Out of the thick, fleshy leaves of a cactus there rose an aloe stem loaded with pale flowers that looked as though they had been cut out of butter; light flashed upon the lifted spears of the palms; over a bed of scarlet waxen flowers some big black insects “zoom-zoomed”; a great, gaudy creeper, orange splashed with jet, sprawled against a wall.
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

The first has a long creeping and jointed root, sending forth tufts at each joint, from which joints rise long, flat, slender, knotted stalks, even to the top of the water, divided towards the top into many branches, each carrying two leaves on both sides, being about two [40] inches long, and half an inch broad, thin and almost transparent; they look as though they were torn; the flowers are long, thick, and whitish, set together almost like a bunch of grapes, which being gone, there succeed, for the most part, sharp pointed grains all together, containing a small white kernel in them.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Five new wands with bamboo leaves attached to them had been set up for the festival.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

At last Anselmo and I agreed to leave the village and come to this valley; and, he feeding a great flock of sheep of his own, and I a large herd of goats of mine, we pass our life among the trees, giving vent to our sorrows, together singing the fair Leandra’s praises, or upbraiding her, or else sighing alone, and to heaven pouring forth our complaints in solitude.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

But it was uncommonly comfortable to look at, Tom thought.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

and unfortunately" (speaking low and tremulously) "there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen

But Don Alfonso stood with downcast looks, And, truth to say, he made a foolish figure; When, after searching in five hundred nooks, And treating a young wife with so much rigour, He gain'd no point, except some self-rebukes, Added to those his lady with such vigour Had pour'd upon him for the last half-hour, Quick, thick, and heavy—as a thunder-shower.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

The axioms and postulates of that dreary mimanthropometry are so well known that it is almost impossible for its slaves to write tolerable last acts to their plays, so conventionally do their conclusions follow from their premises.
— from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw

“Well, I knew when I came here that there was a casket concealed in a safe with a secret lock, and that the seven-of-hearts was the key to that lock.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

Parents living?” “As to that, I know not if they be yet on live, sith it is many years that I have lain shut up in the castle.”
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Black, shining; antennæ black, nearly reaching the epistoma; 3rd joint linear, about thrice the length of the 2nd; arista simple; abdomen bluish black; wings grey; veins black, testaceous at the base; discal transverse vein straight, upright, parted by less than its length from the border and by more than twice its length from the præbrachial transverse; halteres white.
— from Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 4 Zoology by Linnean Society of London

He saw her now—he was idealising again, no doubt, to some degree, after that generous fashion of his which no cold steel of experience could quite eradicate—as capable of the depths and heights of emotion; no longer as tethered too tight by reason and good sense, somewhat too critical, a trifle too humdrum in her notions—that was the conception of her which he had in the days of Bernadette's reign.
— from A Young Man's Year by Anthony Hope

"I want to tell you something—something I've been longing always to tell you, and now I have got dear Muriel's consent.
— from The Czar's Spy: The Mystery of a Silent Love by William Le Queux

Indeed, since the snow became two feet deep (as I wanted a 'chaappin of Yale' from the public-house), I made an offer of them to Margery the maid, but her legs are too thick to make use of them, and I am told that the greater part of my parishioners are not less substantial, and notwithstanding this they are remarkable for agility.
— from The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson) by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood

Here, of course, is where the advantage of her new-found leisure appears, but even the desire to learn and the time in which to learn would avail little if it were not for the fact that the means of securing information are continually improving.
— from Home Problems from a New Standpoint by Caroline Louisa Hunt

“Let’s have the new records, then, by all means,” said Varrell, looking across the table at the silent captain.
— from Making the Nine by Albertus T. (Albertus True) Dudley

After which the mysterious creature laughed in a manner that set Julian's mind reflecting on how he had heard the Indians of old laughed at the tortures endured by their victims.
— from A Bitter Heritage: A Modern Story of Love and Adventure by John Bloundelle-Burton

He felt a sort of degradation in being thus pent up, like a wild beast in a cage; and though with invincible patience he had lain a thousand times more still in many an ambuscade, he felt an almost irresistible desire to unbolt the door, and assure himself that he was really at large, by going forth and exercising his limbs in the free air.
— from Darnley; or, The Field of the Cloth of Gold by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

"We couldn't find a decent 'ouse anywhere," said Kipps, leaning against the table and assuming an offhand note.
— from Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

One young hero of eighteen, fresh from Winchester, in all the importance of a probationary Fellow, explained for our [Pg 82] benefit, by the help of the forks and salt-cellars, the line which the horses undoubtedly ought to have taken, and which they did not take; until one of his old schoolfellows, who was present, was provoked to treat us to an anecdote of the young gentleman's first appearance in the hunting-field—no longer ago than the last term—when he mistook the little rough Scotch terrier that always accompanied ----'s pack for the fox, and tally-ho'd him so lustily as to draw upon himself sundry very energetic, but not very complimentary, remarks from the well-known master of the hounds.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 363, January, 1846 by Various