410

The forms of trees.

The cherry-tree is of the character of the fir tree as regards its ramification placed in stages round its main stem; and its branches spring, 4 or five or 6 [together] opposite each other; and the tips of the topmost shoots form a pyramid from the middle upwards; and the walnut and oak form a hemisphere from the middle upwards.

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
Light on branches and leaves.
420,
421,
422
The proportions of light and shade in a leaf.
423,
424,
425,
426
Of the transparency of leaves.
427,
428,
429
The gradations of shade and colour in leaves.
430
. . .