, Fig. 6.)]

Gather a branch from any of the trees or flowers to which the earth owes
its principal beauty. You will find that every one of its leaves is
terminated, more or less, in the form of the pointed arch; and to that
form owes its grace and character. I will take, for instance, a spray of
the tree which so gracefully adorns your Scottish glens and crags--there
is no lovelier in the world--the common ash. Here is a sketch of the
clusters of leaves which form the extremity of one of its young shoots
(_fig._ 4); and, by the way, it will furnish us with an interesting
illustration of another error in modern architectural systems. You know
how fond modern architects, like foolish modern politicians, are of
their equalities, and similarities; how necessary they think it that
each part of a building should be like every other part. Now Nature
abhors equality, and similitude, just as much as foolish men love them.
You will find that the ends of the shoots of the ash are composed of
four[4] green stalks bearing leaves, springing in the form of a cross,
if seen from above, as in _fig._ 5, Plate I., and at first you will
suppose the four arms of the cross are equal. But look more closely, and
you will find that two opposite arms or stalks have only five leaves
each, and the other two have seven; or else, two have seven, and the
other two nine; but always one pair of stalks has two leaves more than
the other pair. Sometimes the tree gets a little puzzled, and forgets
which is to be the longest stalk, and begins with a stem for seven
leaves where it should have nine, and then recollects itself at the last
minute, and puts on another leaf in a great hurry, and so produces a
stalk with eight leaves; but all this care it takes merely to keep
itself out of equalities; and all its grace and power of pleasing are
owing to its doing so, together with the lovely curves in which its
stalks, thus arranged, spring from the main bough. _Fig._ 5 is a plan of
their arrangement merely, but _fig._ 4 is the way in which you are most
likely to see them: and observe, they spring from the stalk _precisely
as a Gothic vaulted roof springs_, each stalk representing a rib of the
roof, and the leaves its crossing stones; and the beauty of each of
those leaves is altogether owing to its terminating in the Gothic form,
the pointed arch. Now do you think you would have liked your ash trees
as well, if Nature had taught them Greek, and shown them how to