A DESCRIPTION OF THE ELM.
The ramification of the elm has the largest branch at the top. The first and the last but one are smaller, when the main trunk is straight.
The space between the insertion of one leaf to the rest is half the extreme length of the leaf or somewhat less, for the leaves are at an interval which is about the 3rd of the width of the leaf.
The elm has more leaves near the top of the boughs than at the base; and the broad [surface] of the leaves varies little as to [angle and] aspect.
[Footnote: See Pl. XXVII, No. 3. Above the sketch and close under the number of the page is the word ‘olmo’ (elm).]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.