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The phrase appears to refer to what would now be called stiff-leaf capitals, a characteristic feature of Early English Gothic as defined in Rickman (1817). Ruskin does not appear to use either term elsewhere in these notebooks or in his published works. Tudor-Craig (1998) suggests that the term ‘stiff leaf’ was ‘coined’ by Simpson (1909) p.128 and did not gain common currency until used by Gardner (1927). However, O.E.D. cites an example from 1851 where it is suggested that the word is already a part of the technical language of architecture in Turner (1851) I.ii.39.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]