ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 149 



into Europe by the Crusaders, and first used /// France 

 as a royal emblem by Louis VII, it may also have, to 

 some extent, and long before that time, found its way 

 to the south of Europe, before the Crusades, through the 

 Phoenicians, who traded all over the Mediterranean. We 

 may feel sure that an emblem or charm of luck, if 

 known to them, would have been carried with them 

 on all their voyages. 



Prof. Minasse Tcheraz, in 'I'Armenie,' of 15th October, 

 1S92, states that "it is not improbable that the lily 

 or iris may have given Crusaders the idea of the ' fleur- 

 de-lys.' .... The lily and iris are very abundant in 

 Armenian valleys." 



It is quite true that the lily and the iris are common 

 in Armenia ; but it does not at all follow that the 

 ' fleur-de-l}-s ' was copied from them. Both the lily and 

 the iris, when they open, curve down their petals, and 

 (roughly speaking) offer some resemblance to the ' fleur- 

 de-lys.' But its connection with these flowers may have 

 been quite an after ihoiight, owing to the real origin of 

 the ' fleur-dc-lys ' having been forgotten. We know the 

 Armenians had this symbol on their MSS. and as 

 a matter of fact the Assyrians had it either ' tale 

 quale,' or modified, on their monuments and cylinders.^ 



^ According to Nicholson's 'Encyclopaedia of Horticulture,' a considerable 

 number of Irises are indigenous to W. Asia : — /?-is pumila, Sanibucina, and 

 Persica belong to Asia Minor ; Iris Histno to Palestine ; and Iris aphylla, 

 cretensis, flaviscens, F^eudo-Acorus, and others, to Western Asia. 



