I02 



FLORA OF THE 



sure to be idolized. If not itself deified, it was made 

 the symbol of the Nile-god. 



There is, therefore, no difficulty whatever in recog- 

 nizing such a thing as the lotus to have been the 

 original model of the Egyptian decorations, assuming 

 transformations of a hundred fashions by passing through 

 the imaginative grey matter of later brains. 



But what I feel a difficulty in recognizing is that 

 this lotus-model was the sole one which gave origin to 

 all ancient oriental decorations, of whatever nation. 



In pi. 3, fig. 10, of the 'Grammar of the Lotus' it 

 becomes evident to me that the lotus flower began to be 

 combined with a date-palm leaf. And in pi. ii, fig. i 

 and pi. 6"], fig. 2 we notice a further Assyrian influence. 

 The lotus flower is converted into the ' luck-horns ' of the 

 Assyrian sacred tree, which support a date leaf as repre- 

 sentative of an entirp palmette (fig. 40). 



Fig. 40— (;;) from pi. ii, fig. i ; [h] from pi. 67, fig. 2. 

 'Gram, of the Lotus.' 



