How mountains grow; painting the plants of mountainous country
Narrowing bases and widening valleys; herbs and trees grow paler and smaller on lean high soil
Two chapters of the Treatise on Painting on mountainous landscape. The first, 'how the mountains grow', argues that as mountain bases continually narrow the valleys must widen, and the river keeps shifting its bed, depositing and re-eroding material rain by rain until each valley is unloaded of weight. The second instructs the painter that herbs and plants grow paler and trees smaller and thinner the leaner and drier the soil, which is poorest over bare rock near the summits and richer lower down. The leaf carries text only, with no diagram.
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Mountains 'grow' as bases narrow and valleys widen
The bases of mountains and hills continually narrow, so the valleys must widen. The river can no longer fill the widened valley and keeps shifting its site, leaving its course where it has deposited most material, gnawing the gravelly banks until it regains its ancient bed; and so from rain to rain each valley unloads itself of material and weight.
Paler herbs and smaller trees on lean, dry mountain soil
Herbs and plants are the paler the leaner and drier the soil that feeds them, and the soil is poorest over the bare rocks of the mountains. Trees grow smaller and thinner the nearer they come to the summits, where the soil is leanest, while lower down the soil is richer.
Depicting the qualities and members of mountainous country
The chapter instructs the painter in figuring the qualities and members of mountainous landscapes, correlating the colour and vigour of the vegetation with the poverty or richness of the ground at each height of the slope.