oming into sight in a broken way; for,
supposing the real leaf shape to be as at _a_, Fig. 7, this, when
removed some yards from the eye, will appear dark against the sky, as at
_b_; then, when removed some yards farther still, the stalk and point
disappear altogether, the middle of the leaf becomes little more than a
line; and the result is the condition at _c_, only with this farther
subtlety in the look of it, inexpressible in the wood-cut, that the
stalk and point of the leaf, though they have disappeared to the eye,
have yet some influence in _checking the light_ at the places where they
exist, and cause a slight dimness about the part of the leaf which
remains visible, so that its perfect effect could only be rendered by
two layers of color, one subduing the sky tone a little, the next
drawing the broken portions of the leaf, as at _c_, and carefully
indicating the greater darkness of the spot in the middle, where the
under side of the leaf is.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.]

This is the perfect theory of the matter. In practice we cannot reach
such accuracy; but we shall be able to render the general look of the
foliage satisfactorily by the following mode of practice.

79. Gather a spray of any tree, about a foot or eighteen inches long.
Fix it firmly by the stem in anything that will support it steadily; put
it about eight feet away from you, or ten if you are far-sighted. Put a
sheet of not very white paper behind it, as usual. Then draw very
carefully, first placing them with pencil, and then filling them up with
ink, every leaf-mass and stalk of it in simple black profile, as you see
them against the paper: Fig. 8 is a bough of Phillyrea so drawn. Do not
be afraid of running the leaves into a black mass when they come
together; this exercise is only to teach you what the actual shapes of
such masses are when seen against the sky.

80. Make two careful studies of this kind of one bough of every common
tree,--oak, ash, elm, birch, beech, etc.; in fact, if you are good, and
industrious, you will make one such study carefully at least three times
a week, until you have examples of every sort of tree and shrub you can
get branches of. 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 organization of
branches from that seen in the view from above. They are generally seen
more or less in p