities. You can pull the peach from its +stalk, the cherry, the grape. Always at some time of its existence, the +flower-stalk lets fall something of what it sustained, petal or seed. + +In late Latin it is called 'petiolus,' the little foot; because the +expanding piece that holds the grape, or olive, is a little like an +animal's foot. Modern botanists have misapplied the word to the +_leaf_-stalk, which has no resemblance to a foot at all. We must keep the +word to its proper meaning, and, when we want to write Latin, call it +'petiolus;' when we want to write English, call it 'stalk,' meaning always +fruit or flower stalk. {131} + +I cannot find when the word 'stalk' first appears in English:--its +derivation will be given presently. + +5. Gather next a hawthorn leaf. That also has a stalk; but you can't shake +the leaf off it. It, and the leaf, are essentially one; for the sustaining +fibre runs up into every ripple or jag of the leaf's edge: and its section +is different from that of the flower-stalk; it is no more round, but has an +upper and under surface, quite different from each other. It will be +better, however, to take a larger leaf to examine this structure in. +Cabbage, cauliflower, or rhubarb, would any of them be good, but don't grow +wild in the luxuriance I want. So, if you please, we will take a leaf of +burdock, (Arctium Lappa,) the principal business of that plant being +clearly to grow leaves wherewith to adorn fore-grounds.[35] + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.] + +6. The outline of it in Sowerby is not an intelligent one, and I have not +time to draw it but in the rudest way myself; Fig. 13, _a_; with +perspectives of the elementary form below, _b_, _c_, and d. By help of +which, if you will construct a burdock leaf in paper, my rude outline (_a_) +may tell the rest of what I want you to see. + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.] + +Take a sheet of stout note paper, Fig. 14, A, double it sharply down the +centre, by the dotted line, then give it the two cuts at _a_ and _b_, and +double those pieces sharply back, as at B; then, opening them again, cut +the whole {132} into the form C; and then, pulling up the corners _c d_, +stitch them together with a loose thread so that the points _c_ and _d_ +shall be within half an inch of each other; and you will have a kind of +triangular scoop, or shovel, with a stem, by which you can sufficiently +hold it, D. + +7. And from this easily constructed and tenable model, you may learn at +once these following main facts about all leaves. {133} + +[I.] That they are not flat, but, however slightly, always hollowed into +craters, or raised into hills, in one or another direction; so that any +drawable outline of them does not in the least represent the real extent of +their surfaces; and until you know how to draw a cup, or a mountain, +rightly, you have no chance of drawing a leaf. My simple artist readers of +long ago, when I told them to draw leaves, thought they could do them by +the boughfull, whenever they liked. Alas, except by old William Hunt, and +Burne Jones, I've not seen a leaf painted, since those burdocks of +Turner's; far less sculptured--though one would think at first that was +easier! Of which we shall have talk elsewhere; here I must go on to note +fact number two, concerning leaves. + +{134} + +8. [II.] The strength of their supporting stem consists not merely in the +gathering together of all the fibres, but in gathering them essentially +into the profile of the letter V, which you will see your doubled paper +stem has; and of which you can feel the strength and use, in your hand, as +you hold it. Gather a common plantain leaf, and look at the way it puts its +round ribs together at the base, and you will understand the matter at +once. The arrangement is modified and disguised in every possible way, +according to the leaf's need: in the aspen, the leaf-stalk becomes an +absolute vertical plank; and in the large trees is often almost rounded +into the likeness of a fruit-stalk;--but, in all,[36] the essential +structure is this doubled one; and in all, it opens at the place where the +leaf joins the main stem, into a kind of cup, which holds next year's bud +in the hollow of it. + +9. Now there would be no inconvenience in your simply getting into the +habit of calling the round petiol of the fruit the 'stalk,' and the +contracted channel of the leaf, 'leaf-stalk.' But this way of naming them +would not enforce, nor fasten in your mind, the difference between the two, +so well as if you have an entirely different name for the leaf-stalk. Which +is the more desirable, because the limiting character of the leaf, +botanically, is--(I only learned this from my botanical friend the other +day, just {135} in the very moment I wanted it,)--that it holds the bud of +the new stem in its own hollow, but cannot itself grow in the hollow of +anything else;--or, in botanical language, leaves are never +axillary,--don't grow in armpits, but are themselves armpits; hollows, that +is to say, where they spring from the main stem. + +10. Now there is already a received and useful botanical word, 'cyme' +(which we shall want in a little while.) derived from the Greek [Greek: +kuma], a swelling or rising wave, and used to express a swelling cluster of +foamy blossom. Connected with that word, but in a sort the reverse of it, +you have the Greek '[Greek: kumbe],' the _hollow_ of a cup, or bowl; whence +[Greek: kumbalou], a cymbal,--that is to say, a musical instrument owing +its tone to its _hollowness_. These words become in Latin, cymba, and +cymbalum; and I think you will find it entirely convenient and advantageous +to call the leaf-stalk distinctively the 'cymba,' retaining the mingled +idea of cup and boat, with respect at least to the part of it that holds +the bud; and understanding that it gathers itself into a V-shaped, or even +narrowly vertical, section, as a boat narrows to its bow, for strength to +sustain the leaf. + +With this word you may learn the Virgilian line, that shows the final use +of iron--or iron-darkened--ships: + + "Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba." + +The "subvectat corpora" will serve to remind you of the office of the leafy +cymba in carrying the bud; and make {136} you thankful that the said leafy +vase is not of iron; and is a ship of Life instead of Death. + +11. Already, not once, nor twice, I have had to use the word 'stem,' of the +main round branch from which both stalk and cymba spring. This word you had +better keep for all growing, or advancing, shoots of trees, whether from +the ground, or from central trunks and branches. I regret that the words +multiply on us; but each that I permit myself to use has its own proper +thought or idea to express, as you will presently perceive; so that true +knowledge multiplies with true words. + +12. The 'stem,' you are to say, then, when you mean the _advancing_ +shoot,--which lengthens annually, while a stalk ends every year in a +blossom, and a cymba in a leaf. A stem is essentially round,[37] square, or +regularly polygonal; though, as a cymba may become exceptionally round, a +stem may become exceptionally flat, or even mimic the shape of a leaf. +Indeed I should have liked to write "a stem is essentially round, and +constructively, on occasion, square,"--but it would have been too grand. +The fact is, however, that a stem is really a roundly minded thing, +throwing off its branches in circles as a trundled mop throws off drops, +though it can always order the branches to fly off in what order it +likes,--two at a time, opposite to each other; or three, or five, in a +spiral coil; or one here and one there, on this side and that; {137} but it +is always twisting, in its own inner mind and force; hence it is especially +proper to use the word 'stem' of it--[Greek: stemma], a twined wreath; +properly, twined round a staff, or sceptre: therefore, learn at once by +heart these lines in the opening Iliad: + + "[Greek: Stemmat' echon en chersin hekebolou Apollonos,] + [Greek: Chruseoi ana skeptroi;]" + +And recollect that a sceptre is properly a staff to lean upon; and that as +a crown or diadem is first a binding thing, a 'sceptre' is first a +_supporting_ thing, and it is in its nobleness, itself made of the stem of +a young tree. You may just as well learn also this: + + "[Greek: Nai ma tode skeptron, to men oupote phulla kai ozous] + [Greek: Phusei, epeide prota tomen en oressi leloipen,] + [Greek: Oud' anathelesei; peri gar rha he chalkos elepse] + [Greek: Phulla te kai phloion; nun aute min huies Achaion] + [Greek: En palameis phoreousi dikaspoloi, hoi te themistas] + [Greek: Pros Dios eiruatai;]" + + "Now, by this sacred sceptre hear me swear + Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear, + Which, severed from the trunk, (as I from thee,) + On the bare mountains left its parent tree; + This sceptre, formed by tempered steel to prove + An ensign of the delegates of Jove, + From whom the power of laws and justice springs + (Tremendous oath, inviolate to Kings)." + +13. The supporting power in the tree itself is, I doubt not, greatly +increased by this spiral action; and the fine {138} instinct of its being +so, caused the twisted pillar to be used in the Lombardic Gothic,--at +first, merely as a pleasant variety of form, but at last constructively and +universally, by Giotto, and all the architects of his school. Not that the +spiral form actually adds to the strength of a Lombardic pillar, by +imitating contortions of wood, any more than the fluting of a Doric shaft +adds to its strength by imitating the canaliculation of a reed; but the +perfect action of the imagination, which had adopted the encircling +acanthus for the capital, adopted the twining stemma for the shaft; the +pure delight of the eye being the first condition in either case: and it is +inconceivable how much of the pleasure taken both in ornament and in +natural form is founded elementarily on groups of spiral line. The study in +our fifth plate, of the involucre of the waste-thistle,[38] is as good an +example as I can give of the more subtle and concealed conditions of this +structure. + +14. Returning to our present business of nomenclature, we find the Greek +word, 'stemma,' adopted by the Latins, {139} becoming the expression of a +growing and hereditary race; and the branched tree, the natural type, among +all nations, of multiplied families. Hence the entire fitness of the word +for our present purposes; as signifying, "a spiral shoot extending itself +by branches." But since, unless it is spiral, it is not a stem, and unless +it has branches, it is not a stem, we shall still want another word for the +sustaining 'sceptre' of a foxglove, or cowslip. Before determining that, +however, we must see what need there may be of one familiar to our ears +until lately, although now, I understand, falling into disuse. + +15. By our definition, a stem is a spirally bent, essentially living and +growing, shoot of vegetation. But the branch of a tree, in which many such +stems have their origin, is not, except in a very subtle and partial way, +spiral; nor, except in the shoots that spring from it, progressive +forwards; it only receives increase of thickness at its sides. Much more, +what used to be called the _trunk_ of a tree, in which many branches are +united, has ceased to be, except in mere tendency and temper, spiral; and +has so far ceased from growing as to be often in a state of decay in its +interior, while the external layers are still in serviceable strength. + +16. If, however, a trunk were only to be defined as an arrested stem, or a +cluster of arrested stems, we might perhaps refuse, in scientific use, the +popular word. But such a definition does not touch the main idea. Branches +usually begin to assert themselves at a height above the {140} ground +approximately fixed for each species of tree,--low in an oak, high in a +stone pine; but, in both, marked as a point of _structural change in the +direction of growing force_, like the spring of a vault from a pillar; and +as the tree grows old, some of its branches getting torn away by winds or +falling under the weight of their own fruit, or load of snow, or by natural +decay, there remains literally a 'truncated' mass of timber, still bearing +irregular branches here and there, but inevitably suggestive of resemblance +to a human body, after the loss of some of its limbs. + +And to prepare trees for their practical service, what age and storm only +do partially, the first rough process of human art does completely. The +branches are lopped away, leaving literally the 'truncus' as the part of +the tree out of which log and rafter can be cut. And in many trees, it +would appear to be the chief end of their being to produce this part of +their body on a grand scale, and of noble substance; so that, while in +thinking of vegetable life without reference to its use to men or animals, +we should rightly say that the essence of it was in leaf and flower--not in +trunk or fruit; yet for the sake of animals, we find that some plants, like +the vine, are apparently meant chiefly to produce fruit; others, like +laurels, chiefly to produce leaves; others chiefly to produce flowers; and +others to produce permanently serviceable and sculptural wood; or, in some +cases, merely picturesque and monumental masses of vegetable rock, +"intertwisted {141} fibres serpentine,"--of far nobler and more pathetic +use in their places, and their enduring age, than ever they could be for +material purpose in human habitation. For this central mass of the +vegetable organism, then, the English word 'trunk' and French 'tronc' are +always in accurate scholarship to be retained--meaning the part of a tree +which remains when its branches are lopped away. + +17. We have now got distinct ideas of four different kinds of stem, and +simple names for them in Latin and English,--Petiolus, Cymba, Stemma, and +Truncus; Stalk, Leaf-stalk, Stem, and Trunk; and these are all that we +shall commonly need. There is, however, one more that will be sometimes +necessary, though it is ugly and difficult to pronounce, and must be as +little used as we can. + +And here I must ask you to learn with me a little piece of Roman history. I +say, to _learn_ with me, because I don't know any Roman history except the +two first books of Livy, and little bits here and there of the following +six or seven. I only just know enough about it to be able to make out the +bearings and meaning of any fact that I now learn. The greater number of +modern historians know, (if honest enough even for that,) the facts, or +something that may possibly be like the facts, but haven't the least notion +of the meaning of them. So that, though I have to find out everything that +I want in Smith's dictionary, like any schoolboy, I can usually tell you +the {142} significance of what I so find, better than perhaps even Mr. +Smith himself could. + +18. In the 586th page of Mr. Smith's volume, you have it written that +'Calvus,' bald-head, was the name of a family of the Licinia gens; that the +man of whom we hear earliest, as so named, was the first plebeian elected +to military tribuneship in B.C. 400; and that the fourth of whom we hear, +was surnamed 'Stolo,' because he was so particular in pruning away the +Stolons (stolones), or useless young shoots, of his vines. + +We must keep this word 'stolon,' therefore, for these young suckers +springing from an old root. Its derivation is uncertain; but the main idea +meant by it is one of uselessness,--sprouting without occasion or fruit; +and the words 'stolidus' and 'stolid' are really its derivatives, though we +have lost their sense in English by partly confusing them with 'solid' +which they have nothing to do with. A 'stolid' person is essentially a +'useless sucker' of society; frequently very leafy and graceful, but with +no good in him. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.] + +19. Nevertheless, I won't allow our vegetable 'stolons' to be despised. +Some of quite the most beautiful forms of leafage belong to them;--even the +foliage of the olive itself is never seen to the same perfection on the +upper branches as in the young ground-rods in which the dual groups of +leaves crowd themselves in their haste into clusters of three. + +But, for our point of Latin history, remember always {143} that in 400 +B.C., just a year before the death of Socrates at Athens, this family of +Stolid persons manifested themselves at Rome, shooting up from plebeian +roots into places where they had no business; and preparing the way for the +degradation of the entire Roman race under the Empire; their success being +owed, remember also, to the faults of the patricians, for one of the laws +passed by Calvus Stolo was that the Sibylline books should be in custody of +ten men, of whom five should be plebeian, "that no falsifications might be +introduced in favour of the patricians." + +20. All this time, however, we have got no name for the prettiest of all +stems,--that of annual flowers growing high from among their ground leaves, +like lilies of the valley, and saxifrages, and the tall primulas--of which +this pretty type, Fig. 15, was cut for me by Mr. Burgess years ago; +admirable in its light outline of the foamy globe of flowers, supported and +balanced in the meadow breezes on that elastic rod of slenderest life. + +What shall we call it? We had better rest from our study of terms a little, +and do a piece of needful classifying, before we try to name it. + +21. My younger readers will find it easy to learn, and convenient to +remember, for a beginning of their science, {144} the names of twelve great +families of cinquefoiled flowers,[39] of which the first group of three, is +for the most part golden, the second, blue, the third, purple, and the +fourth, red. + +And their names, by simple lips, can be pleasantly said, or sung, in this +order, the two first only being a little difficult to get over. + + 1 2 3 4 + + Roof-foil, Lucy, Pea, Pink, + Rock-foil, Blue-bell, Pansy, Peach, + Primrose. Bindweed. Daisy. Rose. + +Which even in their Latin magniloquence will not be too terrible, namely,-- + + 1 2 3 4 + + Stella, Lucia, Alata, Clarissa, + Francesca, Campanula, Viola, Persica, + Primula. Convoluta. Margarita. Rosa. + +22. I do not care much to assert or debate my reasons for the changes of +nomenclature made in this list. The {145} most gratuitous is that of 'Lucy' +for 'Gentian,' because the King of Macedon, from whom the flower has been +so long named, was by no means a person deserving of so consecrated memory. +I conceive no excuse needed for rejecting Caryophyll, one of the crudest +and absurdest words ever coined by unscholarly men of science; or +Papilionaceae, which is unendurably long for pease; and when we are now +writing Latin, in a sentimental temper, and wish to say that we gathered a +daisy, we shall not any more be compelled to write that we gathered a +'Bellidem perennem,' or, an 'Oculum Diei.' + +I take the pure Latin form, Margarita, instead of Margareta, in memory of +Margherita of Cortona,[40] as well as of the great saint: also the tiny +scatterings and sparklings of the daisy on the turf may remind us of the +old use of the word 'Margaritae,' for the minute particles of the Host +sprinkled on the patina--"Has particulas [Greek: meridas] vocat +Euchologium, [Greek: margaritas] Liturgia Chrysostomi."[41] My young German +readers will, I hope, call the flower Gretschen,--unless they would uproot +the daisies of the Rhine, lest French girls should also count their +love-lots by the Marguerite. I must be so ungracious to my fair young +readers, however, as to warn them that this trial of their lovers is a very +favourable one, for, in nine blossoms out of {146} ten, the leaves of the +Marguerite are odd, so that, if they are only gracious enough to begin with +the supposition that he loves them, they must needs end in the conviction +of it. + +23. I am concerned, however, for the present, only with my first or golden +order, of which the Roof-foil, or house-leek, is called in present botany, +Sedum, 'the squatter,' because of its way of fastening itself down on +stones, or roof, as close as it can sit. But I think this an ungraceful +notion of its behaviour; and as its blossoms are, of all flowers, the most +sharply and distinctly star-shaped, I shall call it 'Stella' (providing +otherwise, in due time, for the poor little chickweeds;) and the common +stonecrop will therefore be 'Stella domestica.' + +The second tribe, (at present saxifraga,) growing for the most part wild on +rocks, may, I trust, even in Protestant botany, be named Francesca, after +St. Francis of Assisi; not only for its modesty, and love of mountain +ground, and poverty of colour and leaf; but also because the chief element +of its decoration, seen close, will be found in its spots, or stigmata. + +In the nomenclature of the third order I make no change. + +24. Now all this group of golden-blossoming plants agree in general +character of having a rich cluster of radical leaves, from which they throw +up a single stalk bearing clustered blossoms; for which stalk, when +entirely leafless, I intend always to keep the term 'virgula,' the {147} +'little rod'--not painfully caring about it, but being able thus to define +it with precision, if required. And these are connected with the stems of +branching shrubs through infinite varieties of structure, in which the +first steps of transition are made by carrying the cluster of radical +leaves up, and letting them expire gradually from the rising stem: the +changes of form in the leaves as they rise higher from the ground being one +of quite the most interesting specific studies in every plant. I had set +myself once, in a bye-study for foreground drawing, hard on this point; and +began, with Mr. Burgess, a complete analysis of the foliation of annual +stems; of which Line-studies II., III., and IV., are examples; reduced +copies, all, from the beautiful Flora Danica. But after giving two whole +lovely long summer days, under the Giesbach, to the blue scabious, +('Devil's bit,') and getting in that time, only half-way up it, I gave in; +and must leave the work to happier and younger souls. + +25. For these flowering stems, therefore, possessing nearly all the complex +organization of a tree, but not its permanence, we will keep the word +'virga;' and 'virgula' for those that have no leaves. I believe, when we +come to the study of leaf-order, it will be best to begin with these annual +virgae, in which the leaf has nothing to do with preparation for a next +year's branch. And now the remaining terms commonly applied to stems may be +for the most part dispensed with; but several are interesting, and must be +examined before dismissal. {148} + +26. Indeed, in the first place, the word we have to use so often, 'stalk,' +has not been got to the roots of, yet. It comes from the Greek [Greek: +stelechos,] (stelechos,) the 'holding part' of a tree, that which is like a +handle to all its branches; 'stock' is another form in which it has come +down to us: with some notion of its being the mother of branches: thus, +when Athena's olive was burnt by the Persians, two days after, a shoot a +cubit long had sprung from the 'stelechos,' of it. + +27. Secondly. Few words are more interesting to the modern scholarly and +professorial mind than 'stipend.' (I have twice a year at present to +consider whether I am worth mine, sent with compliments from the Curators +of the University chest). Now, this word comes from 'stips,' small pay, +which itself comes from 'stipo,' to press together, with the idea of small +coin heaped up in little towers or piles. But with the idea of lateral +pressing together, instead of downward, we get 'stipes,' a solid log; in +Greek, with the same sense, [Greek: stupos,] (stupos,) whence, gradually, +with help from another word meaning to beat, (and a side-glance at beating +of hemp,) we get our 'stupid,' the German stumph, the Scottish sumph, and +the plain English 'stump.' + +Refining on the more delicate sound of stipes, the Latins got 'stipula,' +the thin stem of straw: which rustles and ripples daintily in verse, +associated with spica and spiculum, used of the sharp pointed ear of corn, +and its fine processes of fairy shafts. {149} + +28. There are yet two more names of stalk to be studied, though, except for +particular plants, not needing to be used,--namely, the Latin cau-dex, and +cau-lis, both connected with the Greek [Greek: kaulos], properly meaning a +solid stalk like a handle, passing into the sense of the hilt of a sword, +or quill of a pen. Then, in Latin, caudex passes into the sense of log, and +so, of cut plank or tablet of wood; thus finally becoming the classical +'codex' of writings engraved on such wooden tablets, and therefore +generally used for authoritative manuscripts. + +Lastly, 'caulis,' retained accurately in our cauliflower, contracted in +'colewort,' and refined in 'kail,' softens itself into the French 'chou,' +meaning properly the whole family of thick-stalked eatable salads with +spreading heads; but these being distinguished explicitly by Pliny as +'Capitati,' 'salads with a head,' or 'Captain salads,' the mediaeval French +softened the 'caulis capitatus' into 'chou cabus;'--or, to separate the +round or apple-like mass of leaves from the flowery foam, 'cabus' simply, +by us at last enriched and emphasized into 'cabbage.' + +29. I believe we have now got through the stiffest piece of etymology we +shall have to master in the course of our botany; but I am certain that +young readers will find patient work, in this kind, well rewarded by the +groups of connected thoughts which will thus attach themselves to familiar +names; and their grasp of every language they learn must only be esteemed +by them secure when they recognize its derivatives in these homely +associations, {150} and are as much at ease with the Latin or French +syllables of a word as with the English ones; this familiarity being above +all things needful to cure our young students of their present ludicrous +impression that what is simple, in English, is knowing, in Greek; and that +terms constructed out of a dead language will explain difficulties which +remained insoluble in a living one. But Greek is _not_ yet dead: while if +we carry our unscholarly nomenclature much further, English soon will be; +and then doubtless botanical gentlemen at Athens will for some time think +it fine to describe what we used to call caryophyllaceae, as the [Greek: +hedlephides]. + +30. For indeed we are all of us yet but school-boys, clumsily using alike +our lips and brains; and with all our mastery of instruments and patience +of attention, but few have reached, and those dimly, the first level of +science,--wonder. + +For the first instinct of the stem,--unnamed by us yet--unthought of,--the +instinct of seeking light, as of the root to seek darkness,--what words can +enough speak the wonder of it. + +Look. Here is the little thing, Line-study V. (A), in its first birth to +us: the stem of stems; the one of which we pray that it may bear our daily +bread. The seed has fallen in the ground with the springing germ of it +downwards; with heavenly cunning the taught stem curls round, and seeks the +never-seen light. Veritable 'conversion,' miraculous, called of God. And +here is the oat {151} germ, (B)--after the wheat, most vital of divine +gifts; and assuredly, in days to come, fated to grow on many a naked rock +in hitherto lifeless lands, over which the glancing sheaves of it will +shake sweet treasure of innocent gold. + +And who shall tell us how they grow; and the fashion of their rustling +pillars--bent, and again erect, at every breeze. Fluted shaft or clustered +pier, how poor of art, beside this grass-shaft--built, first to sustain the +food of men, then to be strewn under their feet! + +We must not stay to think of it, yet, or we shall get no farther till +harvest has come and gone again. And having our names of stems now +determined enough, we must in next chapter try a little to understand the +different kinds of them. + +The following notes, among many kindly sent me on the subject of Scottish +Heraldry, seem to be the most trustworthy:-- + + "The earliest known mention of the thistle as the national badge of + Scotland is in the inventory of the effects of James III., who probably + adopted it as an appropriate illustration of the royal motto, _In + defence_. + + "Thistles occur on the coins of James IV., Mary, James V., and James + VI.; and on those of James VI. they are for the first time accompanied + by the motto, _Nemo me impune lacesset_. + + "A collar of thistles appears on the gold bonnet-pieces of James V. of + 1539; and the royal ensigns, as depicted in Sir David Lindsay's + armorial register of 1542, are surrounded by a collar formed entirely + of golden thistles, with an oval badge attached. {152} + + "This collar, however, was a mere device until the institution, or as + it is generally but inaccurately called, the revival, of the order of + the Thistle by James VII. (II. of England), which took place on May 29, + 1687." + + Date of James III.'s reign 1460-1488. + + * * * * * + +{153} + +CHAPTER IX. + +OUTSIDE AND IN. + +1. The elementary study of methods of growth, given in the following +chapter, has been many years written, (the greater part soon after the +fourth volume of 'Modern Painters'); and ought now to be rewritten +entirely; but having no time to do this, I leave it with only a word or two +of modification, because some truth and clearness of incipient notion will +be conveyed by it to young readers, from which I can afterwards lop the +errors, and into which I can graft the finer facts, better than if I had a +less blunt embryo to begin with. + +[Illustration: FIG. 16.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 17.] + +2. A stem, then, broadly speaking, (I had thus began the old chapter,) is +the channel of communication between the leaf and root; and if the leaf can +grow directly from the root there is no stem: so that it is well first to +conceive of all plants as consisting of leaves and roots only, with the +condition that each leaf must have its own quite particular root[42] +somewhere. {154} Let a b c, Fig. 16, be three leaves, each, as you see, +with its own root, and by no means dependent on other leaves for its daily +bread; and let the horizontal line be the surface of the ground. Then the +plant has no stem, or an underground one. But if the three leaves rise +above the ground, as in Fig. 17, they must reach their roots by elongating +their stalks, and this elongation is the stem of the plant. If the outside +leaves grow last, and are therefore youngest, the plant is said to grow +from the outside. You know that 'ex' means out, and that 'gen' is the first +syllable of Genesis (or creation), therefore the old botanists, putting an +o between the two syllables, called plants whose outside leaves grew last, +Ex-o-gens. If the inside leaf grows last, and is youngest, the plant was +said to grow from the inside, and from the Greek Endon, within, called an +'Endo-gen.' If these names are persisted in, the Greek botanists, to return +the compliment, will of course call Endogens [Greek: Inseidbornides], and +Exogens [Greek: Houtseidbornides]. In the Oxford school, they will be +called simply Inlaid and Outlaid. + +[Illustration: FIG. 18.] + +3. You see that if the outside leaves are to grow last, they may +conveniently grow two at a time; which they accordingly do, and exogens +always start with two little {155} leaves from their roots, and may +therefore conveniently be called two-leaved; which, if you please, we will +for our parts call them. The botanists call them 'two-suckered,' and can't +be content to call them _that_ in English; but drag in a long Greek word, +meaning the fleshy sucker of the sea-devil,--'cotyledon,' which, however, I +find is practically getting shortened into 'cot,' and that they will have +to end by calling endogens, monocots, and exogens, bicots. I mean steadily +to call them one-leaved and two-leaved, for this further reason, that they +differ not merely in the single or dual springing of first leaves from the +seed; but in the distinctly single or dual arrangement of leaves afterwards +on the stem; so that, through all the complexity obtained by alternate and +spiral placing, every bicot or two-leaved flower or tree is in reality +composed of dual groups of leaves, separated by a given length of stem; as, +most characteristically in this pure mountain type of the Ragged Robin +(Clarissa laciniosa), Fig. 18; and compare A, and B, Line-study II.; while, +on the other hand, the monocot plants are by close analysis, I think, +always resolvable into successively climbing leaves, sessile on one +another, and sending their roots, {156} or processes, for nourishment, down +through one another, as in Fig. 19. + +[Illustration: FIG. 19.] + +4. Not that I am yet clear, at all, myself; but I do think it's more the +botanists' fault than mine, what 'cotyledonous' structure there may be at +the outer base of each successive bud; and still less, how the intervenient +length of stem, in the bicots, is related to their power, or law, of +branching. For not only the two-leaved tree is outlaid, and the one-leaved +inlaid, but the two-leaved tree is branched, and the one-leaved tree is not +branched. This is a most vital and important distinction, which I state to +you in very bold terms, for though there are some apparent exceptions to +the law, there are, I believe, no real ones, if we define a branch rightly. +Thus, the head of a palm tree is merely a cluster of large leaves; and the +spike of a grass, a clustered blossom. The stem, in both, is unbranched; +and we should be able in this respect to classify plants very simply +indeed, but for a provoking species of intermediate creatures whose +branching is always in the manner of corals, or sponges, or arborescent +minerals, irregular and accidental, and essentially, therefore, +distinguished from the systematic anatomy of a truly branched tree. Of +these presently; we must go on by very short steps: and I find no step can +be taken without check from existing generalizations. Sowerby's definition +of Monocotyledons, in his ninth volume, begins thus: "Herbs, (or rarely, +and only in exotic genera,) trees, in which the wood, pith, and bark are +indistinguishable." {157} Now if there be one plant more than another in +which the pith is defined, it is the common Rush; while the nobler families +of true herbs derive their principal character from being pithless +altogether! We cannot advance too slowly. + +5. In the families of one-leaved plants in which the young leaves grow +directly out of the old ones, it becomes a grave question for them whether +the old ones are to lie flat or edgeways, and whether they must therefore +grow out of their faces or their edges. And we must at once understand the +way they contrive it, in either case. + +[Illustration: FIG. 20.] + +Among the many forms taken by the Arethusan leaf, one of the commonest is +long and gradually tapering,--much broader at the base than the point. We +will take such an one for examination, and suppose that it is growing on +the ground as in Fig. 20, with a root to its every fibre. Cut out a piece +of strong paper roughly into the shape of this Arethusan leaf, a, Fig. 21. +Now suppose the next young leaf has to spring out of the front of this one, +at about the middle of its height. Give it two nicks with the scissors at b +b; then roll up the lower part into a cylinder, (it will overlap a good +deal at the bottom,) and tie it fast with a fine thread: so, you will get +the form at c. Then bend the top of it back, so that, seen sideways, it +appears as at d, and you see you have made quite a little flower-pot to +plant your {158} new leaf in, and perhaps it may occur to you that you have +seen something like this before. Now make another, a little less wide, but +with the part for the cylinder twice as long, roll it up in the same way, +and slip it inside the other, with the flat part turned the other way, e. +Surely this reminds you now of something you have seen? Or must I draw the +something (Fig. 22)? + +[Illustration: FIG. 21.] + +6. All grasses are thus constructed, and have their leaves set thus, +opposite, on the sides of their tubular stems, alternately, as they ascend. +But in most of them there is also a peculiar construction, by which, at the +base of the sheath, or enclosing tube, each leaf articulates itself with +the rest of the stem at a ringed knot, or joint. {159} + +[Illustration: FIG. 22.] + +Before examining these, remember there are mainly two sorts of joints in +the framework of the bodies of animals. One is that in which the bone is +thick at the joints and thin between them, (see the bone of the next +chicken leg you eat), the other is that of animals that have shells or +horny coats, in which characteristically the shell is thin at the joints, +and thick between them (look at the next lobster's claw you can see, +without eating). You know, also, that though the crustaceous are titled +only from their crusts, the name 'insect' is given to the whole insect +tribe, because they are farther jointed almost into _sect_ions: it is +easily remembered, also, that the projecting joint means strength and +elasticity in the creature, and that all its limbs are useful to it, and +cannot conveniently be parted with; and that the incised, sectional, or +insectile joint means more or less weakness,[43] and necklace-like laxity +or license in the creature's make; and an ignoble power of shaking off its +legs or arms on occasion, coupled also with modes of growth involving +occasionally quite astonishing transformations, and beginnings of new life +under new circumstances; so that, until very lately, no mortal knew what a +crab was like in its youth, the very existence {160} of the creature, as +well as its legs, being jointed, as it were and made in separate pieces +with the narrowest possible thread of connection between them; and its +principal, or stomachic, period of life, connected with its sentimental +period by as thin a thread as a wasp's stomach is with its thorax. + +7. Now in plants, as in animals, there are just the same opposed aspects of +joint, with this specialty of difference in function, that the animal's +limb bends at the joints, but the vegetable limb stiffens. And when the +articulation projects, as in the joint of a cane, it means not only that +the strength of the plant is well carried through the junction, but is +carried farther and more safely than it could be without it: a cane is +stronger, and can stand higher than it could otherwise, because of its +joints. Also, this structure implies that the plant has a will of its own, +and a position which on the whole it will keep, however it may now and then +be bent out of it; and that it has a continual battle, of a healthy and +humanlike kind, to wage with surrounding elements. + +But the crabby, or insect-like, joint, which you get in seaweeds and cacti, +means either that the plant is to be dragged and wagged here and there at +the will of waves, and to have no spring nor mind of its own; or else that +it has at least no springy intention and elasticity of purpose, but only a +knobby, knotty, prickly, malignant stubbornness, and incoherent +opiniativeness; crawling about, and coggling, and grovelling, and +aggregating {161} anyhow, like the minds of so many people whom one knows! + +8. Returning then to our grasses, in which the real rooting and junction of +the leaves with each other is at these joints; we find that therefore every +leaf of grass may be thought of as consisting of two main parts, for which +we shall want two separate names. The lowest part, which wraps itself round +to become strong, we will call the 'staff,' and for the free-floating outer +part we will take specially the name given at present carelessly to a large +number of the plants themselves, 'flag.' This will give a more clear +meaning to the words 'rod' (virga), and 'staff' (baculus), when they occur +together, as in the 23rd Psalm; and remember the distinction is that a rod +bends like a switch, but a staff is stiff. I keep the well-known name +'blade' for grass-leaves in their fresh green state. + +9. You felt, as you were bending down the paper into the form d, Fig. 21, +the difficulty and awkwardness of the transition from the tubular form of +the staff to the flat one of the flag. The mode in which this change is +effected is one of the most interesting features in plants, for you will +find presently that the leaf-stalk in ordinary leaves is only a means of +accomplishing the same change from round to flat. But you know I said just +now that some leaves were not flat, but set upright, edgeways. It is not a +common position in two-leaved trees; but if you can run out and look at an +arbor vitae, it may interest you {162} to see its hatchet-shaped vertically +crested cluster of leaves transforming themselves gradually downwards into +branches; and in one-leaved trees the vertically edged group is of great +importance. + +[Illustration: FIG. 23.] + +10. Cut out another piece of paper like a in Fig. 21, but now, instead of +merely giving it nicks at a, b, cut it into the shape A, Fig. 23. Roll the +lower part up as before, but instead of pulling the upper part down, pinch +its back at the dotted line, and bring the two points, a and b, forward, so +that they may touch each other. B shows the look of the thing half-done, +before the points a and b have quite met. Pinch them close, and stitch the +two edges neatly together, all the way from a to the point c; then roll and +tie up the lower part as before. You will find then that the back or spinal +line of the whole leaf is bent forward, as at B. Now go out to the garden +and gather the green leaf of a fleur-de-lys, and look at it and your piece +of disciplined paper together; and I fancy you will probably find out +several things for yourself that I want you to know. + +11. You see, for one thing, at once, how _strong_ the fleur-de-lys leaf is, +and that it is just twice as strong as a blade of grass, for it is the +substance of the staff, with its sides flattened together, while the grass +blade is a staff cut {163} open and flattened out. And you see that as a +grass blade necessarily flaps down, the fleur-de-lys leaf as necessarily +curves up, owing to that inevitable bend in its back. And you see, with its +keen edge, and long curve, and sharp point, how like a sword it is. The +botanists would for once have given a really good and right name to the +plants which have this kind of leaf, 'Ensatae,' from the Latin 'ensis,' a +sword; if only sata had been properly formed from sis. We can't let the +rude Latin stand, but you may remember that the fleur-de-lys, which is the +flower of chivalry, has a sword for its leaf, and a lily for its heart. + +12. In case you cannot gather a fleur-de-lys leaf, I have drawn for you, in +Plate VI., a cluster of such leaves, which are as pretty as any, and so +small that, missing the points of a few, I can draw them of their actual +size. You see the pretty alternate interlacing at the bottom, and if you +can draw at all, and will try to outline their curves, you will find what +subtle lines they are. I did not know this name for the strong-edged grass +leaves when I wrote the pieces about shield and sword leaves in 'Modern +Painters'; I wish I had chanced in those passages on some other similitude, +but I can't alter them now, and my trustful pupils may avoid all confusion +of thought by putting gladius for ensis, and translating it by the word +'scymitar,' which is also more accurate in expressing the curvature blade. +So we will call the ensatae, instead, 'gladiolae,' translating, +'scymitar-grasses.' And having {164} now got at some clear idea of the +distinction between outlaid and inlaid growth in the stem, the reader will +find the elementary analysis of forms resulting from outlaid growth in +'Modern Painters'; and I mean to republish it in the sequel of this book, +but must go on to other matters here. The growth of the inlaid stem we will +follow as far as we need, for English plants, in examining the glasses. + +FLORENCE, _11th September, 1874_. + +As I correct this chapter for press, I find it is too imperfect to be let +go without a word or two more. In the first place, I have not enough, in +distinguishing the nature of the living yearly shoot, with its cluster of +fresh leafage, from that of the accumulated mass of perennial trees, taken +notice of the similar power even of the annual shoot, to obtain some manner +of immortality for itself, or at least of usefulness, _after_ death. A +Tuscan woman stopped me on the path up to Fiesole last night, to beg me to +buy her plaited straw. I wonder how long straw lasts, if one takes care of +it? A Leghorn bonnet, (if now such things are,) carefully put away,--even +properly taken care of when it is worn,--how long will it last, young +ladies? + +I have just been reading the fifth chapter of II. Esdras, and am fain to +say, with less discomfort than otherwise I might have felt, (the example +being set me by the archangel Uriel,) "I am not sent to tell thee, for I do +not know." How old is the oldest straw known? the oldest {165} linen? the +oldest hemp? We have mummy wheat,--cloth of papyrus, which is a kind of +straw. The paper reeds by the brooks, the flax-flower in the field, leave +such imperishable frame behind them. And Ponte-della-Paglia, in Venice; and +Straw Street, of Paris, remembered in Heaven,--there is no occasion to +change their names, as one may have to change 'Waterloo Bridge,' or the +'Rue de l'Imperatrice.' Poor Empress! Had she but known that her true +dominion was in the straw streets of her fields; not in the stone streets +of her cities! + +But think how wonderful this imperishableness of the stem of many plants +is, even in their annual work: how much more in their perennial work! The +noble stability between death and life, of a piece of perfect wood? It +cannot grow, but will not decay; keeps record of its years of life, but +surrenders them to become a constantly serviceable thing: which may be +sailed in, on the sea, built with, on the land, carved by Donatello, +painted on by Fra Angelico. And it is not the wood's fault, but the fault +of Florence in not taking proper care of it, that the panel of Sandro +Botticelli's loveliest picture has cracked, (not with heat, I believe, but +blighting frost), a quarter of an inch wide through the Madonna's face. + +But what is this strange state of undecaying wood? What sort of latent life +has it, which it only finally parts with when it rots? + +Nay, what is the law by which its natural life is measured? What makes a +tree 'old'? One sees the {166} Spanish-chesnut trunks among the Apennines +growing into caves, instead of logs. Vast hollows, confused among the +recessed darknesses of the marble crags, surrounded by mere laths of living +stem, each with its coronal of glorious green leaves. Why can't the tree go +on, and on,--hollowing itself into a Fairy--no--a Dryad, Ring,--till it +becomes a perfect Stonehenge of a tree? Truly, "I am not sent to tell thee, +for I do not know." + +The worst of it is, however, that I don't know one thing which I ought very +thoroughly to have known at least thirty years ago, namely, the true +difference in the way of building the trunk in outlaid and inlaid wood. I +have an idea that the stem of a palm-tree is only a heap of leaf-roots +built up like a tower of bricks, year by year, and that the palm tree +really grows on the top of it, like a bunch of fern; but I've no books +here, and no time to read them if I had. If only I were a strong giant, +instead of a thin old gentleman of fifty-five, how I should like to pull up +one of those little palm-trees by the roots--(by the way, what are the +roots of a palm like? and, how does it stand in sand, where it is wanted to +stand, mostly? Fancy, not knowing that, at fifty-five!)--that grow all +along the Riviera; and snap its stem in two, and cut it down the middle. +But I suppose there are sections enough now in our grand botanical +collections, and you can find it all out for yourself. That you should be +able to ask a question clearly, is two-thirds of the way to getting it +answered; and I think this chapter of mine will at {167} least enable you +to ask some questions about the stem, though what a stem is, truly, "I am +not sent to tell thee, for I do not know." + +KNARESBOROUGH, _30th April, 1876_. + +I see by the date of last paragraph that this chapter has been in my good +Aylesbury printer's type for more than a year and a half. At this rate, +Proserpina has a distant chance of being finished in the spirit-land, with +more accurate information derived from the archangel Uriel himself, (not +that he is likely to know much about the matter, if he keeps on letting +himself be prevented from ever seeing foliage in spring-time by the black +demon-winds,) about the year 2000. In the meantime, feeling that perhaps I +_am_ sent to tell my readers a little more than is above told, I have had +recourse to my botanical friend, good Mr. Oliver of Kew, who has taught me, +first, of palms, that they actually stitch themselves into the ground, with +a long dipping loop, up and down, of the root fibres, concerning which +sempstress-work I shall have a month's puzzlement before I can report on +it; secondly, that all the increment of tree stem is, by division and +multiplication of the cells of the wood, a process not in the least to be +described as 'sending down roots from the leaf to the ground.' I suspected +as much in beginning to revise this chapter; but hold to my judgment in not +cancelling it. For this multiplication of the cells is at least compelled +by an influence which passes from the leaf to the ground, and vice versa; +and which is at present best {168} conceivable to me by imagining the +continual and invisible descent of lightning from electric cloud by a +conducting rod, endowed with the power of softly splitting the rod into two +rods, each as thick as the original one. Studying microscopically, we +should then see the molecules of copper, as we see the cells of the wood, +dividing and increasing, each one of them into two. But the visible result, +and mechanical conditions of growth, would still be the same as if the leaf +actually sent down a new root fibre; and, more than this, the currents of +accumulating substance, marked by the grain of the wood, are, I think, +quite plainly and absolutely those of streams flowing only from the leaves +downwards; never from the root up, nor of mere lateral increase. I must +look over all my drawings again, and at tree stems again, with more +separate study of the bark and pith in those museum sections, before I can +assert this; but there will be no real difficulty in the investigation. If +the increase of the wood is lateral only, the currents round the knots will +be compressed at the sides, and open above and below; but if downwards, +compressed above the knot and open below it. The nature of the force +itself, and the manner of its ordinances in direction, remain, and must for +ever remain, inscrutable as our own passions, in the hand of the God of all +Spirits, and of all Flesh. + + "Drunk is each ridge, of thy cup drinking, + Each clod relenteth at thy dressing, + {169} + Thy cloud-borne waters inly sinking, + Fair spring sproutes forth, blest with thy blessing; + The fertile year is with thy bounty crouned, + And where thou go'st, thy goings fat the ground. + + Plenty bedews the desert places, + A hedge of mirth the hills encloseth. + The fields with flockes have hid their faces, + A robe of corn the valleys clotheth. + Deserts and hills and fields and valleys all, + Rejoice, shout, sing, and on thy name do call." + + * * * * * + +{170} + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BARK. + +1. Philologists are continually collecting instances, like our friend the +French critic of Virgil, of the beauty of finished language, or the origin +of unfinished, in the imitation of natural sounds. But such collections +give an entirely false idea of the real power of language, unless they are +balanced by an opponent list of the words which signally fail of any such +imitative virtue, and whose sound, if one dwelt upon it, is destructive of +their meaning. + +2. For instance. Few sounds are more distinct in their kind, or one would +think more likely to be vocally reproduced in the word which signified +them, than that of a swift rent in strongly woven cloth; and the English +word 'rag' and ragged, with the Greek [Greek: rhegnumi], do indeed in a +measure recall the tormenting effect upon the ear. But it is curious that +the verb which is meant to express the actual origination of rags, should +rhyme with two words entirely musical and peaceful--words, indeed, which I +always reserve for final resource in passages which I want to be soothing +as well as pretty,--'fair,' and {171} 'air;' while, in its orthography, it +is identical with the word representing the bodily sign of tenderest +passion, and grouped with a multitude of others,[44] in which the mere +insertion of a consonant makes such wide difference of sentiment as between +'dear' and 'drear,' or 'pear' and 'spear.' The Greek root, on the other +hand, has persisted in retaining some vestige of its excellent dissonance, +even where it has parted with the last vestige of the idea it was meant to +convey; and when Burns did his best,--and his best was above most men's--to +gather pleasant liquid and labial syllabling, round gentle meaning, in + + "Bonnie lassie, will ye go, + Will ye go, will ye go, + Bonnie lassie, will ye go, + To the birks of Aberfeldy?" + +he certainly had little thought that the delicately crisp final k, in birk, +was the remnant of a magnificent Greek effort to express the rending of the +earth by earthquake, in the wars of the giants. In the middle of that word +'esmarag[=e]se,' we get our own beggar's 'rag' for a pure root, which +afterwards, through the Latin frango, softens into our 'break,' and +'bark,'--the 'broken thing'; that idea of its rending around the tree's +stem having been, in the very earliest human efforts at botanical +description, {172} attached to it by the pure Aryan race, watching the +strips of rosy satin break from the birch stems, in the Aberfeldys of +Imaus. + +3. That this tree should have been the only one which "the Aryans, coming +as conquerors from the North, were able to recognize in Hindustan,"[45] and +should therefore also be "the only one whose name is common to Sanskrit, +and to the languages of Europe," delighted me greatly, for two reasons: the +first, for its proof that in spite of the development of species, the sweet +gleaming of birch stem has never changed its argent and sable for any +unchequered heraldry; and the second, that it gave proof of a much more +important fact, the keenly accurate observation of Aryan foresters at that +early date; for the fact is that the breaking of the thin-beaten silver of +the birch trunk is so delicate, and its smoothness so graceful, that until +I painted it with care, I was not altogether clear-headed myself about the +way in which the chequering was done: nor until Fors today brought me to +the house of one of my father's friends at Carshalton, and gave me three +birch stems to look at just outside the window, did I perceive it to be a +primal question about them, what it is that blanches that dainty dress of +theirs, or, anticipatorily, weaves. What difference is there between the +making of the corky excrescence of other {173} trees, and of this almost +transparent fine white linen? I perceive that the older it is, within +limits, the finer and whiter; hoary tissue, instead of hoary +hair--honouring the tree's aged body; the outer sprays have no silvery +light on their youth. Does the membrane thin itself into whiteness merely +by stretching, or produce an outer film of new substance?[46] + +4. And secondly, this investiture, why is it transverse to the +trunk,--swathing it, as it were, in bands? Above all,--when it breaks,--why +does it break round the tree instead of down? All other bark breaks as +anything would, naturally, round a swelling rod, but this, as if the stem +were growing longer; until, indeed, it reaches farthest heroic old age, +when the whiteness passes away again, and the rending is like that of other +trees, downwards. So that, as it were in a changing language, we have the +great botanical fact twice taught us, by this tree of Eden, that the skins +of trees differ from the skins of the higher animals in that, for the most +part, they won't stretch, and must be worn torn. + +So that in fact the most popular arrangement of vegetative adult costume is +Irish; a normal investiture in honourable rags; and decorousness of +tattering, as of a banner borne in splendid ruin through storms of war. + +5. Now therefore, if we think of it, we have five {174} distinct orders of +investiture for organic creatures; first, mere secretion of mineral +substance, chiefly lime, into a hard shell, which, if broken, can only be +mended, like china--by sticking it together; secondly, organic substance of +armour which grows into its proper shape at once for good and all, and +can't be mended at all, if broken, (as of insects); thirdly, organic +substance of skin, which stretches, as the creatures grows, by cracking, +over a fresh skin which is supplied beneath it, as in bark of trees; +fourthly, organic substance of skin cracked symmetrically into plates or +scales which can increase all round their edges, and are connected by +softer skin, below, as in fish and reptiles, (divided with exquisite lustre +and flexibility, in feathers of birds); and lastly, true elastic skin, +extended in soft unison with the creature's growth,--blushing with its +blood, fading with its fear; breathing with its breath, and guarding its +life with sentinel beneficence of pain. + +6. It is notable, in this higher and lower range of organic beauty, that +the decoration, by pattern and colour, which is almost universal in the +protective coverings of the middle ranks of animals, should be reserved in +vegetables for the most living part of them, the flower only; and that +among animals, few but the malignant and senseless are permitted, in the +corrugation of their armour, to resemble the half-dead trunk of the tree, +as they float beside it in the tropical river. I must, however, leave the +scale patterns of the palms and other inlaid tropical {175} stems for +after-examination,--content, at present, with the general idea of the bark +of an outlaid tree as the successive accumulation of the annual protecting +film, rent into ravines of slowly increasing depth, and coloured, like the +rock, whose stability it begins to emulate, with the grey or gold of +clinging lichen and embroidering moss. + + * * * * * + +{176} + +CHAPTER XI. + +GENEALOGY. + +1. Returning, after more than a year's sorrowful interval, to my Sicilian +fields,--not incognisant, now, of some of the darker realms of Proserpina; +and with feebler heart, and, it may be, feebler wits, for wandering in her +brighter ones,--I find what I had written by way of sequel to the last +chapter, somewhat difficult, and extremely tiresome. Not the less, after +giving fair notice of the difficulty, and asking due pardon for the +tiresomeness, I am minded to let it stand; trusting to end, with it, once +for all, investigations of the kind. But in finishing this first volume of +my School Botany, I must try to give the reader some notion of the plan of +the book, as it now, during the time for thinking over it which illness +left me, has got itself arranged in my mind, within limits of possible +execution. And this the rather, because I wish also to state, somewhat more +gravely than I have yet done, the grounds on which I venture here to reject +many of the received names of plants; and to substitute others for them, +relating to entirely different attributes {177} from those on which their +present nomenclature is confusedly edified. + +I have already in some measure given the reasons for this change;[47] but I +feel that, for the sake of those among my scholars who have laboriously +learned the accepted names, I ought now also to explain its method more +completely. + +2. I call the present system of nomenclature _confusedly_ edified, because +it introduces,--without, apparently, any consciousness of the +inconsistency, and certainly with no apology for it,--names founded +sometimes on the history of plants, sometimes on their qualities, sometimes +on their forms, sometimes on their products, and sometimes on their +poetical associations. + +On their history--as 'Gentian' from King Gentius, and Funkia from Dr. Funk. + +On their qualities--as 'Scrophularia' from its (quite uncertified) use in +scrofula. + +On their forms--as the 'Caryophylls' from having petals like husks of nuts. + +On their products--as 'Cocos nucifera' from its nuts. + +And on their poetical associations,--as the Star of Bethlehem from its +imagined resemblance to the light of that seen by the Magi. + +3. Now, this variety of grounds for nomenclature might patiently, and even +with advantage, be permitted, {178} provided the grounds themselves were +separately firm, and the inconsistency of method advisedly allowed, and, in +each case, justified. If the histories of King Gentius and Dr. Funk are +indeed important branches of human knowledge;--if the Scrophulariaceae do +indeed cure King's Evil;--if pinks be best described in their likeness to +nuts;--and the Star of Bethlehem verily remind us of Christ's Nativity,--by +all means let these and other such names be evermore retained. But if Dr. +Funk be not a person in any special manner needing either stellification or +florification; if neither herb nor flower can avail, more than the touch of +monarchs, against hereditary pain; if it be no better account of a pink to +say it is nut-leaved, than of a nut to say it is pink-leaved; and if the +modern mind, incurious respecting the journeys of wise men, has already +confused, in its Bradshaw's Bible, the station of Bethlehem with that of +Bethel,[48] it is certainly time to take some order with the partly false, +partly useless, and partly forgotten literature of the Fields; and, before +we bow our children's memories to the burden of it, ensure that there shall +be matter worth carriage in the load. + +4. And farther, in attempting such a change, we must be clear in our own +minds whether we wish our nomenclature to tell us something about the plant +itself, or only to tell us the place it holds in relation to other plants: +as, for instance, in the Herb-Robert, would it be well to {179} christen +it, shortly, 'Rob Roy,' because it is pre-eminently red, and so have done +with it;--or rather to dwell on its family connections, and call it +'Macgregoraceous'? + +5. Before we can wisely decide this point, we must resolve whether our +botany is intended mainly to be useful to the vulgar, or satisfactory to +the scientific elite. For if we give names characterizing individuals, the +circle of plants which any country possesses may be easily made known to +the children who live in it: but if we give names founded on the connexion +between these and others at the Antipodes, the parish school-master will +certainly have double work; and it may be doubted greatly whether the +parish school-boy, at the end of the lecture, will have half as many ideas. + +6. Nevertheless, when the features of any great order of plants are +constant, and, on the whole, represented with great clearness both in cold +and warm climates, it may be desirable to express this their citizenship of +the world in definite nomenclature. But my own method, so far as hitherto +developed, consists essentially in fastening the thoughts of the pupil on +the special character of the plant, in the place where he is likely to see +it; and therefore, in expressing the power of its race and order in the +wider world, rather by reference to mythological associations than to +botanical structure. + +7. For instance, Plate VII. represents, of its real size, an ordinary +spring flower in our English mountain fields. It is an average +example,--not one of rare size under rare {180} conditions,--rather smaller +than the average, indeed, that I might get it well into my plate. It is one +of the flowers whose names I think good to change; but I look carefully +through the existing titles belonging to it and its fellows, that I may +keep all I expediently can. I find, in the first place, that Linnaeus called +one group of its relations, Ophryds, from Ophrys,--Greek for the +eyebrow,--on account of their resemblance to the brow of an animal +frowning, or to the overshadowing casque of a helmet. I perceive this to be +really a very general aspect of the flower; and therefore, no less than in +respect to Linnaeus, I adopt this for the total name of the order, and call +them 'Ophrydae,' or, shortly, 'Ophryds.' + +8. Secondly: so far as I know these flowers myself, I perceive them to fall +practically into three divisions,--one, growing in English meadows and +Alpine pastures, and always adding to their beauty; another, growing in all +sorts of places, very ugly itself, and adding to the ugliness of its +indiscriminated haunts; and a third, growing mostly up in the air, with as +little root as possible, and of gracefully fantastic forms, such as this +kind of nativity and habitation might presuppose. For the present, I am +satisfied to give names to these three groups only. There may be plenty of +others which I do not know, and which other people may name, according to +their knowledge. But in all these three kinds known to me, I perceive one +constant characteristic to be _some_ manner of _distortion_ and I desire +that fact,--marking a {181} spiritual (in my sense of the word) character +of extreme mystery,--to be the first enforced on the mind of the young +learner. It is exhibited to the English child, primarily, in the form of +the stalk of each flower, attaching it to the central virga. This stalk is +always twisted once and a half round, as if somebody had been trying to +wring the blossom off; and the name of the family, in Proserpina, will +therefore be 'Contorta'[49] in Latin, and 'Wreathe-wort' in English. + +Farther: the beautiful power of the one I have drawn in its spring life, is +in the opposition of its dark purple to the primrose in England, and the +pale yellow anemone in the Alps. And its individual name will be, +therefore, 'Contorta purpurea'--_Purple_ Wreathe-wort. + +And in drawing it, I take care to dwell on this strength of its color, and +to show thoroughly that it is a _dark_ blossom,[50] before I trouble myself +about its minor characters. + +9. The second group of this kind of flowers live, as I said, in all sorts +of places; but mostly, I think, in disagreeable ones,--torn and irregular +ground, under alternations of unwholesome heat and shade, and among swarms +of nasty insects. I cannot yet venture on any bold general statement about +them, but I think that is mostly their way; and at all events, they +themselves are in the {182} habit of dressing in livid and unpleasant +colors; and are distinguished from all other flowers by twisting, not only +their stalks, but one of their petals, not once and a half only, but two or +three times round, and putting it far out at the same time, as a foul +jester would put out his tongue: while also the singular power of grotesque +mimicry, which, though strong also in the other groups of their race, seems +in the others more or less playful, is, in these, definitely degraded, and, +in aspect, malicious. + +10. Now I find the Latin name 'Satyrium' attached already to one sort of +these flowers; and we cannot possibly have a better one for all of them. It +is true that, in its first Greek form, Dioscorides attaches it to a white, +not a livid, flower; and I dare say there are some white ones of the breed: +but, in its full sense, the term is exactly right for the entire group of +ugly blossoms of which the characteristic is the spiral curve and +protraction of their central petal: and every other form of Satyric +ugliness which I find among the Ophryds, whatever its color, will be +grouped with them. And I make them central, because this humour runs +through the whole order, and is, indeed, their distinguishing sign. + +11. Then the third group, living actually in the air, and only holding fast +by, without nourishing itself from, the ground, rock, or tree-trunk on +which it is rooted, may of course most naturally and accurately be called +'Aeria,' as it has long been popularly known in English by the name of +Air-plant. {183} + +Thus we have one general name for all these creatures, 'Ophryd'; and three +family or group names, Contorta, Satyrium, and Aeria,--every one of these +titles containing as much accurate fact about the thing named as I can +possibly get packed into their syllables: and I will trouble my young +readers with no more divisions of the order. And if their parents, tutors, +or governors, after this fair warning, choose to make them learn, instead, +the seventy-seven different names with which botanist-heraldries have +beautifully ennobled the family,--all I can say is, let them at least begin +by learning them themselves. They will be found in due order in pages 1084, +1085 of Loudon's Cyclopaedia.[51] + +12. But now, farther: the student will observe that the name of the total +order is Greek; while the three family ones are Latin, although the central +one is originally Greek also. + +I adopt this as far as possible for a law through my whole plant +nomenclature. + +13. Farther: the terminations of the Latin family names will be, for the +most part, of the masculine, {184} feminine, and neuter forms, us, a, um, +with these following attached conditions. + +(I.) Those terminating in 'us,' though often of feminine words, as the +central Arbor, will indicate either real masculine strength (quereus, +laurus), or conditions of dominant majesty (cedrus), of stubbornness and +enduring force (crataegus), or of peasant-like commonalty and hardship +(juncus); softened, as it may sometimes happen, into gentleness and +beneficence (thymus). The occasional forms in 'er' and 'il' will have +similar power (acer, basil). + +(II.) Names with the feminine termination 'a,' if they are real names of +girls, will always mean flowers that are perfectly pretty and perfectly +good (Lucia, Viola, Margarita, Clarissa). Names terminating in 'a' which +are not also accepted names of girls, may sometimes be none the less +honourable, (Primula, Campanula,) but for the most part will signify either +plants that are only good and worthy in a nursy sort of way, (Salvia,) or +that are good without being pretty, (Lavandula,) or pretty without being +good, (Kalmia). But no name terminating in 'a' will be attached to a plant +that is neither good nor pretty. + +(III.) The neuter names terminating in 'um' will always indicate some power +either of active or suggestive evil, (Conium, Solanum, Satyrium,) or a +relation, more or less definite, to death; but this relation to death may +sometimes be noble, or pathetic,--"which {185} to-day is, and to-morrow is +cast into the oven,"--Lilium. + +But the leading position of these neuters in the plant's double name must +be noticed by students unacquainted with Latin, in order to distinguish +them from plural genitives, which will always, of course, be the second +word, (Francesca Fontium, Francesca of the Springs.) + +14. Names terminating in 'is' and 'e,' if definitely names of women, (Iris, +Amaryllis, Alcestis, Daphne,) will always signify flowers of great beauty, +and noble historic association. If not definitely names of women, they will +yet indicate some specialty of sensitiveness, or association with legend +(Berberis, Clematis). No neuters in 'e' will be admitted. + +15. Participial terminations (Impatiens), with neuters in 'en' (Cyclamen), +will always be descriptive of some special quality or form,--leaving it +indeterminate if good or bad, until explained. It will be manifestly +impossible to limit either these neuters, or the feminines in 'is' to Latin +forms; but we shall always know by their termination that they cannot be +generic names, if we are strict in forming these last on a given method. + +16. How little method there is in our present formation of them, I am +myself more and more surprised as I consider. A child is shown a rose, and +told that he is to call every flower like that, 'Rosaceous';[52] he is next +{186} shown a lily, and told that he is to call every flower like that, +'Liliaceous';--so far well; but he is next shown a daisy, and is not at all +allowed to call every flower like that, 'Daisaceous,' but he must call it, +like the fifth order of architecture, 'Composite'; and being next shown a +pink, he is not allowed to call other pinks 'Pinkaceous,' but 'Nut-leafed'; +and being next shown a pease-blossom, he is not allowed to call other +pease-blossoms 'Peasaceous,' but, in a brilliant burst of botanical +imagination, he is incited to call it by two names instead of one, +'Butterfly-aceous' from its flower, and 'Pod-aceous' from its seed;--the +inconsistency of the terms thus enforced upon him being perfected in their +inaccuracy, for a daisy is not one whit more composite than Queen of the +meadow, or Jura Jacinth;[53] and 'legumen' is not Latin for a pod, but +'siliqua,'--so that no good scholar could remember Virgil's 'siliqua +quassante legumen,' without overthrowing all his Pisan nomenclature. + +17. Farther. If we ground our names of the higher orders on the distinctive +characters of _form_ in plants, these are so many, and so subtle, that we +are at once involved in more investigations than a young learner has ever +time to follow successfully, and they must be at all times liable to +dislocations and rearrangements on the discovery of any new link in the +infinitely entangled {187} chain. But if we found our higher nomenclature +at once on historic fact, and relative conditions of climate and character, +rather than of form, we may at once distribute our flora into unalterable +groups, to which we may add at our pleasure, but which will never need +disturbance; far less, reconstruction. + +18. For instance,--and to begin,--it is an historical fact that for many +centuries the English nation believed that the Founder of its religion, +spiritually, by the mouth of the King who spake of all herbs, had likened +himself to two flowers,--the Rose of Sharon, and Lily of the Valley. The +fact of this belief is one of the most important in the history of +England,--that is to say, of the mind or heart of England: and it is +connected solemnly with the heart of Italy also, by the closing cantos of +the Paradiso. + +I think it well therefore that our two first generic, or at least +commandant, names heading the out-laid and in-laid divisions of plants, +should be of the rose and lily, with such meaning in them as may remind us +of this fact in the history of human mind. + +It is also historical that the personal appearing of this Master of our +religion was spoken of by our chief religious teacher in these terms: "The +Grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men." And it +is a constant fact that this 'grace' or 'favor' of God is spoken of as +"giving us to eat of the Tree of Life." + +19. Now, comparing the botanical facts I have to express, with these +historical ones, I find that the rose tribe {188} has been formed among +flowers, not in distant and monstrous geologic aeras, but in the human +epoch;--that its 'grace' or favor has been in all countries so felt as to +cause its acceptance everywhere for the most perfect physical type of +womanhood;--and that the characteristic fruit of the tribe is so sweet, +that it has become symbolic at once of the subtlest temptation, and the +kindest ministry to the earthly passion of the human race. "Comfort me with +apples, for I am sick of love." + +20. Therefore I shall call the entire order of these flowers 'Charites,' +(Graces,) and they will be divided into these five genera, Rosa, Persica, +Pomum, Rubra, and Fragaria. Which sequence of names I do not think the +young learner will have difficulty in remembering; nor in understanding why +I distinguish the central group by the fruit instead of the flower. And if +he once clearly master the structure and relations of these five genera, he +will have no difficulty in attaching to them, in a satellitic or +subordinate manner, such inferior groups as that of the Silver-weed, or the +Tormentilla; but all he will have to learn by heart and rote, will be these +six names; the Greek Master-name, Charites, and the five generic names, in +each case belonging to plants, as he will soon find, of extreme personal +interest to him. + +21. I have used the word 'Order' as the name of our widest groups, in +preference to 'Class,' because these widest groups will not always include +flowers like each other in form, or equal to each other in vegetative rank; +{189} but they will be 'Orders,' literally like those of any religious or +chivalric association, having some common link rather intellectual than +national,--the Charites, for instance, linked by their kindness,--the +Oreiades, by their mountain seclusion, as Sisters of Charity or Monks of +the Chartreuse, irrespective of ties of relationship. Then beneath these +orders will come, what may be rightly called, either as above in Greek +derivation, 'Genera,' or in Latin, 'Gentes,' for which, however, I choose +the Latin word, because Genus is disagreeably liable to be confused on the +ear with 'genius'; but Gens, never; and also 'nomen gentile' is a clearer +and better expression than 'nomen generosum,' and I will not coin the +barbarous one, 'genericum.' The name of the Gens, (as 'Lucia,') with an +attached epithet, as 'Verna,' will, in most cases, be enough to +characterize the individual flower; but if farther subdivision be +necessary, the third order will be that of Families, indicated by a 'nomen +familiare' added in the third place of nomenclature, as Lucia +Verna,--Borealis; and no farther subdivision will ever be admitted. I avoid +the word 'species'--originally a bad one, and lately vulgarized beyond +endurance--altogether. And varieties belonging to narrow localities, or +induced by horticulture, may be named as they please by the people living +near the spot, or by the gardener who grows them; but will not be +acknowledged by Proserpina. Nevertheless, the arbitrary reduction under +Ordines, Gentes, and Familiae, {190} is always to be remembered as one of +massive practical convenience only; and the more subtle arborescence of the +infinitely varying structures may be followed, like a human genealogy, as +far as we please, afterwards; when once we have got our common plants +clearly arranged and intelligibly named. + +22. But now we find ourselves in the presence of a new difficulty, the +greatest we have to deal with in the whole matter. + +One new nomenclature, to be thoroughly good, must be acceptable to scholars +in the five great languages, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and English; +and it must be acceptable by them in teaching the native children of each +country. I shall not be satisfied, unless I can feel that the little maids +who gather their first violets under the Acropolis rock, may receive for +them AEschylean words again with joy. I shall not be content, unless the +mothers watching their children at play in the Ceramicus of Paris, under +the scarred ruins of her Kings' palace, may yet teach them there to know +the flowers which the Maid of Orleans gathered at Domremy. I shall not be +satisfied unless every word I ask from the lips of the children of Florence +and Rome, may enable them better to praise the flowers that are chosen by +the hand of Matilda,[54] and bloom around the tomb of Virgil. + +{191} + +23. Now in this first example of nomenclature, the Master-name, being +_pure_ Greek, may easily be accepted by Greek children, remembering that +certain also of their own poets, if they did not call the flower a Grace +itself, at least thought of it as giving gladness to the Three in their +dances.[55] But for French children the word 'Grace' has been doubly and +trebly corrupted; first, by entirely false theological scholarship, +mistaking the 'Favor' or Grace done by God to good men, for the +'Misericordia,' or mercy, shown by Him to bad ones; and so, in practical +life, finally substituting 'Grace' as a word of extreme and mortal prayer, +for 'Merci,' and of late using 'Merci' in a totally ridiculous and +perverted power, for the giving of thanks (or refusal of offered good): +while the literally derived word 'Charite' has become, in the modern mind, +a gift, whether from God or man, only to the wretched, never to the happy: +and lastly, 'Grace' in its physical sense has been perverted, by their +social vulgarity, into an idea, whether with respect to form or motion, +commending itself rather to the ballet-master than either to the painter or +the priest. + +For these reasons, the Master name of this family, for my French pupils, +must be simply 'Rhodiades,' which will bring, for them, the entire group of +names into easily remembered symmetry; and the English form of {192} the +same name, Rhodiad, is to be used by English scholars also for all tribes +of this group except the five principal ones. + +24. Farther, in every gens of plants, one will be chosen as the +representative, which, if any, will be that examined and described in the +course of this work, if I have opportunity of doing so. + +This representative flower will always be a wild one, and of the simplest +form which completely expresses the character of the plant; existing +divinely and unchangeably from age to age, ungrieved by man's neglect, and +inflexible by his power. + +And this divine character will be expressed by the epithet 'Sacred,' taking +the sense in which we attach it to a dominant and christened majesty, when +it belongs to the central type of any forceful order;--'Quercus sacra,' +'Laurus sacra,' etc.,--the word 'Benedicta,' or 'Benedictus,' being used +instead, if the plant be too humble to bear, without some discrepancy and +unbecomingness, the higher title; as 'Carduus Benedictus,' Holy Thistle. + +25. Among the gentes of flowers bearing girls' names, the dominant one will +be simply called the Queen, 'Rose Regina,' 'Rose the Queen' (the English +wild rose); 'Clarissa Regina,' 'Clarissa the Queen' (Mountain Pink); 'Lucia +Regina,' 'Lucy the Queen' (Spring Gentian), or in simpler English, 'Lucy of +Teesdale,' as 'Harry of Monmouth.' The ruling flowers of groups {193} which +bear names not yet accepted for names of girls, will be called simply +'Domina,' or shortly 'Donna.' 'Rubra domina' (wild raspberry): the wild +strawberry, because of her use in heraldry, will bear a name of her own, +exceptional, 'Cora coronalis.' + +26. These main points being understood, and concessions made, we may first +arrange the greater orders of land plants in a group of twelve, easily +remembered, and with very little forcing. There must be _some_ forcing +always to get things into quite easily tenable form, for Nature always has +her ins and outs. But it is curious how fitly and frequently the number of +twelve may be used for memoria technica; and in this instance the Greek +derivative names fall at once into harmony with the most beautiful parts of +Greek mythology, leading on to early Christian tradition. + +27. Their series will be, therefore, as follows: the principal subordinate +groups being at once placed under each of the great ones. The reasons for +occasional appearance of inconsistency will be afterwards explained, and +the English and French forms given in each case are the terms which would +be used in answering the rapid question, 'Of what order is this flower?' +the answer being, It is a 'Cyllenid,' a 'Pleiad,' or a 'Vestal,' as one +would answer of a person, he is a Knight of St. John or Monk of St. +Benedict; while to the question, of what gens, we answer, a Stella or an +Erica, as one would answer of a person, a Stuart or Plantagenet. {194} + + I. CHARITES. + ENG. CHARIS. FR. RHODIADE. + Rosa. Persica. Pomum. Rubra. Fragaria. + + II. URANIDES. + ENG. URANID. FR. URANIDE. + Lucia. Campanula. Convoluta. + + III. CYLLENIDES. + ENG. CYLLENID. FR. NEPHELIDE. + Stella. Francesca. Primula. + + IV. OREIADES. + ENG. OREIAD. FR. OREADE. + Erica. Myrtilla. Aurora. + + V. PLEIADES. + ENG. PLEIAD. FR. PLEIADE. + Silvia. Anemone. + + VI. ARTEMIDES. + ENG. ARTEMID. FR. ARTEMIDE. + Clarissa. Lychnis. Scintilla. Mica. + + VII. VESTALES. + ENG. VESTAL. FR. VESTALE. + Mentha. Melitta. Basil. Salvia. Lavandula. Thymus. + + VIII. CYTHERIDES. + ENG. CYTHERID. FR. CYTHERIDE. + Viola. Veronica. Giulietta. + {195} + + IX. HELIADES. + ENG. ALCESTID. FR. HELIADE. + Clytia. Margarita. Alcestis. Falconia. Carduus. + + X. DELPHIDES. + ENG. DELPHID. FR. DELPHIDE. + Laurus. Granata. Myrtus. + + XI. HESPERIDES. + ENG. HESPERID. FR. HESPERIDE. + Aurantia. Aglee. + + XII. ATHENAIDES. + ENG. ATHENAID. FR. ATHENAIDE. + Olea. Fraxinus. + +I will shortly note the changes of name in their twelve orders, and the +reasons for them. + +I. CHARITES.--The only change made in the nomenclature of this order is the +slight one of 'rubra' for 'rubus': partly to express true sisterhood with +the other Charites; partly to enforce the idea of redness, as +characteristic of the race, both in the lovely purple and russet of their +winter leafage, and in the exquisite bloom of scarlet on the stems in +strong young shoots. They have every right to be placed among the Charites, +first because the raspberry is really a more important fruit in domestic +economy than the strawberry; and, secondly, because the wild bramble is +often in its wandering sprays even more graceful than the rose; and in +blossom and {196} fruit the best autumnal gift that English Nature has +appointed for her village children. + +II. URANIDES.--Not merely because they are all of the color of the sky, but +also sacred to Urania in their divine purity. 'Convoluta' instead of +'convolvulus,' chiefly for the sake of euphony; but also because pervinca +is to be included in this group. + +III. CYLLENIDES.--Named from Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, because the three +races included in the order alike delight in rocky ground, and in the cold +or moist air of mountain-clouds. + +IV. OREIADES.--Described in next chapter. + +V. PLEIADES.--From the habit of the flowers belonging to this order to get +into bright local clusters. Silvia, for the wood-sorrel, will I hope be an +acceptable change to my girl-readers. + +VI. ARTEMIDES.--Dedicate to Artemis for their expression of energy, no less +than purity. This character was rightly felt in them by whoever gave the +name 'Dianthus' to their leading race; a name which I should have retained +if it had not been bad Greek. I wish them, by their name 'Clarissa' to +recall the memory of St. Clare, as 'Francesca' that of St. Francis.[56] The +{197} 'issa,' not without honour to the greatest of our English moral +story-tellers, is added for the practical reason, that I think the sound +will fasten in the minds of children the essential characteristic of the +race, the cutting of the outer edge of the petal as if with scissors. + +VII. VESTALES.--I allow this Latin form, because Hestiades would have been +confused with Heliades. The order is named 'of the hearth,' from its +manifold domestic use, and modest blossoming. + +VIII. CYTHERIDES.--Dedicate to Venus, but in all purity and peace of +thought. Giulietta, for the coarse, and more than ordinarily false, +Polygala. + +IX. HELIADES.--The sun-flowers.[57] In English, Alcestid, in honour to +Chaucer and the Daisy. + +X. DELPHIDES.--Sacred to Apollo. Granata, changed from Punica, in honor to +Granada and the Moors. + +XI. HESPERIDES.--Already a name given to the order. {198} Aegle, prettier +and more classic than Limonia, includes the idea of brightness in the +blossom. + +XII. ATHENAIDES.--I take Fraxinus into this group, because the mountain +ash, in its hawthorn-scented flower, scarletest of berries, and exquisitely +formed and finished leafage, belongs wholly to the floral decoration of our +native rocks, and is associated with their human interests, though lightly, +not less spiritually, than the olive with the mind of Greece. + +28. The remaining groups are in great part natural; but I separate for +subsequent study five orders of supreme domestic utility, the Mallows, +Currants, Pease,[58] Cresses, and Cranesbills, from those which, either in +fruit or blossom, are for finer pleasure or higher beauty. I think it will +be generally interesting for children to learn those five names as an easy +lesson, and gradually discover, wondering, the world that they include. I +will give their terminology at length, separately. + +29. One cannot, in all groups, have all the divisions of equal importance; +the Mallows are only placed with the other four for their great value in +decoration of cottage gardens in autumn: and their softly healing {199} +qualities as a tribe. They will mentally connect the whole useful group +with the three great AEsculapiadae, Cinchona, Coffea, and Camellia. + +30. Taking next the water-plants, crowned in the DROSIDAE, which include the +five great families, Juncus, Jacinthus, Amaryllis, Iris, and Lilium, and +are masculine in their Greek name because their two first groups, Juncus +and Jacinthus, are masculine, I gather together the three orders of +TRITONIDES, which are notably trefoil; the NAIADES, notably quatrefoil, but +for which I keep their present pretty name; and the BATRACHIDES,[59] +notably cinqfoil, for which I keep their present ugly one, only changing it +from Latin into Greek. + +31. I am not sure of being forgiven so readily for putting the Grasses, +Sedges, Mosses, and Lichens together, under the great general head of +Demetridae. But it seems to me the mosses and lichens belong no less +definitely to Demeter, in being the first gatherers of earth on rock, and +the first coverers of its sterile surface, than the grass which at last +prepares it to the foot and to the food of man. And with the mosses I shall +take all the especially moss-plants which otherwise are homeless or +companionless, Drosera, and the like, and as a connecting link with the +flowers belonging to the Dark {200} Kora, the two strange orders of the +Ophryds and Agarics. + +32. Lastly will come the orders of flowers which may be thought of as +belonging for the most part to the Dark Kora of the lower world,--having at +least the power of death, if not its terror, given them, together with +offices of comfort and healing in sleep, or of strengthening, if not too +prolonged, action on the nervous power of life. Of these, the first will be +the DIONYSIDAE,--Hedera, Vitis, Liana; then the DRACONIDAE,--Atropa, +Digitalis, Linaria; and, lastly, the MOIRIDAE,--Conium, Papaver, Solanum, +Arum, and Nerium. + +33. As I see this scheme now drawn out, simple as it is, the scope of it +seems not only far too great for adequate completion by my own labour, but +larger than the time likely to be given to botany by average scholars would +enable them intelligently to grasp: and yet it includes, I suppose, not the +tenth part of the varieties of plants respecting which, in competitive +examination, a student of physical science is now expected to know, or at +least assert on hearsay, _something_. + +So far as I have influence with the young, myself, I would pray them to be +assured that it is better to know the habits of one plant than the names of +a thousand; and wiser to be happily familiar with those that grow in the +nearest field, than arduously cognisant of all that plume the isles of the +Pacific, or illumine the Mountains of the Moon. {201} + +Nevertheless, I believe that when once the general form of this system in +Proserpina has been well learned, much other knowledge may be easily +attached to it, or sheltered under the eaves of it: and in its own +development, I believe everything may be included that the student will +find useful, or may wisely desire to investigate, of properly European +botany. But I am convinced that the best results of his study will be +reached by a resolved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal idea, and +primal nomenclature. + +34. I do not think the need of revisal of our present scientific +classification could be more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that +laurels and roses are confused, even by Dr. Lindley, in the mind of his +feminine readers; the English word laurel, in the index to his first volume +of Ladies' Botany, referring them to the cherries, under which the common +laurel is placed as 'Prunus Laurocerasus,' while the true laurel, 'Laurus +nobilis,' must be found in the index of the second volume, under the Latin +form 'Laurus.' + +This accident, however, illustrates another, and a most important point to +be remembered, in all arrangements whether of plants, minerals, or animals. +No single classification can possibly be perfect, or anything _like_ +perfect. It must be, at its best, a ground, or _warp_ of arrangement only, +through which, or over which, the cross threads of another,--yes, and of +many others,--must be woven in our minds. Thus the almond, though in {202} +the form and colour of its flower, and method of its fruit, rightly +associated with the roses, yet by the richness and sweetness of its kernel +must be held mentally connected with all plants that bear nuts. These +assuredly must have something in their structure common, justifying their +being gathered into a conceived or conceivable group of 'Nuciferae,' in +which the almond, hazel, walnut, cocoa-nut, and such others would be +considered as having relationship, at least in their power of secreting a +crisp and sweet substance which is not wood, nor bark, nor pulp, nor +seed-pabulum reducible to softness by boiling;--but quite separate +substance, for which I do not know that there at present exists any +botanical name,--of which, hitherto, I find no general account, and can +only myself give so much, on reflection, as that it is crisp and close in +texture, and always contains some kind of oil or milk. + +35. Again, suppose the arrangement of plants could, with respect to their +flowers and fruits, be made approximately complete, they must instantly be +broken and reformed by comparison of their stems and leaves. The three +_creeping_ families of the Charites,--Rosa, Rubra, and Fragaria,--must then +be frankly separated from the elastic Persica and knotty Pomum; of which +one wild and lovely species, the hawthorn, is no less notable for the +massive accumulation of wood in the stubborn stem of it, than the wild rose +for her lovely power of wreathing her garlands at pleasure wherever they +are {203} fairest, the stem following them and sustaining, where they will. + +36. Thus, as we examine successively each part of any plant, new +sisterhoods, and unthought-of fellowships, will be found between the most +distant orders; and ravines of unexpected separation open between those +otherwise closely allied. Few botanical characters are more definite than +the leaf structure illustrated in Plate VI., which has given to one group +of the Drosidae the descriptive name of Ensatae, (see above, Chapter IX., Sec. +11,) but this conformation would not be wisely permitted to interfere in +the least with the arrangement founded on the much more decisive floral +aspects of the Iris and Lily. So, in the fifth volume of 'Modern Painters,' +the sword-like, or rather rapier-like, leaves of the pine are opposed, for +the sake of more vivid realization, to the shield-like leaves of the +greater number of inland trees; but it would be absurd to allow this +difference any share in botanical arrangement,--else we should find +ourselves thrown into sudden discomfiture by the wide-waving and opening +foliage of the palms and ferns. + +37. But through all the defeats by which insolent endeavors to sum the +orders of Creation must be reproved, and in the midst of the successes by +which patient insight will be surprised, the fact of the _confirmation_ of +species in plants and animals must remain always a miraculous one. What +outstretched sign of constant Omnipotence can be more awful, than that the +susceptibility to {204} external influences, with the reciprocal power of +transformation, in the organs of the plant; and the infinite powers of +moral training and mental conception over the nativity of animals, should +be so restrained within impassable limits, and by inconceivable laws, that +from generation to generation, under all the clouds and revolutions of +heaven with its stars, and among all the calamities and convulsions of the +Earth with her passions, the numbers and the names of her Kindred may still +be counted for her in unfailing truth;--still the fifth sweet leaf unfold +for the Rose, and the sixth spring for the Lily; and yet the wolf rave +tameless round the folds of the pastoral mountains, and yet the tiger flame +through the forests of the night. + + * * * * * + +{205} + +CHAPTER XII. + +CORA AND KRONOS. + +1. Of all the lovely wild plants--and few, mountain-bred, in Britain, are +other than lovely,--that fill the clefts and crest the ridges of my +Brantwood rock, the dearest to me, by far, are the clusters of whortleberry +which divide possession of the lower slopes with the wood hyacinth and +pervenche. They are personally and specially dear to me for their +association in my mind with the woods of Montanvert; but the plant itself, +irrespective of all accidental feeling, is indeed so beautiful in all its +ways--so delicately strong in the spring of its leafage, so modestly +wonderful in the formation of its fruit, and so pure in choice of its +haunts, not capriciously or unfamiliarly, but growing in luxuriance through +all the healthiest and sweetest seclusion of mountain territory throughout +Europe,--that I think I may without any sharp remonstrance be permitted to +express for this once only, personal feeling in my nomenclature, calling it +in Latin 'Myrtilla Cara,' and in French 'Myrtille Cherie,' but retaining +for it in English its simply classic name, 'Blue Whortle.' {206} + +2. It is the most common representative of the group of Myrtillae, which, on +reference to our classification, will be found central between the Ericae +and Aurorae. The distinctions between these three families may be easily +remembered, and had better be learned before going farther; but first let +us note their fellowship. They are all Oreiades, mountain plants; in +specialty, they are all strong in stem, low in stature, and the Ericae and +Aurorae glorious in the flush of their infinitely exulting flowers, ("the +rapture of the heath"--above spoken of, p. 96.) But all the essential +loveliness of the Myrtillae is in their leaves and fruit: the first always +exquisitely finished and grouped like the most precious decorative work of +sacred painting; the second, red or purple, like beads of coral or +amethyst. Their minute flowers have rarely any general part or power in the +colors of mountain ground; but, examined closely, they are one of the chief +joys of the traveller's rest among the Alps; and full of exquisiteness +unspeakable, in their several bearings and miens of blossom, so to speak. +Plate VIII. represents, however feebly, the proud bending back of her head +by Myrtilla Regina:[60] an action as beautiful in _her_ as it is terrible +in the Kingly Serpent of Egypt. + +3. The formal differences between these three families are trenchant and +easily remembered. The Ericae {207} are all quatrefoils, and quatrefoils of +the most studied and accomplished symmetry; and they bear no berries, but +only dry seeds. The Myrtillae and Aurorae are both Cinqfoil; but the Myrtillae +are symmetrical in their blossom, and the Aurorae unsymmetrical. Farther, +the Myrtillae are not absolutely determinate in the number of their foils, +(this being essentially a characteristic of flowers exposed to much +hardship,) and are thus sometimes quatrefoil, in sympathy with the Ericae. +But the Aurorae are strictly cinqfoil. These last are the only European form +of a larger group, well named 'Azalea' from the Greek [Greek: aza], +dryness, and its adjective [Greek: azalea], dry or parched; and _this_ name +must be kept for the world-wide group, (including under it Rhododendron, +but not Kalmia,) because there is an under-meaning in the word Aza, +enabling it to be applied to the substance of dry earth, and indicating one +of the great functions of the Oreiades, in common with the mosses,--the +collection of earth upon rocks. + +4. Neither the Ericae, as I have just said, nor Aurorae bear useful fruit; +and the Ericae are named from their consequent worthlessness in the eyes of +the Greek farmer; they were the plants he 'tore up' for his bed, or +signal-fire, his word for them including a farther sense of crushing or +bruising into a heap. The Westmoreland shepherds now, alas! burn them +remorselessly on the ground, (and a year since had nearly set the copse of +Brantwood on fire just above the house.) The sense of {208} parched and +fruitless existence is given to the heaths, with beautiful application of +the context, in our English translation of Jeremiah xvii. 6; but I find the +plant there named is, in the Septuagint, Wild Tamarisk; the mountains of +Palestine being, I suppose, in that latitude, too low for heath, unless in +the Lebanon. + +5. But I have drawn the reader's thoughts to this great race of the +Oreiades at present, because they place for us in the clearest light a +question which I have finally to answer before closing the first volume of +Proserpina; namely, what is the real difference between the three ranks of +Vegetative Humility, and Noblesse--the Herb, the Shrub, and the Tree? + +6. Between the herb, which perishes annually, and the plants which +construct year after year an increasing stem, there is, of course, no +difficulty of discernment; but between the plants which, like these +Oreiades, construct for themselves richest intricacy of supporting stem, +yet scarcely rise a fathom's height above the earth they gather and +adorn,--between these, and the trees that lift cathedral aisles of colossal +shade on Andes and Lebanon,--where is the limit of kind to be truly set? + +7. We have the three orders given, as no botanist could, in twelve lines by +Milton:-- + + "Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow'r'd + Op'ning their various colours, and made gay + Her bosom smelling sweet; and, these scarce blown, + Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept + {209} + The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed + Embattel'd in her field; and th' _humble shrub,_ + _And bush with frizzled hair implicit_: last + Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread + Their branches hung with copious fruits, or gemm'd + Their blossoms; with high woods the hills were crown'd; + With tufts the valleys and each fountain side; + With borders long the rivers." + +Only to learn, and be made to understand, these twelve lines thoroughly +would teach a youth more of true botany than an entire Cyclopaedia of modern +nomenclature and description: they are, like all Milton's work, perfect in +accuracy of epithet, while consummate in concentration. Exquisite in touch, +as infinite in breadth, they gather into their unbroken clause of melodious +compass the conception at once of the Columbian prairie, the English +cornfield, the Syrian vineyard, and the Indian grove. But even Milton has +left untold, and for the instant perhaps unthought of, the most solemn +difference of rank between the low and lofty trees, not in magnitude only, +nor in grace, but in duration. + +8. Yet let us pause before passing to this greater subject, to dwell more +closely on what he has told us so clearly,--the difference in Grace, +namely, between the trees that rise 'as in dance,' and 'the bush with +frizzled hair.' For the bush form is essentially one taken by vegetation in +some kind of distress; scorched by heat, discouraged by darkness, or bitten +by frost; it is the form in which isolated knots of earnest plant life stay +{210} the flux of fiery sands, bind the rents of tottering crags, purge the +stagnant air of cave or chasm, and fringe with sudden hues of unhoped +spring the Arctic edge of retreating desolation. + +On the other hand, the trees which, as in sacred dance, make the borders of +the rivers glad with their procession, and the mountain ridges statelier +with their pride, are all expressions of the vegetative power in its +accomplished felicities; gathering themselves into graceful companionship +with the fairest arts and serenest life of man; and providing not only the +sustenance and the instruments, but also the lessons and the delights, of +that life, in perfectness of order, and unblighted fruition of season and +time. + +9. 'Interitura'--yet these not to-day, nor to-morrow, nor with the decline +of the summer's sun. We describe a plant as small or great; and think we +have given account enough of its nature and being. But the chief question +for the plant, as for the human creature, is the Number of its days; for to +the tree, as to its master, the words are forever true--"As thy Day is, so +shall thy Strength be." + +10. I am astonished hourly, more and more, at the apathy and stupidity +which have prevented me hitherto from learning the most simple facts at the +base of this question! Here is this myrtille bush in my hand--its cluster +of some fifteen or twenty delicate green branches knitting themselves +downwards into the stubborn brown {211} of a stem on which my knife makes +little impression. I have not the slightest idea how old it is, still less +how old it might one day have been if I had not gathered it; and, less than +the least, what hinders it from becoming as old as it likes! What doom is +there over these bright green sprays, that they may never win to any height +or space of verdure, nor persist beyond their narrow scope of years? + +11. And the more I think the more I bewilder myself; for these bushes, +which are pruned and clipped by the deathless Gardener into these lowly +thickets of bloom, do not strew the ground with fallen branches and faded +clippings in any wise,--it is the pining umbrage of the patriarchal trees +that tinges the ground and betrays the foot beneath them: but, under the +heather and the Alpine rose.--Well, what _is_ under them, then? I never +saw, nor thought of looking,--will look presently under my own bosquets and +beds of lingering heather-blossom: beds indeed they were only a month +since, a foot deep in flowers, and close in tufted cushions, and the +mountain air that floated over them rich in honey like a draught of +metheglin. + +12. Not clipped, nor pruned, I think, after all,--nor dwarfed in the +gardener's sense; but pausing in perpetual youth and strength, ordained out +of their lips of roseate infancy. Rose-trees--the botanists have falsely +called the proudest of them; yet not trees in any wise, they, nor doomed to +know the edge of axe at their {212} roots, nor the hoary waste of time, or +searing thunderstroke, on sapless branches. Continual morning for them, and +_in_ them; they themselves an Aurora, purple and cloudless, stayed on all +the happy hills. That shall be our name for them, in the flushed Phoenician +colour of their height, in calm or tempest of the heavenly sea; how much +holier than the depth of the Tyrian! And the queen of them on our own Alps +shall be 'Aurora Alpium.'[61] + +13. There is one word in the Miltonian painting of them which I must lean +on specially; for the accurate English of it hides deep morality no less +than botany. 'With hair _implicit_.' The interweaving of complex band, +which knits the masses of heath or of Alpine rose into their dense tufts +and spheres of flower, is to be noted both in these, and in stem structure +of a higher order like that of the stone pine, for an expression of the +instinct of the plant gathering itself into protective unity, whether +against cold or heat, while the forms of the trees which have no hardship +to sustain are uniformly based on the effort of each spray to _separate_ +itself from its fellows to the utmost, and obtain around its own leaves the +utmost space of air. + +In vulgar modern English, the term 'implicit' used of Trust or Faith, has +come to signify only its serenity. But the Miltonian word gives the +_reason_ of serenity: {213} the root and branch intricacy of closest +knowledge and fellowship. + +14. I have said that Milton has told us more in these few lines than any +botanist could. I will prove my saying by placing in comparison with them +two passages of description by the most imaginative and generally +well-trained scientific man since Linnaeus--Humboldt--which, containing much +that is at this moment of special use to us, are curious also in the +confusion even of the two orders of annual and perennial plants, and show, +therefore, the extreme need of most careful initial work in this +distinction of the reign of Cora from that of Kronos. + +"The disk of the setting sun appeared like a globe of fire suspended over +the savannah; and its last rays, as they swept the earth, illumined the +extremities of the grass, strongly agitated by the evening breeze. In the +low and humid places of the equinoxial zone, even when the gramineous +plants and reeds present the aspect of a meadow, of turf, a rich decoration +of the picture is usually wanting. I mean that variety of wild flowers +which, scarcely rising above the grass, seem to lie upon a smooth bed of +verdure. Between the tropics, the strength and luxury of vegetation give +such a development to plants, that the smallest of the dicotyledonous +family become shrubs.[62] It would seem as if the {214} liliaceous plants, +mingled with the gramina, assumed the place of the flowers of our meadows. +Their form is indeed striking; they dazzle by the variety and splendor of +their colours; but, too high above the soil, they disturb that harmonious +relation which exists among the plants that compose our meadows and our +turf. Nature, in her beneficence, has given the landscape under every zone +its peculiar type of beauty. + +"After proceeding four hours across the savannahs, we entered into a little +wood composed of shrubs and small trees, which is called El Pejual; no +doubt because of the great abundance of the 'Pejoa' (Gaultheria odorata,) a +plant with very odoriferous leaves. The steepness of the mountain became +less considerable, and we felt an indescribable pleasure in examining the +plants of this region. Nowhere, perhaps, can be found collected together in +so small a space of ground, productions so beautiful, and so remarkable in +regard to the geography of plants. At the height of a thousand toises, the +lofty savannahs of the hills terminate in a zone of shrubs, which by their +appearance, their tortuous branches, their stiff leaves, and the dimensions +and beauty of their purple flowers, remind us of what is called in the +Cordilleras of the Andes the vegetation of the _paramos_[63] and the +_punas_. We find there the {215} family of the Alpine rhododendrons, the +thibaudias, the andromedas, the vacciniums, and those befarias[64] with +resinous leaves, which we have several times compared to the rhododendron +of our European Alps. + +"Even when nature does not produce the same species in analogous climates, +either in the plains of isothermal parallels, or on table-lands the +temperature of which resembles that of places nearer the poles, we still +remark a striking resemblance of appearance and physiognomy in the +vegetation of the most distant countries. This phenomenon is one of the +most curious in the history of organic forms. I say the history; for in +vain would reason forbid man to form hypotheses on the origin of things: he +is not the less tormented with these insoluble problems of the distribution +of beings." + +15. Insoluble--yes, assuredly, poor little beaten phantasms of palpitating +clay that we are--and who asked us to solve it? Even this Humboldt, +quiet-hearted and modest watcher of the ways of Heaven, in the real make of +him, came at last to be so far puffed up by his vain science in declining +years that he must needs write a Kosmos of things in the Universe, +forsooth, as if he knew all about them! when he was not able meanwhile, +(and does not seem even to have desired the ability,) to put the slightest +Kosmos into his own 'Personal Narrative'; but leaves one to gather what one +wants out of {216} its wild growth; or rather, to wash or winnow what may +be useful out of its debris, without any vestige either of reference or +index; and I must look for these fragmentary sketches of heath and grass +through chapter after chapter about the races of the Indian and religion of +the Spaniard,--these also of great intrinsic value, but made useless to the +general reader by interspersed experiment on the drifts of the wind and the +depths of the sea. + +16. But one more fragment out of a note (vol. iii., p. 494) I must give, +with reference to an order of the Rhododendrons as yet wholly unknown to +me. + +"The name of vine tree, 'uvas camaronas' (Shrimp grapes?) is given in the +Andes to plants of the genus Thibaudia on account of their _large succulent +fruit_. Thus the ancient botanists give the name of Bear's vine, 'Uva +Ursi,' and vine of Mount Ida, 'Vitis Idea,' to an Arbutus and Myrtillus +which belong, like the Thibaudiae, to the family of the Ericineae." + +Now, though I have one entire bookcase and half of another, and a large +cabinet besides, or about fifteen feet square of books on botany beside me +here, and a quantity more at Oxford, I have no means whatever, in all the +heap, of finding out what a Thibaudia is like. Loudon's Cyclopaedia, the +only general book I have, tells me only that it will grow well in camellia +houses, that its flowers develope at Christmas, and that they are +beautifully varied like a fritillary: whereupon I am very anxious to see +them, and taste their fruit, and be able to {217} tell my pupils something +intelligible of them,--a new order, as it seems to me, among my Oreiades. +But for the present I can make no room for them, and must be content, for +England and the Alps, with my single class, Myrtilla, including all the +fruit-bearing and (more or less) myrtle-leaved kinds; and Azalea for the +fruitless flushing of the loftier tribes; taking the special name 'Aurora' +for the red and purple ones of Europe, and resigning the already accepted +'Rhodora' to those of the Andes and Himalaya. + +17. Of which also, with help of earnest Indian botanists, I hope +nevertheless to add some little history to that of our own Oreiades; but +shall set myself on the most familiar of them first, as I partly hinted in +taking for the frontispiece of this volume two unchecked shoots of our +commonest heath, in their state of full lustre and decline. And now I must +go out and see and think--and for the first time in my life--what becomes +of all these fallen blossoms, and where my own mountain Cora hides herself +in winter; and where her sweet body is laid in its death. + +Think of it with me, for a moment before I go. That harvest of amethyst +bells, over all Scottish and Irish and Cumberland hill and moorland; what +substance is there in it, yearly gathered out of the mountain +winds,--stayed there, as if the morning and evening clouds had been caught +out of them and woven into flowers; 'Ropes of sea-sand'--but that is +child's magic {218} merely, compared to the weaving of the Heath out of the +cloud. And once woven, how much of it is forever worn by the Earth? What +weight of that transparent tissue, half crystal and half comb of honey, +lies strewn every year dead under the snow? + +I must go and look, and can write no more to-day; nor to-morrow neither. I +must gather slowly what I see, and remember; and meantime leaving, to be +dealt with afterwards, the difficult and quite separate question of the +production of _wood_, I will close this first volume of Proserpina with +some necessary statements respecting the operations, serviceable to other +creatures than themselves, in which the lives of the noblest plants are +ended: honourable in this service equally, though evanescent, some,--in the +passing of a breeze--or the dying of a day;--and patient some, of storm and +time, serene in fruitful sanctity, through all the uncounted ages which Man +has polluted with his tears. + + * * * * * + +{219} + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE SEED AND HUSK. + +1. Not the least sorrowful, nor least absurd of the confusions brought on +us by unscholarly botanists, blundering into foreign languages, when they +do not know how to use their own, is that which has followed on their +practice of calling the seed-vessels of flowers 'egg-vessels,'[65] in +Latin; thus involving total loss of the power of the good old English word +'husk,' and the good old French one, 'cosse.' For all the treasuries of +plants (see Chapter IV., Sec. 17) may be best conceived, and described, +generally, as consisting of 'seed' and 'husk,'--for the most part two or +more seeds, in a husk composed of two or more parts, as pease in their +shell, pips in an orange, or kernels in a walnut; but whatever their +number, or the method of their enclosure, let the student keep clear in his +mind, for the base of all study of fructification, the broad distinction +between the seed, as one thing, and the husk as another: the seed, +essential to the continuance of the plant's race; and the husk, {220} +adapted, primarily, to its guard and dissemination; but secondarily, to +quite other and far more important functions. + +2. For on this distinction follows another practical one of great +importance. A seed may serve, and many do mightily serve, for the food of +man, when boiled, crushed, or otherwise industriously prepared by man +himself, for his mere _sustenance_. But the _husk_ of the seed is prepared +in many cases for the delight of his eyes, and the pleasure of his palate, +by Nature herself, and is then called a 'fruit.' + +3. The varieties of structure both in seed and husk, and yet more, the +manner in which the one is contained, and distributed by, the other, are +infinite; and in some cases the husk is apparently wanting, or takes some +unrecognizable form. But in far the plurality of instances the two parts of +the plant's treasury are easily distinguishable, and must be separately +studied, whatever their apparent closeness of relation, or, (as in all +natural things,) the equivocation sometimes taking place between the one +and the other. To me, the especially curious point in this matter is that, +while I find the most elaborate accounts given by botanists of the stages +of growth in each of these parts of the treasury, they never say of what +use the guardian is to the guarded part, irrespective of its service to +man. The mechanical action of the husk in containing and scattering the +seeds, they indeed often notice and insist on; but they do not tell {221} +us of what, if any, nutritious or fostering use the rind is to a chestnut, +or an orange's pulp to its pips, or a peach's juice to its stone. + +4. Putting aside this deeper question for the moment, let us make sure we +understand well, and define safely, the separate parts themselves. A seed +consists essentially of a store, or sack, containing substance to nourish a +germ of life, which is surrounded by such substance, and in the process of +growth is first fed by it. The germ of life itself rises into two portions, +and not more than two, in the seeds of two-leaved plants; but this +symmetrical dualism must not be allowed to confuse the student's +conception, of the _three_ organically separate parts,--the tough skin of a +bean, for instance; the softer contents of it which we boil to eat; and the +small germ from which the root springs when it is sown. A bean is the best +type of the whole structure. An almond out of its shell, a peach-kernel, +and an apple-pip are also clear and perfect, though varied types. + +5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect simplicity of type in the +pod of a bean, or the globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers in +which it is absent or imperfect; and when it contains only one seed, it may +be so small and closely united with the seed it contains, that both will be +naturally thought of as one thing only. Thus, in a dandelion, the little +brown grains, which may be blown away, each with its silken parachute, are +every one of them a complete husk and {222} seed together. But the majority +of instances (and those of plants the most serviceable to man) in which the +seed-vessel has entirely a separate structure and mechanical power, justify +us in giving it the normal term 'husk,' as the most widely applicable and +intelligible. + +6. The change of green, hard, and tasteless vegetable substance into +beautifully coloured, soft, and delicious substance, which produces what we +call a fruit, is, in most cases, of the husk only; in others, of the part +of the stalk which immediately sustains the seed; and in a very few +instances, not properly a change, but a distinct formation, of fruity +substance between the husk and seed. Normally, however, the husk, like the +seed, consists always of three parts; it has an outer skin, a central +substance of peculiar nature, and an inner skin, which holds the seed. The +main difficulty, in describing or thinking of the completely ripened +product of any plant, is to discern clearly which is the inner skin of the +husk, and which the outer skin of the seed. The peach is in this respect +the best general type,--the woolly skin being the outer one of the husk; +the part we eat, the central substance of the husk; and the hard shell of +the stone, the inner skin of the husk. The bitter kernel within is the +seed. + +7. In this case, and in the plum and cherry, the two parts under present +examination--husk and seed--separate naturally; the fruity part, which is +the body of the husk, adhering firmly to the shell, which is its inner +{223} coat. But in the walnut and almond, the two outer parts of the husk +separate from the interior one, which becomes an apparently independent +'shell.' So that when first I approached this subject I divided the general +structure of a treasury into _three_ parts--husk, shell, and kernel; and +this division, when we once have mastered the main one, will be often +useful. But at first let the student keep steadily to his conception of the +two constant parts, husk and seed, reserving the idea of shells and kernels +for one group of plants only. + +8. It will not be always without difficulty that he maintains the +distinction, when the tree pretends to have changed it. Thus, in the +chestnut, the inner coat of the husk becomes brown, adheres to the seed, +and seems part of it; and we naturally call only the thick, green, prickly +coat, the husk. But this is only one of the deceiving tricks of Nature, to +compel our attention more closely. The real place of separation, to _her_ +mind, is between the mahogany-coloured shell and the nut itself, and that +more or less silky and flossy coating within the brown shell is the true +lining of the entire 'husk.' The paler brown skin, following the rugosities +of the nut, is the true sack or skin of the seed. Similarly in the walnut +and almond. + +9. But, in the apple, two new tricks are played us. First, in the brown +skin of the ripe pip, we might imagine we saw the part correspondent to the +mahogany skin of the chestnut, and therefore the inner coat of the {224} +husk. But it is not so. The brown skin of the pips belongs to them +properly, and is all their own. It is the true skin or sack of the seed. +The inner coat of the husk is the smooth, white, scaly part of the core +that holds them. + +Then,--for trick number two. We should as naturally imagine the skin of the +apple, which we peel off, to be correspondent to the skin of the peach; and +therefore, to be the outer part of the husk. But not at all. The outer part +of the husk in the apple is melted away into the fruity mass of it, and the +red skin outside is the skin of its _stalk_, not of its seed-vessel at all! + +10. I say 'of its stalk,'--that is to say, of the part of the stalk +immediately sustaining the seed, commonly called the torus, and expanding +into the calyx. In the apple, this torus incorporates itself with the husk +completely; then refines its own external skin, and colours _that_ +variously and beautifully, like the true skin of the husk in the peach, +while the withered leaves of the calyx remain in the 'eye' of the apple. + +But in the 'hip' of the rose, the incorporation with the husk of the seed +does not take place. The torus, or,--as in this flower from its peculiar +form it is called,--the tube of the calyx, alone forms the frutescent part +of the hip; and the complete seeds, husk and all, (the firm triangular husk +enclosing an almond-shaped kernel,) are grouped closely in its interior +cavity, while the calyx remains on the top in a large and scarcely +withering star. {225} In the nut, the calyx remains green and beautiful, +forming what we call the husk of a filbert; and again we find Nature +amusing herself by trying to make us think that this strict envelope, +almost closing over the single seed, is the same thing to the nut that its +green shell is to a walnut! + +11. With still more capricious masquing, she varies and hides the structure +of her 'berries.' + +The strawberry is a hip turned inside-out, the frutescent receptacle +changed into a scarlet ball, or cone, of crystalline and delicious coral, +in the outside of which the separate seeds, husk and all, are imbedded. In +the raspberry and blackberry, the interior mound remains sapless; and the +rubied translucency of dulcet substance is formed round each separate seed, +_upon_ its husk; not a part of the husk, but now an entirely independent +and added portion of the plant's bodily form. + +12. What is thus done for each seed, on the _out_side of the receptacle, in +the raspberry, is done for each seed, _in_side the calyx, in a pomegranate; +which is a hip in which the seeds have become surrounded with a radiant +juice, richer than claret wine; while the seed itself, within the generous +jewel, is succulent also, and spoken of by Tournefort as a "baie +succulente." The tube of the calyx, brown-russet like a large hip, +externally, is yet otherwise divided, and separated wholly from the +cinque-foiled, and cinque-celled rose, both in number of petal and division +of treasuries; the calyx has eight points, and nine cells. {226} + +13. Lastly, in the orange, the fount of fragrant juice is interposed +between the seed and the husk. It is wholly independent of both; the +Aurantine rind, with its white lining and divided compartments, is the true +husk; the orange pips are the true seeds; and the eatable part of the fruit +is formed between them, in clusters of delicate little flasks, as if a +fairy's store of scented wine had been laid up by her in the hollow of a +chestnut shell, between the nut and rind; and then the green changed to +gold. + +14. I have said '_lastly_'--of the orange, for fear of the reader's +weariness only; not as having yet represented, far less exhausted, the +variety of frutescent form. But these are the most important types of it; +and before I can explain the relation between these, and another, too often +confounded with them--the _granular_ form of the seed of grasses.--I must +give some account of what, to man, is far more important than the form--the +gift to him in fruit-food; and trial, in fruit-temptation. + + * * * * * + +{227} + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE FRUIT GIFT. + +1. In the course of the preceding chapter, I hope that the reader has +obtained, or may by a little patience both obtain and secure, the idea of a +great natural Ordinance, which, in the protection given to the part of +plants necessary to prolong their race, provides, for happier living +creatures, food delightful to their taste, and forms either amusing or +beautiful to their eyes. Whether in receptacle, calyx, or true husk,--in +the cup of the acorn, the fringe of the filbert, the down of the apricot, +or bloom of the plum, the powers of Nature consult quite other ends than +the mere continuance of oaks and plum trees on the earth; and must be +regarded always with gratitude more deep than wonder, when they are indeed +seen with human eyes and human intellect. + +2. But in one family of plants, the _contents_ also of the seed, not the +envelope of it merely, are prepared for the support of the higher animal +life; and their grain, filled with the substance which, for universally +understood name, may best keep the Latin one of Farina,--becoming in +French, 'Farine,' and in English, 'Flour,'--both in the perfectly +nourishing elements of it, and its {228} easy and abundant +multiplicability, becomes the primal treasure of human economy. + +3. It has been the practice of botanists of all nations to consider the +seeds of the grasses together with those of roses and pease, as if all +could be described on the same principles, and with the same nomenclature +of parts. But the grain of corn is a quite distinct thing from the seed of +pease. In _it_, the husk and the seed envelope have become inextricably +one. All the exocarps, endocarps, epicarps, mesocarps, shells, husks, +sacks, and skins, are woven at once together into the brown bran; and +inside of that, a new substance is collected for us, which is not what we +boil in pease, or poach in eggs, or munch in nuts, or grind in coffee;--but +a thing which, mixed with water and then baked, has given to all the +nations of the world their prime word for food, in thought and +prayer,--Bread; their prime conception of the man's and woman's labor in +preparing it--("whoso putteth hand to the _plough_"--two women shall be +grinding at the _mill_)--their prime notion of the means of cooking by +fire--("which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the _oven_"), and their +prime notion of culinary office--the "chief _baker_," cook, or +pastrycook,--(compare Bedreddin Hassan in the Arabian Nights): and, +finally, to modern civilization, the Saxon word 'lady,' with whatever it +imports. + +4. It has also been the practice of botanists to confuse all the ripened +products of plants under the general term {229} 'fruit.' But the essential +and separate fruit-gift is of two substances, quite distinct from flour, +namely, oil and wine, under the last term including for the moment all +kinds of juice which will produce alcohol by fermentation. Of these, oil +may be produced either in the kernels of nuts, as in almonds, or in the +substance of berries, as in the olive, date, and coffee-berry. But the +sweet juice which will become medicinal in wine, can only be developed in +the husk, or in the receptacle. + +5. The office of the Chief Butler, as opposed to that of the Chief Baker, +and the office of the Good Samaritan, pouring in oil and wine, refer both +to the total fruit-gift in both kinds: but in the study of plants, we must +primarily separate our notion of their gifts to men into the three +elements, flour, oil, and wine; and have instantly and always intelligible +names for them in Latin, French, and English. + +And I think it best not to confuse our ideas of pure vegetable substance +with the possible process of fermentation:--so that rather than 'wine,' for +a constant specific term, I will take 'Nectar,'--this term more rightly +including the juices of the peach, nectarine, and plum, as well as those of +the grape, currant, and apple. + +Our three separate substances will then be easily named in all three +languages: + + Farina. Oleum. Nectar. + Farine. Huile. Nectare. + Flour. Oil. Nectar. + +{230} + +There is this farther advantage in keeping the third common term, that it +leaves us the words Succus, Jus, Juice, for other liquid products of +plants, watery, milky, sugary, or resinous,--often indeed important to man, +but often also without either agreeable flavor or nutritious power; and it +is therefore to be observed with care that we may use the word 'juice,' of +a liquid produced by any part of a plant, but 'nectar,' only of the juices +produced in its fruit. + +6. But the good and pleasure of fruit is not in the juice only;--in some +kinds, and those not the least valuable, (as the date,) it is not in the +juice at all. We still stand absolutely in want of a word to express the +more or less firm _substance_ of fruit, as distinguished from all other +products of a plant. And with the usual ill-luck,--(I advisedly think of it +as demoniacal misfortune)--of botanical science, no other name has been yet +used for such substance than the entirely false and ugly one of +'Flesh,'--Fr., 'Chair,' with its still more painful derivation 'Charnu,' +and in England the monstrous scientific term, 'Sarco-carp.' + +But, under the housewifery of Proserpina, since we are to call the juice of +fruit, Nectar, its substance will be as naturally and easily called +Ambrosia; and I have no doubt that this, with the other names defined in +this chapter, will not only be found practically more convenient than the +phrases in common use, but will more securely fix in the student's mind a +true conception of {231} the essential differences in substance, which, +ultimately, depend wholly on their pleasantness to human perception, and +offices for human good; and not at all on any otherwise explicable +structure or faculty. It is of no use to determine, by microscope or +retort, that cinnamon is made of cells with so many walls, or grape-juice +of molecules with so many sides;--we are just as far as ever from +understanding why these particular interstices should be aromatic, and +these special parallelopipeds exhilarating, as we were in the savagely +unscientific days when we could only see with our eyes, and smell with our +noses. But to call each of these separate substances by a name rightly +belonging to it through all the past variations of the language of educated +man, will probably enable us often to discern powers in the thing itself, +of affecting the human body and mind, which are indeed qualities infinitely +more its _own_, than any which can possibly be extracted by the point of a +knife, or brayed out with a mortar and pestle. + +7. Thus, to take merely instance in the three main elements of which we +have just determined the names,--flour, oil, and ambrosia;--the differences +in the kinds of pleasure which the tongue received from the powderiness of +oat-cake, or a well-boiled potato--(in the days when oat-cake and potatoes +were!)--from the glossily-softened crispness of a well-made salad, and from +the cool and fragrant amber of an apricot, are indeed distinctions between +the essential virtues of things which {232} were made to be _tasted_, much +more than to be eaten; and in their various methods of ministry to, and +temptation of, human appetites, have their part in the history, not of +elements merely, but of souls; and of the soul-virtues, which from the +beginning of the world have bade the barrel of meal not waste, nor the +cruse of oil fail; and have planted, by waters of comfort, the fruits which +are for the healing of nations. + +8. And, again, therefore, I must repeat, with insistance, the claim I have +made for the limitation of language to the use made of it by educated men. +The word 'carp' could never have multiplied itself into the absurdities of +endo-carps and epi-carps, but in the mouths of men who scarcely ever read +it in its original letters, and therefore never recognized it as meaning +precisely the same thing as 'fructus,' which word, being a little more +familiar with, they would have scarcely abused to the same extent; they +would not have called a walnut shell an intra-fruct--or a grape skin an +extra-fruct; but again, because, though they are accustomed to the English +'fructify,' 'frugivorous'--and 'usufruct,' they are unaccustomed to the +Latin 'fruor,' and unconscious therefore that the derivative 'fructus' must +always, in right use, mean an _enjoyed_ thing, they generalize every mature +vegetable product under the term; and we find Dr. Gray coolly telling us +that there is no fruit so "likely to be mistaken for a seed," as a grain of +corn! a grain, whether of corn, or any other {233} grass, being precisely +the vegetable structure to which frutescent change is forever forbidden! +and to which the word _seed_ is primarily and perfectly applicable!--the +thing to be _sown_, not grafted. + +9. But to mark this total incapability of frutescent change, and connect +the form of the seed more definitely with its dusty treasure, it is better +to reserve, when we are speaking with precision, the term 'grain' for the +seeds of the grasses: the difficulty is greater in French than in English: +because they have no monosyllabic word for the constantly granular 'seed'; +but for us the terms are all simple, and already in right use, only not +quite clearly enough understood; and there remains only one real difficulty +now in our system of nomenclature, that having taken the word 'husk' for +the seed-vessel, we are left without a general word for the true fringe of +a filbert, or the chaff of a grass. I don't know whether the French +'frange' could be used by them in this sense, if we took it in English +botany. But for the present, we can manage well enough without it, one +general term, 'chaff,' serving for all the grasses, 'cup' for acorns, and +'fringe' for nuts. + +10. But I call this a _real_ difficulty, because I suppose, among the +myriads of plants of which I know nothing, there may be forms of the +envelope of fruits or seeds which may, for comfort of speech, require some +common generic name. One _un_real difficulty, or shadow of difficulty, +remains in our having no entirely comprehensive {234} name for seed and +seed-vessel together than that the botanists now use, 'fruit.' But +practically, even now, people feel that they can't gather figs of thistles, +and never speak of the fructification of a thistle, or of the fruit of a +dandelion. And, re-assembling now, in one view, the words we have +determined on, they will be found enough for all practical service, and in +such service always accurate, and, usually, suggestive. I repeat them in +brief order, with such farther explanation as they need. + +11. All ripe products of the life of flowers consist essentially of the +Seed and Husk,--these being, in certain cases, sustained, surrounded, or +provided with means of motion, by other parts of the plant; or by +developments of their own form which require in each case distinct names. +Thus the white cushion of the dandelion to which its brown seeds are +attached, and the personal parachutes which belong to each, must be +separately described for that species of plants; it is the little brown +thing they sustain and carry away on the wind, which must be examined as +the essential product of the floret;--the 'seed and husk.' + +12. Every seed has a husk, holding either that seed alone, or other seeds +with it. + +Every perfect seed consists of an embryo, and the substance which first +nourishes that embryo; the whole enclosed in a sack or other sufficient +envelope. Three essential parts altogether. {235} + +Every perfect husk, vulgarly pericarp, or 'round-fruit,'--(as periwig, +'round-wig,')--consists of a shell, (vulgarly endocarp,) rind, (vulgarly +mesocarp,) and skin, (vulgarly epicarp); three essential parts altogether. +But one or more of these parts may be effaced, or confused with another; +and in the seeds of grasses they all concentrate themselves into bran. + +13. When a husk consists of two or more parts, each of which has a separate +shaft and volute, uniting in the pillar and volute of the flower, each +separate piece of the husk is called a 'carpel.' The name was first given +by De Candolle, and must be retained. But it continually happens that a +simple husk divides into two parts corresponding to the two leaves of the +embryo, as in the peach, or symmetrically holding alternate seeds, as in +the pea. The beautiful drawing of the pea-shell with its seeds, in +Rousseau's botany, is the only one I have seen which rightly shows and +expresses this arrangement. + +14. A Fruit is either the husk, receptacle, petal, or other part of a +flower _external to the seed_, in which chemical changes have taken place, +fitting it for the most part to become pleasant and healthful food for man, +or other living animals; but in some cases making it bitter or poisonous to +them, and the enjoyment of it depraved or deadly. But, as far as we know, +it is without any definite office to the seed it contains; and the change +takes {236} place entirely to fit the plant to the service of animals.[66] + +In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to a temperate zone, of which +the polar limit is marked by the strawberry, and the equatorial by the +orange. The more arctic regions produce even the smallest kinds of fruit +with difficulty; and the more equatorial, in coarse, oleaginous, or +over-luscious masses. + +15. All the most perfect fruits are developed _from exquisite forms either +of foliage or flower_. The vine leaf, in its generally decorative power, is +the most important, both in life and in art, of all that shade the +habitations of men. The olive leaf is, without any rival, the most +beautiful of the leaves of timber trees; and its blossom, though minute, of +extreme beauty. The apple is essentially the fruit of the rose, and the +peach of her only rival in her own colour. The cherry and orange blossom +are the two types of floral snow. + +16. And, lastly, let my readers be assured, the economy of blossom and +fruit, with the distribution of water, {237} will be found hereafter the +most accurate test of wise national government. + +For example of the action of a national government, rightly so called, in +these matters, I refer the student to the Mariegolas of Venice, translated +in Fors Clavigera; and I close this chapter, and this first volume of +Proserpina, not without pride, in the words I wrote on this same matter +eighteen years ago. "So far as the labourer's immediate profit is +concerned, it matters not an iron filing whether I employ him in growing a +peach, or in forging a bombshell. But the difference to him is final, +whether, when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage, and give it the +peach,--or drop the shell down his chimney, and blow his roof off." + + * * * * * + +{238} + +INDEX I. + +DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE. + +Plants in perfect form are said, at page 26, to consist of four principal +parts: root, stem, leaf, and flower. (Compare Chapter V., Sec. 2.) The reader +may have been surprised at the omission of the fruit from this list. But a +plant which has borne fruit is no longer of 'perfect' form. Its flower is +dead. And, observe, it is further said, at page 65, (and compare Chapter +III., Sec. 2,) that the use of the fruit is to produce the flower: not of the +flower to produce the fruit. Therefore, the plant in perfect blossom, is +itself perfect. Nevertheless, the formation of the fruit, practically, is +included in the flower, and so spoken of in the fifteenth line of the same +page. + +Each of these four main parts of a plant consist normally of a certain +series of minor parts, to which it is well to attach easily remembered +names. In this section of my index I will not admit the confusion of idea +involved by alphabetical arrangement of these names, but will sacrifice +facility of reference to clearness of explanation, and taking the four +great parts of the plant in {239} succession, I will give the list of the +minor and constituent parts, with their names as determined in Proserpina, +and reference to the pages where the reasons for such determination are +given, endeavouring to supply, at the same time, any deficiencies which I +find in the body of the text. + +I. THE ROOT. + + PAGE + + Origin of the word Root 27 + + The offices of the root are threefold: namely, + Tenure, Nourishment, and Animation 27-34 + + The essential parts of a Root are two: the Limbs + and Fibres 33 + + I. THE LIMB is the gathered mass of fibres, or at + least of fibrous substance, which extends itself + in search of nourishment 32 + + II. THE FIBRE is the organ by which the nourishment + is received 32 + + The inessential or accidental parts of roots, which + are attached to the roots of some plants, but + not to those of others, (and are, indeed, for the + most part absent,) are three: namely, Store-Houses, + Refuges, and Ruins 34 + + III. Store-houses contain the food of the future + plant 34 + + {240} + + IV. REFUGES shelter the future plant itself for a + time 35 + + V. RUINS form a basis for the growth of the future + plant in its proper order 36 + + Root-Stocks, the accumulation of such ruins in a vital + order 37 + + General questions relating to the office and chemical + power of roots 38 + + /# + The nomenclature of Roots will not be extended, in + Proserpina, beyond the five simple terms here given: + though the ordinary botanical ones--corm, bulb, tuber, + etc.--will be severally explained in connection with the + plants which they specially characterize. + #/ + +II. THE STEM. + + Derivation of word 137 + + The channel of communication between leaf and + root 153 + + In a perfect plant it consists of three parts: + + I. THE STEM (STEMMA) proper.--A growing or advancing + shoot which sustains all the other + organs of the plant 136 + + It may grow by adding thickness to its sides without + advancing; but its essential characteristic is + the vital power of Advance 136 + {241} + + It may be round, square, or polygonal, but is always + roundly minded 136 + + Its structural power is Spiral 137 + + It is essentially branched; having subordinate leaf-stalks + and flower-stalks, if not larger branches 139 + + It developes the buds, leaves, and flowers of the + plant. + + This power is not yet properly defined, or explained; + and referred to only incidentally throughout + the eighth chapter 134-138 + + II. THE LEAF-STALK (CYMBA) sustains, and expands + itself into, the Leaf 133, 134 + + It is essentially furrowed above, and convex below 134 + + It is to be called in Latin, the Cymba; in English, + the Leaf-Stalk 135 + + III. THE FLOWER-STALK (PETIOLUS): + + It is essentially round 130 + + It is usually separated distinctly at its termination + from the flower 130, 131 + + It is to be called in Latin, Petiolus; in English, + Flower-stalk 130 + + These three are the essential parts of a stem. But + {242} + besides these, it has, when largely developed, a + permanent form: namely, + + IV. THE TRUNK.--A non-advancing mass of collected + stem, arrested at a given height from the + ground 139 + + /# + The stems of annual plants are either leafy, as of a + thistle, or bare, sustaining the flower or flower-cluster at + a certain height above the ground. Receiving therefore + these following names:--- + #/ + + V. THE VIRGA.--The leafy stem of an annual plant, + not a grass, yet growing upright 147 + + VI. THE VIRGULA.--The leafless flower-stem of an + annual plant, not a grass, as of a primrose or + dandelion 147 + + VII. THE FILUM.--The running stem of a creeping + plant + + /# + It is not specified in the text for use; but will be necessary; + so also, perhaps, the Stelechos, or stalk proper (26), + the branched stem of an annual plant, not a grass; one + cannot well talk of the Virga of hemlock. The 'Stolon' + is explained in its classical sense at page 158, but I believe + botanists use it otherwise. I shall have occasion + to refer to, and complete its explanation, in speaking of + bulbous plants. + #/ + + VIII. THE CAUDEX.--The essentially ligneous and + compact part of a stem 149 + + {243} + + /# + This equivocal word is not specified for use in the text, + but I mean to keep it for the accumulated stems of inlaid + plants, palms, and the like; for which otherwise we have + no separate term. + #/ + + IX. THE AVENA.--Not specified in the text at all; + but it will be prettier than 'baculus,' which is + that I had proposed, for the 'staff' of grasses. + See page 179. + + /# + These ten names are all that the student need remember; + but he will find some interesting particulars respecting + the following three, noticed in the text:--- + #/ + + STIPS.--The origin of stipend, stupid, and stump 148 + + STIPULA.--The subtlest Latin term for straw 148 + + CAULIS (Kale).--The peculiar stem of branched eatable + vegetables 149 + + CANNA.--Not noticed in the text; but likely to be + sometimes useful for the stronger stems of + grasses. + +III. THE LEAF. + + Derivation of word 26 + + The Latin form 'folium' 41 + + The Greek form 'petalos' 42 + + Veins and ribs of leaves, to be usually summed under + the term 'rib' 44 + + Chemistry of leaves 46 + {244} + + /# + The nomenclature of the leaf consists, in botanical + books, of little more than barbarous, and, for the general + reader, totally useless attempts to describe their + forms in Latin. But their forms are infinite and indescribable + except by the pencil. I will give central types of + form in the next volume of Proserpina; which, so that + the reader sees and remembers, he may _call_ anything he + likes. But it is necessary that names should be assigned + to certain classes of leaves which are essentially different + from each other in character and tissue, not merely + in form. Of these the two main divisions have been + already given: but I will now add the less important + ones which yet require distinct names. + #/ + + I. APOLLINE.--Typically represented by the laurel 51 + + II. ARETHUSAN.--Represented by the alisma 52 + + /# + It ought to have been noticed that the character of serration, + within reserved limits, is essential to an Apolline + leaf, and absolutely refused by an Arethusan one. + #/ + + III. DRYAD.--Of the ordinary leaf tissue, neither + manifestly strong, nor admirably tender, but + serviceably consistent, which we find generally + to be the substance of the leaves of forest trees. + Typically represented by those of the oak. + + IV. ABIETINE.--Shaft or sword-shape, as the leaves + of firs and pines. + + V. CRESSIC.--Delicate and light, with smooth tissue, + as the leaves of cresses, and clover. + {245} + + VI. SALVIAN.--Soft and woolly, like miniature + blankets, easily folded, as the leaves of sage. + + VII. CAULINE.--Softly succulent, with thick central + ribs, as of the cabbage. + + VIII. ALOEINE.--Inflexibly succulent, as of the + aloe or houseleek. + + /# + No rigid application of these terms must ever be attempted; + but they direct the attention to important general + conditions, and will often be found to save time and + trouble in description. + #/ + +IV. THE FLOWER. + + Its general nature and function 65 + + Consists essentially of Corolla and Treasury 78 + + Has in perfect form the following parts:-- + + I. THE TORUS.--Not yet enough described in the + text. It is the expansion of the extremity of + the flower-stalk, in preparation for the support + of the expanding flower 66, 224 + + II. THE INVOLUCRUM.--Any kind of wrapping or + propping condition of leafage at the base of a + flower may properly come under this head; but + the manner of prop or protection differs in different + kinds, and I will not at present give generic + names to these peculiar forms. + + {246} + III. THE CALYX (The Hiding-place).--The outer + whorl of leaves, under the protection of which + the real flower is brought to maturity. Its separate + leaves are called SEPALS 80 + + IV. THE COROLLA (The Cup).--The inner whorl of + leaves, forming the flower itself. Its separate + leaves are called PETALS 71 + + V. THE TREASURY.--The part of the flower that + contains its seeds. + + VI. THE PILLAR.--The part of the flower above its + treasury, by which the power of the pollen is + carried down to the seeds 78 + + It consists usually of two parts--the SHAFT and + VOLUTE 78 + + When the pillar is composed of two or more shafts, + attached to separate treasury-cells, each cell + with its shaft is called a CARPEL 235 + + VII. THE STAMENS.--The parts of the flower which + secrete its pollen 78 + + They consist usually of two parts, the FILAMENT and + ANTHER, not yet described. + + VIII. THE NECTARY.--The part of the flower containing + its honey, or any other special product + of its inflorescence. The name has often been + {247} + given to certain forms of petals of which the + use is not yet known. No notice has yet been + taken of this part of the flower in Proserpina. + + /# + These being all the essential parts of the flower itself, + other forms and substances are developed in the seed as it + ripens, which, I believe, may most conveniently be arranged + in a separate section, though not logically to be + considered as separable from the flower, but only as + mature states of certain parts of it. + #/ + +V. THE SEED. + +I must once more desire the reader to take notice that, under the four +sections already defined, the morphology of the plant is to be considered +as complete, and that we are now only to examine and name, farther, its +_product_; and that not so much as the germ of its own future descendant +flower, but as a separate substance which it is appointed to form, partly +to its own detriment, for the sake of higher creatures. This product +consists essentially of two parts: the Seed and its Husk. + + I. THE SEED.--Defined 220 + + It consists, in its perfect form, of three parts 222 + + /# + These three parts are not yet determinately named in + the text: but I give now the names which will be usually + attached to them. + #/ + + A. _The Sacque_.--The outside skin of a seed 221 + + {248} + + B. _The Nutrine_.--A word which I coin, for general + applicability, whether to the farina of + corn, the substance of a nut, or the parts that + become the first leaves in a bean 221 + + C. _The Germ_.--The origin of the root 221 + + II. THE HUSK.--Defined 222 + + Consists, like the seed when in perfect form, of + three parts. + + A. _The Skin_.--The outer envelope of all the + seed structures 222 + + B. _The Rind_.--The central body of the Husk. 222-235 + + C. _The Shell_.--Not always shelly, yet best described + by this general term; and becoming + a shell, so called, in nuts, peaches, dates, and + other such kernel-fruits 222 + + The products of the Seed and Husk of Plants, for + the use of animals, are practically to be massed + under the three heads of BREAD, OIL, and FRUIT. + But the substance of which bread is made is + more accurately described as Farina; and the + pleasantness of fruit to the taste depends on two + elements in its substance: the juice, and the + pulp containing it, which may properly be + called Nectar and Ambrosia. We have therefore + in all four essential products of the Seed + and Husk-- + + {249} + A. Farina. Flour 227 + + B. Oleum. Oil 229 + + C. Nectar. Fruit-juice 229 + + D. Ambrosia. Fruit-substance 230 + + +Besides these all-important products of the seed, others are formed in the +stems and leaves of plants, of which no account hitherto has been given in +Proserpina. I delay any extended description of these until we have +examined the structure of wood itself more closely; this intricate and +difficult task having been remitted (p. 195) to the days of coming spring; +and I am well pleased that my younger readers should at first be vexed with +no more names to be learned than those of the vegetable productions with +which they are most pleasantly acquainted: but for older ones, I think it +well, before closing the present volume, to indicate, with warning, some of +the obscurities, and probable fallacies, with which this vanity of science +encumbers the chemistry, no less than the morphology, of plants. + +Looking back to one of the first books in which our new knowledge of +organic chemistry began to be displayed, thirty years ago, I find that even +at that period the organic elements which the cuisine of the laboratory had +already detected in simple Indigo, were the following:-- {250} + + Isatine, Bromisatine, Bidromisatine; + Chlorisatine, Bichlorisatine; + Chlorisatyde, Bichlorisatyde; + Chlorindine, Chlorindoptene, Chlorindatmit; + Chloranile, Chloranilam, and, Chloranilammon. + +And yet, with all this practical skill in decoction, and accumulative +industry in observation and nomenclature, so far are our scientific men +from arriving, by any decoctive process of their own knowledge, at general +results useful to ordinary human creatures, that when I wish now to +separate, for young scholars, in first massive arrangement of vegetable +productions, the Substances of Plants from their Essences; that is to say, +the weighable and measurable body of the plant from its practically +immeasurable, if not imponderable, spirit, I find in my three volumes of +close-printed chemistry, no information what ever respecting the quality of +volatility in matter, except this one sentence:-- + +"The disposition of various substances to yield vapour is very different: +and the difference depends doubtless on the relative power of cohesion with +which they are endowed."[67] + +Even in this not extremely pregnant, though extremely {251} cautious, +sentence, two conditions of matter are confused, no notice being taken of +the difference in manner of dissolution between a vitally fragrant and a +mortally putrid substance. + +It is still more curious that when I look for more definite instruction on +such points to the higher ranks of botanists, I find in the index to Dr. +Lindley's 'Introduction to Botany'--seven hundred pages of close print--not +one of the four words 'Volatile,' 'Essence,' 'Scent,' or 'Perfume.' I +examine the index to Gray's 'Structural and Systematic Botany,' with +precisely the same success. I next consult Professors Balfour and Grindon, +and am met by the same dignified silence. Finally, I think over the +possible chances in French, and try in Figuier's indices to the 'Histoire +des Plantes' for 'Odeur'--no such word! 'Parfum'--no such word. +'Essence'--no such word. 'Encens'--no such word. I try at last 'Pois de +Senteur,' at a venture, and am referred to a page which describes their +going to sleep. + +Left thus to my own resources, I must be content for the present to bring +the subject at least under safe laws of nomenclature. It is possible that +modern chemistry may be entirely right in alleging the absolute identity of +substances such as albumen, or fibrine, whether they occur in the animal or +vegetable economies. But I do not choose to assume this identity in my +nomenclature. It may, perhaps, be very fine and very instructive to {252} +inform the pupils preparing for competitive examination that the main +element of Milk is Milkine, and of Cheese, Cheesine. But for the practical +purposes of life, all that I think it necessary for the pupil to know is +that in order to get either milk or cheese, he must address himself to a +Cow, and not to a Pump; and that what a chemist can produce for him out of +dandelions or cocoanuts, however milky or cheesy it may look, may more +safely be called by some name of its own. + +This distinctness of language becomes every day more desirable, in the face +of the refinements of chemical art which now enable the ingenious +confectioner to meet the demands of an unscientific person for (suppose) a +lemon drop, with a mixture of nitric acid, sulphur, and stewed bones. It is +better, whatever the chemical identity of the products may be, that each +should receive a distinctive epithet, and be asked for and supplied, in +vulgar English, and vulgar probity, either as essence of lemons, or +skeletons. + +I intend, therefore,--and believe that the practice will be found both wise +and convenient,--to separate in all my works on natural history the terms +used for vegetable products from those used for animal or mineral ones, +whatever may be their chemical identity, or resemblance in aspect. I do not +mean to talk of fat in seeds, nor of flour in eggs, nor of milk in rocks. +Pace my prelatical friends, I mean to use the word 'Alb' for vegetable +albumen; and although I cannot without pedantry avoid {253} using sometimes +the word 'milky' of the white juices of plants, I must beg the reader to +remain unaffected in his conviction that there is a vital difference +between liquids that coagulate into butter, or congeal into India-rubber. +Oil, when used simply, will always mean a vegetable product: and when I +have occasion to speak of petroleum, tallow, or blubber, I shall generally +call these substances by their right names. + +There are also a certain number of vegetable materials more or less +prepared, secreted, or digested for us by animals, such as wax, honey, +silk, and cochineal. The properties of these require more complex +definitions, but they have all very intelligible and well-established +names. 'Tea' must be a general term for an extract of any plant in boiling +water: though when standing alone the word will take its accepted Chinese +meaning: and essence, the general term for the condensed dew of a vegetable +vapour, which is with grace and fitness called the 'being' of a plant, +because its properties are almost always characteristic of the species; and +it is not, like leaf tissue or wood fibre, approximately the same material +in different shapes; but a separate element in each family of flowers, of a +mysterious, delightful, or dangerous influence, logically inexplicable, +chemically inconstructible, and wholly, in dignity of nature, above all +modes and faculties of form. + + * * * * * + +{254} + +INDEX II. + +TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR ENGLISH NAMES, ACCEPTED +BY PROSERPINA. + + Apple, 102 + Ash, 120, 127 + Aspen, 134 + Asphodel, 8, 36 + Bay, 51 + Bean, 104 + Bed-straw, 120 + Bindweed, 144 + Birch, 172 + Blackthorn, 119, 127 + Blaeberry, 52, 206 + Bluebell, 144 + Bramble, 119, 195 + Burdock, 112, 131 + Burnet, 95 + Butterbur, 118 + Cabbage, 131, 149 + Captain-salad, 149 + Carrot, 32, 35 + Cauliflower, 131, 149 + Cedar, 35, 61, 113 + Celandine, 72 + Cherry, 65, 130 + Chestnut, 62 + " Spanish, 166 + Chicory, 118 + Clover, 111 + Colewort, 149 + Coltsfoot, 110 + Corn-cockle, 108 + Corn-flag, 104, 109 + Cowslip, 139 + Crocus, 36, 37 + Daffodil, + {255} + Daisy, 117, 144, 145 + Dandelion, 117 + Devil's Bit, 147 + Dock, 131 + Elm, 52 + Fig, 63 + Flag, 104 + Flax, 165 + Foils, Rock, 144 + " Roof, 144, 146 + Foxglove, 70, 118, 139 + Frog-flower, 56 + Grape, 103, 130 + Grass, 52, 53, 55, 156, 158, 161, 163 + Hawk's-eye, 118 + Hazel, 120 + Heath, 67, 68, 107, 208 + Hemlock, 107 + Herb-Robert, 121 + Holly, 113, 119 + Houseleek, 37, 146 + Hyacinth, 65, 67 + Ivy, 111 + Jacinth, 83, 186 + King-cup, 110 + Laurel, 35, 59, 140 + " leaves, 43, 51, 60 + Lichen, 175 + Lilac, 76 + Lily, 1, 36, 53, 104, 109 + Lily, St. Bruno's, 1, 7, 9, 10 + Lily of the Valley, 143 + Lily, Water, 55, 72 + Ling, 68, 69 + Lion's-tooth, 113 + Liquorice, 38 + Lucy, 110, 144 + Mistletoe, 111 + Moss, 12, 15, 175 + Mushroom, 43, 127 + Myrtle, 51 + Nettle, 52, 88, 107 + Nightshade, 108 + Oak, 36, 140 + " blossom, 67 + Olive, 51, 63, 142 + Onion, 38 + Orange, 51 + Paeony, 129 + Palm, 43, 53, 54, 103, 156, 166 + {256} + Pansy, 120, 144 + Papilionaceae, 145 + Papyrus, 165 + Pea, 32, 144 + Peach, 130, 144 + Pine, 140 + Pineapple, 14 + Pink, 144 + Plantain, 134 + Pomegranate, 102 + Poplar, 52 + Poppy, 70, 76, 86, 104 + Primrose, 79, 144 + Radish, 35, 38 + Ragged Robin, 155 + Rhubarb, 131 + Rice, 52 + Rock-foil, 144 + Roof-foil, 144, 146 + Rose, 64, 69, 75, 104, 109, 119, 121, 129, 144 + Rush, 157 + Saxifrage, 120, 143, 146 + Scabious, 147 + Sedum, 146 + Sorrel-wood, 9 + Spider Plant, 8 + Sponsa solis, 118 + Stella, 144, 146 + " domestica, 146 + Stonecrop, 146 + Sweetbriar, 109 + Thistle, 103, 104, 113, 117, 118, 121, 144 _note_, 151 + Thistle, Creeping, 138 + " Waste, 138 + Thorns, 121, 127 + " Black, 119, 127 + Thyme, 118 + Tobacco, 38, 108 + Tormentilla, 110 + Turnip, 35 + Vine, 104, 108, 140, 142 + Viola, 144 + Wallflower, 111 + Wheat, 127, 165 + Wreathewort, 181 + + * * * * * + +{257} + +INDEX III. + +TO THE PLANTS SPOKEN OF IN THIS VOLUME, UNDER THEIR LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, +ACCEPTED BY PROSERPINA. + + Acanthus, 104 + Alata, 144 + Alisma, 52 + Amaryllis, 36, 37 + Anemone, 107 + Artemides, 196 + Asphodel, 11 + Aurora, 207 + Azalea, 207 + Cactus, 43 + Campanula, 144 + Carduus, 138 + Charites, 188 + Cistus, 69 + Clarissa, 144, 155 + Contorta, 181 + Convoluta, 144 + Cyclamen, 32 + Drosidae, 36, 199 + Ensatae, 203 + Ericae, 9, 206 + Eryngo, 83 + Fragaria, 188 + Francesca, 144, 146 + Fraxinus, 195 + Geranium, 83, 120 + Gladiolus, 104, 109, 163 + Hyacinthus, 186 + Hypnum, 13 + Iris, 36, 103 + Lilium (_see_ Lily), 8 + Lucia, 110, 189 + {258} + Magnolia, 51 + Margarita, 144 + Myrtilla, 206 + Narcissus, 109 + Ophrys, 180 + Papaver, 91, 96 + Persica, 144 + Pomum, 188 + Primula, 143 + Rosa, 144 + Rubra, 188, 195 + Satyrium, 182 + Stella, 144, 146 + Veronica, 75 + Viola, 144 + + * * * * * + +Notes + +[1] At least, it throws off its flowers on each side in a bewilderingly +pretty way; a real lily can't branch, I believe: but, if not, what is the +use of the botanical books saying "on an unbranched stem"? + +[2] I have by happy chance just added to my Oxford library the poet Gray's +copy of Linnaeus, with its exquisitely written Latin notes, exemplary alike +to scholar and naturalist. + +[3] It was in the year 1860, in June. + +[4] Admirably engraved by Mr. Burgess, from my pen drawing, now at Oxford. +By comparing it with the plate of the same flower in Sowerby's work, the +student will at once see the difference between attentive drawing, which +gives the cadence and relation of masses in a group, and the mere copying +of each flower in an unconsidered huddle. + +[5] "Histoire des Plantes." Ed. 1865, p. 416. + +[6] The like of it I have now painted, Number 281, CASE XII., in the +Educational Series of Oxford. + +[7] Properly, Florae Danicae, but it is so tiresome to print the diphthongs +that I shall always call it thus. It is a folio series, exquisitely begun, +a hundred years ago; and not yet finished. + +[8] Magnified about seven times. See note at end of this chapter. + +[9] American,--'System of Botany,' the best technical book I have. + +[10] 'Dicranum cerviculatum,' sequel to Flora Danica, Tab. MMCCX. + +[11] The reader should buy a small specimen of this mineral; it is a useful +type of many structures. + +[12] LUCCA, _Aug. 9th, 1874._--I have left this passage as originally +written, but I believe the dome is of accumulated earth. Bringing home, +here, evening after evening, heaps of all kinds of mosses from the hills +among which the Archbishop Ruggieri was hunting the wolf and her whelps in +Ugolino's dream, I am more and more struck, every day, with their special +function as earth-gatherers, and with the enormous importance to their own +brightness, and to our service, of that dark and degraded state of the +inferior leaves. And it fastens itself in my mind mainly as their +distinctive character, that as the leaves of a tree become wood, so the +leaves of a moss become earth, while yet a normal part of the plant. Here +is a cake in my hand weighing half a pound, bright green on the surface, +with minute crisp leaves; but an inch thick beneath in what looks at first +like clay, but is indeed knitted fibre of exhausted moss. Also, I don't at +all find the generalization I made from the botanical books likely to have +occurred to me from the real things. No moss leaves that I can find here +give me the idea of resemblance to pineapple leaves; nor do I see any, +through my weak lens, clearly serrated; but I do find a general tendency to +run into a silky filamentous structure, and in some, especially on a small +one gathered from the fissures in the marble of the cathedral, white +threads of considerable length at the extremities of the leaves, of which +threads I remember no drawing or notice in the botanical books. Figure 1 +represents, magnified, a cluster of these leaves, with the germinating +stalk springing from their centre; but my scrawl was tired and careless, +and for once, Mr. Burgess has copied _too_ accurately. + +[13] Learn this word, at any rate; and if you know any Greek, learn also +this group of words: "[Greek: hos rhiza en ge dipsosei]," which you may +chance to meet with, and even to think about, some day. + +[14] "Duhamel, botanist of the last century, tells us that, wishing to +preserve a field of good land from the roots of an avenue of elms which +were exhausting it, he cut a ditch between the field and avenue to +intercept the roots. But he saw with surprise those of the roots which had +not been cut, go down behind the slope of the ditch to keep out of the +light, go under the ditch, and into the field again." And the Swiss +naturalist Bonnet said wittily, apropos of a wonder of this sort, "that +sometimes it was difficult to distinguish a cat from a rosebush." + +[15] As the first great office of the mosses is the gathering of earth, so +that of the grasses is the binding of it. Theirs the Enchanter's toil, not +in vain,--making ropes out of sea-sand. + +[16] Drosidae, in our school nomenclature, is the general name, including +the four great tribes, iris, asphodel, amaryllis, and lily. See reason for +this name given in the 'Queen of the Air,' Section II. + +[17] The only use of a great part of our existing nomenclature is to enable +one botanist to describe to another a plant which the other has not seen. +When the science becomes approximately perfect, all known plants will be +properly figured, so that nobody need describe them; and unknown plants be +so rare that nobody will care to learn a new and difficult language, in +order to be able to give an account of what in all probability he will +never see. + +[18] An excellent book, nevertheless. + +[19] Lindley, 'Introduction to Botany,' vol. i., p. 21. The terms "wholly +obsolete," says an authoritative botanic friend. Thank Heaven! + +[20] "You should see the girders on under-side of the Victoria Water-lily, +the most wonderful bit of engineering, of the kind, I know +of."--('Botanical friend.') + +[21] Roughly, Cyllene 7,700 feet high; Erymanthus 7,000; Maenalus 6,000. + +[22] _March 3rd._--We now ascend the roots of the mountain called Kastania, +and begin to pass between it and the mountain of Alonistena, which is on +our right. The latter is much higher than Kastania, and, like the other +peaked summits of the Maenalian range, is covered with firs, and deeply at +present with snow. The snow lies also in our pass. At a fountain in the +road, the small village of Bazeniko is half a mile on the right, standing +at the foot of the Maenalian range, and now covered with snow. + +Saeta is the most lofty of the range of mountains, which are in face of +Levidhi, to the northward and eastward; they are all a part of the chain +which extends from Mount Khelmos, and connects that great summit with +Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon. Mount Saeta is covered with firs. The +mountain between the plain of Levidhi and Alonistena, or, to speak by the +ancient nomenclature, that part of the Maenalian range which separates the +Orchomenia from the valleys of Helisson and Methydrium, is clothed also +with large forests of the same trees; the road across this ridge from +Lavidhi to Alonistena is now impracticable on account of the snow. + +I am detained all day at Levidhi by a heavy fall of snow, which before the +evening has covered the ground to half a foot in depth, although the +village is not much elevated above the plain, nor in a more lofty situation +than Tripolitza. + +_March 4th._--Yesterday afternoon and during the night the snow fell in +such quantities as to cover all the plains and adjacent mountains; and the +country exhibited this morning as fine a snow-scene as Norway could supply. +As the day advanced and the sun appeared, the snow melted rapidly, but the +sky was soon overcast again, and the snow began to fall. + +[23] Just in time, finding a heap of gold under an oak tree some thousand +years old, near Arundel, I've made them out: Eight, divided by three; that +is to say, three couples of petals, with two odd little ones inserted for +form's sake. No wonder I couldn't decipher them by memory. + +[24] Figs. 8 and 9 are both drawn and engraved by Mr. Burgess. + +[25] Of Vespertilian science generally, compare 'Eagles' Nest,' pp. 25 and +179. + +[26] The mathematical term is 'rhomb.' + +[27] [Greek: hes to sperma artopoieitai.] + +[28] [Greek: epimekes echousa to kephalion.] Dioscorides makes no effort to +distinguish species, but gives the different names as if merely used in +different places. + +[29] It is also used sometimes of the garden poppy, says Dioscorides, +"[Greek: dia to rhein ex autes ton opon]"--"because the sap, opium, flows +from it." + +[30] See all the passages quoted by Liddell. + +[31] I find this chapter rather tiresome on re-reading it myself, and +cancel some farther criticism of the imitation of this passage by Virgil, +one of the few pieces of the AEneid which are purely and vulgarly imitative, +rendered also false as well as weak by the introducing sentence, "Volvitur +Euryalus leto," after which the simile of the drooping flower is absurd. Of +criticism, the chief use of which is to warn all sensible men from such +business, the following abstract of Diderot's notes on the passage, given +in the 'Saturday Review' for April 29th, 1871, is worth preserving. (Was +the French critic really not aware that Homer _had_ written the lines his +own way?) + +"Diderot illustrates his theory of poetical hieroglyphs by no quotations, +but we can show the manner of his minute and sometimes fanciful criticism +by repeating his analysis of the passage of Virgil wherein the death of +Euryalus is described:-- + + 'Pulchrosque per artus + It cruor, inque humeros cervix collapsa recumbit; + Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro + Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo + Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.' + +"The sound of 'It cruor,' according to Diderot, suggests the image of a jet +of blood; 'cervix collapsa recumbit,' the fall of a dying man's head upon +his shoulder; 'succisus' imitates the use of a cutting scythe (not plough); +'demisere' is as soft as the eye of a flower; 'gravantur,' on the other +hand, has all the weight of a calyx, filled with rain; 'collapsa' marks an +effort and a fall, and similar double duty is performed by 'papavera,' the +first two syllables symbolizing the poppy upright, the last two the poppy +bent. While thus pursuing his minute investigations, Diderot can scarcely +help laughing at himself, and candidly owns that he is open to the +suspicion of discovering in the poem beauties which have no existence. He +therefore qualifies his eulogy by pointing out two faults in the passage. +'Gravantur,' notwithstanding the praise it has received, is a little too +heavy for the light head of a poppy, even when filled with water. As for +'aratro,' coming as it does after the hiss of 'succisus,' it is altogether +abominable. Had Homer written the lines, he would have ended with some +hieroglyph, which would have continued the hiss or described the fall of a +flower. To the hiss of 'succisus' Diderot is warmly attached. Not by +mistake, but in order to justify the sound, he ventures to translate +'aratrum' into 'scythe,' boldly and rightly declaring in a marginal note +that this is not the meaning of the word." + +[32] And I have too harshly called our English vines, 'wicked weeds of +Kent,' in Fors Clavigera, xxvii. 11. Much may be said for Ale, when we brew +it for our people honestly. + +[33] Has my reader ever thought,--I never did till this moment,--how it +perfects the exquisite character which Scott himself loved, as he invented, +till he changed the form of the novel, that his habitual interjection +should be this word;--not but that the oath, by conscience, was happily +still remaining then in Scotland, taking the place of the mediaeval 'by St. +Andrew,' we in England, long before the Scot, having lost all sense of the +Puritanical appeal to private conscience, as of the Catholic oath, 'by St. +George;' and our uncanonized 'by George' in sonorous rudeness, ratifying, +not now our common conscience, but our individual opinion. + +[34] 'Jotham,' 'Sum perfectio eorum,' or 'Consummatio eorum.' +(Interpretation of name in Vulgate index.) + +[35] If you will look at the engraving, in the England and Wales series, of +Turner's Oakhampton, you will see its use. + +[36] General assertions of this kind must always be accepted under +indulgence,--exceptions being made afterwards. + +[37] I use 'round' rather than 'cylindrical,' for simplicity's sake. + +[38] Carduus Arvensis. 'Creeping Thistle,' in Sowerby; why, I cannot +conceive, for there is no more creeping in it than in a furzebush. But it +especially haunts foul and neglected ground; so I keep the Latin name, +translating 'Waste-Thistle.' I could not show the variety of the curves of +the involucre without enlarging; and if, on this much increased scale, I +had tried to draw the flower, it would have taken Mr. Allen and me a good +month's more work. And I had no more a month than a life, to spare: so the +action only of the spreading flower is indicated, but the involucre drawn +with precision. + +[39] The florets gathered in the daisy are cinquefoils, examined closely. +No system founded on colour can be very general or unexceptionable: but the +splendid purples of the pansy, and thistle, which will be made one of the +lower composite groups under Margarita, may justify the general assertion +of this order's being purple. + +[40] See Miss Yonge's exhaustive account of the name, 'History of Christian +Names,' vol. i., p. 265. + +[41] (Du Cange.) The word 'Margarete' is given as heraldic English for +pearl, by Lady Juliana Berners, in the book of St. Albans. + +[42] Recent botanical research makes this statement more than dubitable. +Nevertheless, on no other supposition can the forms and action of +tree-branches, so far as at present known to me, be yet clearly accounted +for. + +[43] Not always in muscular power; but the framework on which strong +muscles are to act, as that of an insect's wing, or its jaw, is never +insectile. + +[44] It is one of the three cadences, (the others being of the words +rhyming to 'mind' and 'way,') used by Sir Philip Sidney in his marvellous +paraphrase of the 55th Psalm. + +[45] Lectures on the Families of Speech, by the Rev. F. Farrer Longman, +1870. Page 81. + +[46] I only profess, you will please to observe, to ask questions in +Proserpina. Never to answer any. But of course this chapter is to introduce +some further inquiry in another place. + +[47] See Introduction, pp. 5-8. + +[48] See Sowerby's nomenclature of the flower, vol. ix., plate 1703. + +[49] Linnaeus used this term for the oleanders; but evidently with less +accuracy than usual. + +[50] "[Greek: anthe porphuroeide]" says Dioscorides, of the race +generally,--but "[Greek: anthe de hupoporphura]" of this particular one. + +[51] I offer a sample of two dozen for good papas and mammas to begin +with:-- + + Angraecum. + Anisopetalum. + Brassavola. + Brassia. + Caelogyne. + Calopogon. + Corallorrhiza. + Cryptarrhena. + Eulophia. + Gymnadenia. + Microstylis. + Octomeria. + Ornithidium. + Ornithocephalus. + Platanthera. + Pleurothallis. + Pogonia. + Polystachya. + Prescotia. + Renanthera. + Rodriguezia. + Stenorhyncus. + Trizeuxis. + Xylobium. + +[52] Compare Chapter V., Sec. 7. + +[53] "Jacinthus Jurae," changed from "Hyacinthus Comosus." + +[54] + + "Cantando, e scegliendo fior di fiore + Onde era picta tutta la sua via."--_Purg._, xxviii. 35. + +[55] "[Greek: kai theoisi terpna.]" + +[56] The four races of this order are more naturally distinct than +botanists have recognized. In Clarissa, the petal is cloven into a fringe +at the outer edge; in Lychnis, the petal is terminated in two rounded lobes +and the fringe withdrawn to the top of the limb; in Scintilla, the petal is +divided into two _sharp_ lobes, without any fringe of the limb; and in +Mica, the minute and scarcely visible flowers have simple and far separate +petals. The confusion of these four great natural races under the vulgar or +accidental botanical names of spittle-plant, shore-plant, sand plant, etc., +has become entirely intolerable by any rational student; but the names +'Scintilla,' substituted for Stellaria, and 'Mica' for the utterly +ridiculous and probably untrue Sagina, connect themselves naturally with +Lychnis, in expression of the luminous power of the white and sparkling +blossoms. + +[57] Clytia will include all the true sun-flowers, and Falconia the +hawkweeds; but I have not yet completed the analysis of this vast and +complex order, so as to determine the limits of Margarita and Alcestis. + +[58] The reader must observe that the positions given in this more +developed system to any flower do not interfere with arrangements either +formerly or hereafter given for memoria technica. The name of the pea, for +instance (alata), is to be learned first among the twelve cinqfoils, p. +214, above; then transferred to its botanical place. + +[59] The amphibious habit of this race is to me of more importance than its +outlaid structure. + +[60] "Arctostaphylos Alpina," I believe; but scarcely recognize the flower +in my botanical books. + +[61] 'Aurora Regina,' changed from Rhododendron Ferrugineum. + +[62] I do not see what this can mean. Primroses and cowslips can't become +shrubs; nor can violets, nor daisies, nor any other of our pet meadow +flowers. + +[63] 'Deserts.' Punas is not in my Spanish dictionary, and the reference to +a former note is wrong in my edition of Humboldt, vol. iii., p. 490. + +[64] "The Alpine rose of equinoctial America," p. 453. + +[65] More literally "persons to whom the care of eggs is entrusted." + +[66] A most singular sign of this function is given to the chemistry of the +changes, according to a French botanist, to whose carefully and richly +illustrated volume I shall in future often refer my readers, "Vers l'epoque +de la maturite, les fruits _exhalent de l'acide carbonique_. Ils ne +presentent plus des lors aucun degagement d'oxygene pendant le jour, et +_respirent, pour ainsi dire, a la facon des animaux_."--(Figuier, 'Histoire +des Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette. 1874.) + +[67] 'Elements of Chemistry,' p. 44. By Edward Turner; edited by Justus +Liebig and William Gregory. Taylor and Walton, 1840. + + * * * * * + +Corrections made to printed original. + +p.27. "In Greek, [Greek: rhiza]" - "[Greek: riza]" with soft breath mark in +original. + +p.62. "shall it not be said of England?" - "no be said" in original. + +ibid. "beneficent in fulfilment" - "benet ficent" (across 2 lines) in +original. + +p.71. "flaunting breadth of untenable purple" - "untenabie" in original. + +p.145. "to warn them that this trial of their lovers" - "warm them" in +original. + +p.195. "XI. HESPERIDES." - "II." in original. + +p.238. "at page 26" - "at page 29" in original. + +ibid. "at page 65" - "at page 73" in original. + +Index II. "Celandine" - "Calendine" in original. + +Ibid. "Thistle, ... 151." "151 note" in original. + +Ibid. "Thistle, Waste, 138" - "154" in original. + +Index III. "Fraxinus" - "Frarinus" in original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 1, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 20421.txt or 20421.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/2/20421/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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