Foliage

“ In time a single plant, if not crowded, will make a mound of green foliage, looking as if an inverted bushel basket were shingled with broad overlapping foliage, above which, in August, spring pure white, sweet-scented lily-like flowers. ”

“ Many a time I have traced streams of grass to their fresh fountains, where jets of tender foliage and bubbles of tinted flowers welled up from dark, rich earth, and flowed away, with a velvet rustle and a ripple like blown floss, to break and recoil and eddy against the dark shadows of a distant grove. ”

“ The trees being small and low, the foliage of the olive thin and pale, the leaves of the fig broad and few, and the soil appearing everywhere at their roots, as well as between the rows of vines, the vegetation, when viewed from a little distance, has a meagre and ragged appearance. The whiteness of the hills, which the eye can hardly bear to rest upon at noon, the intense blue of the sea, the peculiar forms of the foliage, and the deficiency of shade and verdure, made me almost fancy myself in a tropical region. ”

“ The young foliage, of a clear brilliant green, is gayly decked with the long clusters of peculiarly fresh pink blossoms, which seem like the very incarnation of the spirit of Spring, producing a certain eblouissement, which quickens our sense into an anticipation of beauty on every side. ”

“ The plain is unbroken by any elevation: the immense trees rise to a great height, and all apparently to the same level—the green foliage in summer strangely commingling with the long gray moss which festoons from the upper to the lower limbs, waving as a garland in the fitful wind ”

“ Nowadays we are satisfied merely to admire the feathery masses of lace-like foliage formed by young plants, to whiff the wholesome, nutty, autumnal odor of its flowers, or to wonder at the marvellous scheme it employs to overrun the earth. ”

“ Leaves, then, are for something more than to provide the beautiful foliage which is their most spectacular accomplishment. So varied is this in its beauty, from plain green leaves to the wonderful coloring found in begonias, coleus, and many other garden plants, that the sheer beauty of the panorama of foliage is likely to blind us to the more important uses of leaves. First of all must we consider them the factories, in which night and day are produced the food of all plants and most animals. ”

“ The woods, as well as the single timber trees that occasionally start up with such fine effect from out of the hedge-rows, or in the midst of meadows and corn-fields, we shall now find sprinkled with what at first looks like gleams of scattered sunshine lying among the leaves, but what, on examination, we shall find to be the new foliage that has been put forth since midsummer, and which yet retains all the brilliant green of the spring. ”

“ But the grass is still green, and the trees thick with foliage, the fields neatly ploughed and tilled and cultivated, with here and there a staring notice planted on the edge of a field, where the long, straight drills are sprinkled with budding green—'Crops sown. ”

“ The condition of our land may be compared with that of a sturdy oak which has had one of its limbs torn away and its foliage blighted by a storm. Yet, if the roots grip the soil deep down, the sap of a single season will restore the verdure, and in a few years the dome of foliage will rise as shapely and imposing as ever. ”

“ On each side we see green trees with their thick evergreen foliage, with vines and moss hanging from many of them, and the ground beneath covered with the luxuriant shrubbery which grows in these warm regions. ”

“ They largely belong to countries which have a long hot season of little or no rain, when, their stalks and foliage above and their roots beneath early perishing, the plants rest securely in their compact bulbs, filled with nourishment and retaining their moisture with great tenacity, until the rainy season comes round. Then they shoot forth leaves and flowers with wonderful rapidity, and what was perhaps a desert of arid sand becomes green with foliage and gay with blossoms, almost in a day. ”

“ Every deciduous tree or shrub exhibits the very same phænomenon; for the fall of their decaying foliage in autumn, leaving the branches and young buds vigorous and healthy, can be explained in no other way. ”

“ Sometimes it bears along branches and strips of bark,—sometimes a green leaf, or perchance a dry one,— occasionally overwhelmed by the eddies and borne deep under water, then rushing atop the waves.
The forest, bordering the stream, produces its effect by a complexity of causes,—the old and stern trees, with stately trunks and dark foliage,— as the almost black pines,—the young trees, with lightsome green foliage,—as sapling oaks, maples and poplars,—then the old, decayed trunks, that are seen lying here and there, all mouldered, so that the foot would sink into them. ”

“ When I examined the leaves of the many kinds of trees, I found none similar to the foliage of our planet, except in one or two fruit-bearing trees. The sky, instead of appearing blue, wears a greenish tinge, and the birds are robed in a variety of colors that would put to naught our arching rainbows. ”

“ At times they remain masked by the foliage, then all on a sudden they emerge from behind the tall-grown trees, their active bodies standing out in dramatic silhouette against the neutral blue of the sky. ”

“ The rank and massive foliage shields the earth from the sunbeams, which exhale its poisonous damps; and in its rapid growth, the plant abstracts from the surrounding atmosphere one of its vital ingredients. ”

“ Some trees, partially or wholly withered, show in their hollow remnants of the strong and fruitful soil; others, equally ancient, are supported by the entangled creepers, which, in process of time, have almost attained the size of their former props—the diversity of foliage forming here the most agreeable contrast ”

“ Our readers must, therefore, try to picture to themselves a gigantic tree, with dense and usually thorny foliage, so interwoven with and embedded in the huge parasitical plants that grow around it as to be nearly concealed from view. ”

“ The lost leaves measure our years; they are gone as the days are gone, and the bare branches silently speak of a new year, slowly advancing to its buds, its foliage, and fruit. ”

“ The observer is also impressed by the character of the foliage. The leaves are usually rather blunt and ponderous, varying a little—as, indeed, do those of several other trees [Pg 8] —according to the nature of their environment. They clothe the tree in profusion, but do not hide the beauty of the ramification of its branches. In truth, they are not devoid of beauty themselves. ”

“ And the student will readily understand that by leaf in its largest or morphological sense, the botanist means the organ which occupies the place of a leaf, whatever be its form or its function.
§ 1. LEAVES AS FOLIAGE.
121. This is tautological; for foliage is simply leaves: but it is very convenient to speak of typical leaves, or those which serve the plant for assimilation, as foliage-leaves, or ordinary leaves. These may first be considered.
122. The Parts of a Leaf. The ordinary leaf, complete in its parts, consists of blade, foot-stalk, or petiole, and a pair of stipules. ”

“ THE wealth of foliage, leaves at their largest, is responsible for the gloom of the wood; beneath the trees all is in shade, though dappled with circular light patches, where a beam has found a pinhole or crack to penetrate. ”

“ Often flowers will be spotted. The foliage is very beautiful, being variegated, with different shades of green, and helps to show off the flowers which rise above it, to a remarkable degree. In fact, a plant in bloom always looks like a tastily arranged vase of flowers and foliage. We offer bulbs for blooming at once, and seed which soon makes flowering plants. ”

“ It seems as if by one magic touch they might instantaneously burst into full foliage, and that the wind which now sighs through their naked branches might make sudden music amid innumerable leaves. The mossgrown willow- tree which for forty years past has overshadowed these western windows will be among the first to put on its green attire. ”

“ You are to make two studies of each bough, for this reason—all masses of foliage have an upper and under surface, and the side view of them, or profile, shows a wholly different organisation of branches from that seen in the view from above. They are generally seen more or less in profile, as you look at the whole tree, and Nature puts her best composition into the profile arrangement. ”

“ Growing in large orbicular masses, on rocks and banks near the sea, or amongst the dense and gloomy vegetation of the woods, its copious bright green foliage and large umbels of waxy flowers, often nearly a foot in diameter, have a most striking appearance. ”

“ And in proportion as you descend towards the base of the mountains the plants are more vigorous and their boughs and foliage are denser; and their vegetation varied according to the various species of the plants of which such woods are composed, and their boughs are of diverse arrangement and diverse amplitude of foliage, various in shape and size; and some have straight boughs like the cypress, and some have widely scattered and spreading boughs like the oak and the chestnut tree, and the like ”

“ Although, as has been shown elsewhere, it may be doubted whether light directly produces floral colour, there can be no doubt that it is essential to the growth of vegetation and to the full development of foliage and of flowers. ”

“ Use perhaps nine grasses for your Heaven, seven for Man, and five or three for Earth. If you are unable to get any sedge or reeds, which would naturally grow at the water's edge, use the foliage of daffodils or narcissi, and you will find the result as pleasing as if you had used flowers. ”

“ When it is not in flower the mass of small foliage is pleasant to see, and even in winter leaflessness the tangle of close-locked branches has an appearance of warm brown comfort that makes it good to have near a house. ”

“ The continuous mass of foliage which would be thus produced, is broken by rocks, or by glades or open places, where the browzing of animals has prevented the growth of wood. As vegetation ascends, the winds begin also to bear their part in moulding the forms of the trees ”

“ Sometimes the banks were overhung with thick masses of willows that wholly hid the ground behind; sometimes we had noble hills on one hand, clothed densely with foliage to their tops, and on the other hand open levels blazing with poppies, or clothed in the rich blue of the corn-flower; sometimes we drifted in the shadow of forests, and sometimes along the margin of long stretches of velvety grass, fresh and green and bright, a tireless charm to the eye. ”

“ The heavens are clear, the red glare of the morning sun gleams through the lower branches of the lofty trees, the dew hangs in pearly drops at the top of every leaf. Already has the emerald hue of the foliage been converted into the more glowing tints of our autumnal months. ”

“ The consequence of variety in the disposition, is variety in the light and shade of the grove; which may be improved by the choice of the trees. Some are impenetrable to the fiercest sunbeam; others let in here and there a ray between the large masses of their foliage; and others, thin both of boughs and of leaves, only checker the ground. Every degree of light and shade, from a glare to obscurity, may be managed, partly by the number, and partly by the texture of the trees. ”

“ Some, under the influence of better soil or more light, have done better than others; but they are all sound and stately trees, and together represent the best product of the forest. Long ago other trees that grew in their midst, but were less promising, were removed for the sake of these. Under their continuous roof of foliage [Pg 160] there is a cool, deep shade. The ground is scattered with fern, or covered with deep beds of leaves, or with the glossy needles of the conifers. ”

“ In the summer time we distinguish the kinds of trees chiefly by means of the shape and the foliage. In winter the foliage is gone; but the shape remains, and the framework of the tree is also conspicuous. Trees are as distinct in winter as in summer ”

“ (And taken with it all the Hyla breed
That shouted in the mist a month ago,
Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a ghost of snow) ––
Or flourished and come up in jewel-weed,
Weak foliage that is blown upon and bent
Even against the way its waters went. ”

“ But we are spaciously rewarded, for there lies Havana in its whole extent before us; the level line of sea behind it; the Morro guarding it; the Principe fort threatening it; the bay reflecting it and the setting sun gilding it; palms on every hand outline their greens against the intensely azure sky behind, and white walls glance out of the luxuriant foliage, proud that humanity has a home within them. ”

“ When the light has become a little stronger, you have one of the fairest and softest pictures imaginable. You have the intense green of the massed and crowded foliage near by; you see it paling shade by shade in front of you; upon the next projecting cape, a mile off or more, the tint has lightened to the tender young green of spring; the cape beyond that one has almost lost color, and the furthest one, miles away under the horizon, sleeps upon the water a mere dim vapor, and hardly separable from the sky above it and about it. ”

“ The deep shadows of the woods immediately around you grow deeper and blacker as the flames leap and sparkle upwards, causing the stems of the surrounding trees, and the foliage of the overhanging branches, to stand out in bold relief, bathed in a ruddy glow, which converts the forest chamber into a snug home-like place, and fills the mind with agreeable, home-like feelings and meditations. ”

“ Summit behind summit rise its pyramidal ranges, or down to the very grass sweep the circlets of its boughs; so that there is nothing but green cone, and green carpet. Nor is it only softer, but in one sense more cheerful than other foliage, for it casts only a pyramidal shadow. Lowland forest arches overhead, and chequers the ground with darkness; but the pine, growing in scattered groups, leaves the glades between emerald-bright. Its gloom is all its own; narrowing into the sky, it lets the sunshine strike down to the dew. ”