nd, first, of vegetation. You may think, perhaps, we have said
enough about trees already; yet if you have done as you were bid, and
tried to draw them frequently enough, and carefully enough, you will be
ready by this time to hear a little more of them. You will also
recollect that we left our question, respecting the mode of expressing
intricacy of leafage, partly unsettled in the first letter. I left it so
because I wanted you to learn the real structure of leaves, by drawing
them for yourself, before I troubled you with the most subtle
considerations as to method in drawing them. And by this time, I
imagine, you must have found out two principal things, universal facts,
about leaves; namely, that they always, in the main tendencies of their
lines, indicate a beautiful divergence of growth, according to the law
of radiation, already referred to;[29] and the second, that this
divergence is never formal, but carried out with endless variety of
individual line. I must now press both these facts on your attention a
little farther.

128. You may, perhaps, have been surprised that I have not yet spoken of
the works of J. D. Harding, especially if you happen to have met with
the passages referring to them in Modern Painters, in which they are
highly praised. They are deservedly praised, for they are the only
works by a modern[30] draughtsman which express in any wise the energy
of trees, and the laws of growth, of which we have been speaking. There
are no lithographic sketches which, for truth of general character,
obtained with little cost of time, at all rival Harding's. Calame,
Robert, and the other lithographic landscape sketchers are altogether
inferior in power, though sometimes a little deeper in meaning. But you
must not take even Harding for a model, though you may use his works for
occasional reference; and if you can afford to buy his Lessons on
Trees,[31] it will be serviceable to you in various ways, and will at
present help me to explain the point under consideration. And it is well
that I should illustrate this point by reference to Harding's works,
because their great influence on young students renders it desirable
that their real character should be thoroughly understood.

129. You will find, first, in the titlepage of the Lessons on Trees, a
pretty wood-cut, in which the tree stems are drawn with great truth, and
in a very interesting arrangement of lines. Plate 1 is not quite worthy
of Mr. Harding, tend