46 



FLORA OF THE 



before a similar tree ; and No. 38 shows two eagle-headed 

 genii holding a cone in one hand and a bucket in the 

 other, in the act of doing something to, or before, this 

 sacred tree. 



Fig. 17 shows a simpler form of the same sacred tree. 

 The tree in question has evidently, as its main motive, 

 a conventional date-palm. We see the upright stem, 

 marked with the attached triangular bases of the old 

 decayed leaves,^ and ending at the summit with the 

 characteristic plumose head of foliage. The circum- 

 ference in No. 16 is decorated with repetitions of the 

 plumose head of the date-palm, which everybody knows 

 well enough.^ The foliage of the main head has indi- 

 cations of the pinnate character of the date tree leaf; 



Fig. 18 — From Rawlinson's 

 'Five Great Monarchies.' 



Fig. 19 — Ram's Head. 



^ See figs. 3 and 4. 



2 In the British Museum there are some with two rows of circumferential 

 heads of foliage. 



