positive and negative forms has changed. A number of incisions, hardly
yet indicated in the first leaf, have become quite conspicuous. The
leaf begins to look as if it were breaking up into a number of
subdivisions.

In the next leaf we find this process still further advanced. The large
incisions have almost reached the centre, while a number of smaller
ones at the periphery have also grown deeper into the leaf. The basic
plan of the total leaf is still maintained, but the negative forms have
so far got the upper hand that the original roundness is no longer
obvious.

The last leaf shows the process in its extreme degree. As we glance
back and along the whole series of development, we recognize that the
form of the last leaf is already indicated in that of the first. It
appears as if the form has gradually come to the fore through certain
forces which have increasingly prevented the leaf from filling in the
whole of its ground-plan with matter. In the last leaf the common plan
is still visible in the distribution of the veins, but the fleshy part
of the leaf has become restricted to narrow strips along these veins.

The metamorphosis of the delphinium leaf (Plate III) is of a different
character. Here the plant begins with a highly elaborate form of the
leaf, while in the end nothing remains but the barest indication of it.
The impression received from this series of leaves is that of a gradual
withdrawal of the magnificent form, revealed in its fullness only in
the first leaf.

A more intense impression of what these metamorphoses actually mean is
achieved by altering our mode of contemplation in the following way.