Plants Shaped by Storm; Light, Shade and Luster in Leaves
Coastal trees bent by wind; transparency, air-light, and luster on foliage
This page gathers precepts on the whole plant and on light in foliage. Some plants are shaped perfectly by nature and some are stunted by natural defect, by men's cutting, or by lightning, wind and storm, and trees near windy shores grow permanently bent. Turning to light, Leonardo notes that shadowed grass is seen against a ground of lit grass and lit grass against shadowed. He identifies three sources of a leaf's brightness: transparency when a leaf lies between the eye and the light, the plain illumination of the air, and luster; the transparent leaf shows a lovelier-than-natural color, the air-lit leaf its truest color, and the lustrous one partakes of the color of the air.
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Plants shaped by nature, defect, cutting and storm; shore trees bent (a)
Some plants are carried through perfectly by nature, while others are hindered by natural defect and dry up wholly or in part, or fall short through men's cutting, or through breakage by lightning, wind and other tempests. Trees born near the windy seashores are all bent by the wind, and thus bent they grow and remain.
Shadowed grass set against lit grass, and lit against shadowed (c)
Of grasses, some stand in shadow and some in light. If the eye faces the shadows it sees the shadowy grasses against a ground of the bright lit grasses; if it faces the light it sees the lit grasses against a ground of the dark shadowy grasses.
Three sources of a leaf's brightness: transparency, air-light, luster (d)
A leaf's brightness may come from transparency, when it lies between the eye and the light; from the simple illumination of the air; or from luster. The transparent leaf shows a more beautiful color than its natural one, the air-lit leaf shows its truest color, and the lustrous leaf partakes more of the color of the air.