no FLORA OF THE 



meaning. In composite flowers, like the daisy, mar- 

 guerite, and many others, there is the ray and the disc. 

 The outer florets of the disc, as they open, form a ring, 

 and this may have been noticed by those shrewd 

 Assyrian artists ; I do not therefore think that we 

 should be justified in looking on ' every rosette in 

 creation ' as a copy of the stigma of the lotus. There 

 may have been rosettes and rosettes. Composite flowers 

 are by far the most numerous,^ so that ancient artists 

 had enough rosettes to choose from. But what removes 

 all doubt about a daisy-like flower having been copied 

 by the ancients as a rosette, is that Mr. Flinders 

 Petrie discovered the daisy or marguerite ' in propria 

 persona ' on glazed tiles in Tel-el-Amarna.^ I have 

 given it in fig. 48, which I copied from Mr. Petrie's 

 exhibition.^ It has a ivhitc ray zvilh a yelloiv centre. 

 The latter is divided into little squares by crossed 

 lines, to indicate the unexpanded florets of the disc. 

 Mr. Petrie also exhibited coloured copies of pavement 

 and wall paintings, in which a red poppy, a blue 

 thistle (or centaurea ?), a sedge, a grass, and others, 

 are easily made out. So it would be unfair to credit 

 the ancient Egyptian artists with only ' one lotus string 

 to their bow.' 



^ Bentham and Hooker, 'Genera Plantarum,' say: " Ordo omnium vas- 

 tissimus .... species enumeramus ad 9800, auctores alii ultra 12000 recen- 

 siunt, per orbem totum terrarum dispersas ! " 



^ Also No. 15965, Miscellaneous Porcelain Objects, British Museum. 



* Opened 19th September, 1892, at No. 4, Oxford Mansions. 



