98 FLORA OF THE 



Le Maout and Decaisne and other botanists place the 

 poppies close to the ISlynnpJiccas. 



Then Miss Edwards goes on to try to prove that 

 the Ionic volutes are direct descendants of the outer 

 sepals of the lotus flower. There may be apparently 

 transition forms between the two, but it does not at all 

 follozu that the Ionic volutes are 7iot descended from 

 the horns on the sacred trees of the Assyrians. It 

 can be readily shown that the capitals of the Assyrian 

 columns are distinctly made up of horns. We know 

 that horns among the Assyrians were of the greatest 

 spiritual importance, and as the ram's horns, as shown 

 on their ram's heads, would, in the hands of artists, 

 assimilate to decorative volutes with the greatest facility, 

 one does not see why the volute should have been 

 borrowed, more especially from the lotus petals than 

 from ram's horns, which are natural and ready made 

 volutes. 



My belief is that the Greek artists borrowed decora- 

 tive ideas both from the Egyptians and the Assyrians. 

 We know that the lotus is found in the palace pavement 

 of Sardanapalus (British Museum). We know also that 

 at Tel-el-Amarna, Mr. Petrie discovered clay amulet- 

 moulds, having the impressions of the conventionalized 

 Assyrian date trees. Is it to be wondered at that the 

 Phoenicians and the Greeks, who mixed with the other 

 two nations, should have borrowed from botJi. 



