58 FLORA OF THE 



being presented to the king, for in No, 42, Kouyunjik 

 Gallery, British Museum, we have men carrying piles 

 of pomegranates to the palace. 



It is also possible that, owing to the multiplicity of 

 the grains, all enclosed in a sort of common womb, 

 this fruit may have been considered as an emblem of 

 fruitfulness. 



Anyhow, there is little doubt that the pomegranate 

 tree in those days was an all-round useful tree Stand- 

 ing before the fir tree shown in fig. 25, from the 

 Louvre, Sargon is shown with a bunch of three pome- 

 granates in one hand. All this indicates that, for 

 whatever reason, the pomegranate tree was held in 

 veneration. Its usefulness and commonness brought it 

 readily to the artists' mind. 



A fourth sacred tree is that shown in fig. 25. It is 

 in the Louvre, and it is in front of this that Sargon 

 is standing, with a bunch of pomegranates in one 

 hand, 



I don't think this sacred tree can be mistaken for 

 anything but a conventional fir tree. It shows that 

 the Assyrian artists, when they wished to represent a 

 fir tree, knew very well how to idealize it for decor- 

 ative purposes without suppressing its character. Its 

 straight, clean, conical stem, symmetrical branches ; its 

 cones, in groups of threes, as often occurs in certain 

 firs, stamp it as meant for a coniferous tree. More- 



