146 FLORA OF THE 



as shown in fig. 75, is not unlike the heraldic device ; but 

 unfortunately the flower of heraldry has inherited the 

 ligature, by which the ' luck-horns ' were kept on the 

 trees in Assyria, an inheritance fatal to the notion of 

 its descent from either an iris or a lily. 



Compare this 'fleur-de-lys' (fig. yG) with the 'luck-horns' 

 tied to the stems of the sacred trees and those on the 

 tabernacle pole (fig. Gj). 



Now it is not improbable that the Crusades may have 

 had something to do with the extended use of this 

 device, as a heraldic emblem in France. 



It seems reasonable to me that the ' fleur-de-lys,' as 

 we see it in heraldry, had its birth-place in Assyria, and 

 that there it was merely a modified form of the horns 

 tied on date trees, on posts, and in other places, to keep 

 off the evil eye. 



This emblem may have come extensively into use in 

 Europe by being re-imported from Syria, with the return 

 of the Crusaders, for it was about this time that the 

 * fleur-de-lys ' was used as a royal emblem in France. 



Indeed, in the ' Plants of History ' ^ this legend occurs : 

 " the whole history of the ' fleur-de-lys ' is apparently 

 summed up in the tradition that when Louis VII, 

 king of France, was setting out on his crusade to the 

 Holy Land he chose the purple Iris as his heraldic 

 emblem." 



Cooke's 'Freaks of Plant Life,' p. 457. 



