How the Wind Bends and Shapes Trees; Waves Over Forests
Dense, tall, leafy trees bend most; branch straightening and yearly growth
Continuing on wind and trees, Leonardo observes that a tree's branches look denser toward the side the wind comes from, where the wind packs the windward twigs together, while the leeward branches, pierced by the wind, spread apart and thin out. Among trees of equal size the one whose side-branches stay closest to its trunk bends most, and taller, denser-leaved trees bend more than others. He compares the waves the wind drives across great forests, grainfields and meadows to those seen on the sea. He adds notes on the dark shade of laurel, on branches straightening toward the center of their ramification, and on the annual thickening of branches.
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Wind packs windward twigs and thins leeward branches
The wind striking the tops of trees turned toward it presses their windward branches against the stronger ones, so that there the foliage grows dense and little transparent. The opposite, leeward branches, struck by the wind that penetrates the tree's gaps, are driven from the center of the plant and rarefy.
Taller, denser-leaved trees bend most in wind
Of plants of equal thickness and height, the one whose side-branch-ends stay closest to its middle bends most, because the spread of its branches makes no shield at the trunk against the wind. Taller trees are bent more by the wind's course, and plants denser in leaves are bent more by its buffeting.
Wind drives waves across forests and fields as on the sea
In great forests, and in the grainfields and meadows, waves made by the wind are seen no otherwise than as they appear on the sea or on open waters.
Laurel's dark shade, branch straightening, and yearly growth (a, b, d)
a. The plant of denser, thicker leaves, such as the laurel, casts the darker shadow. b. Branch-runs not weighed down by leaves or fruit all straighten toward the center of their ramification. d. Each year the tree adds a fresh layer to the thickness of every branch, and the yearly increments taken together equal the parent trunk.