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.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci

VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.

. . .

Classification of trees.

The relative thickness of the branches to the trunk.

394,

The law of proportion in the growth of the branches.

396,

397,

398,

399,

400,

401,

The direction of growth.

403,

404,

405,

406,

The forms of trees.

408,

409,

410,

The insertion of the leaves.

412,

413,

414,

415,

416,

417,

418,

Light on branches and leaves.

420,

421,

The proportions of light and shade in a leaf.

423,

424,

425,

Of the transparency of leaves.

427,

428,

The gradations of shade and colour in leaves.

. . .