399

The law of proportion in the growth of the branches.

The plant which gives out the smallest ramifications will preserve the straightest line in the course of its growth.

[Footnote: This passage is illustrated by two partly effaced sketches. One of these closely resembles the lower one given under No. 408, the other also represents short closely set boughs on an upright trunk.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

VII * X
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.
Classification of trees.
393
The relative thickness of the branches to the trunk.
394,
395
The law of proportion in the growth of the branches.
396,
397,
398,
399,
400,
401,
402
The direction of growth.
403,
404,
405,
406,
407
The forms of trees.
408,
409,
410,
411
The insertion of the leaves.
412,
413,
414,
415,
416,
417,
418,
419
. . .