modification were attached to the term, specifying in each particular instance what kind of leaf was referred to; and thus removing in fact the very expression which it is calculated to make. But surely the necessity for this would be very undesirable. - 2nd. Because the term "leaf" is exceedingly indefinite; "leaves" being of almost all forms, from nearly linear to broader than they are long. It also happens that in almost every spot of considerable size, there are many different forms of these bright elongated bodies: these are not infrequently mingled together. - To say therefore that "the penumbra of such a spot was covered with leaves" would convey no definite idea of the forms of those bodies.
You will doubless remember that I first used the word "straws" as
