352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



abacus.* Mechanically regarded, this form of capital is extremely 

 wasteful, the efficient portion of its expansion sometimes falling as low 

 as.l8.| 



It would be a difficult task to describe and classify the manifold deco- 

 rations which are applied to this capital. The subject could only be 

 handled after more accurate data of the capitals were furnished, and 

 an intimate acquaintance was had with the plant-life of Egypt. The 

 subjoined list is therefore offered in the most tentative manner, in the 

 hope that it may be revised by some competent hand.:}: I venture to 

 distinguish eleven decorations, as follows : (a) Sheaths, like those at 

 bottom of shaft ;§ (b) Square rings, as if one capital were set into 

 another ; || (c) Little bells on long sheaths, very similar to pictorial 

 representations of papyrus-heads ;H (d) Long lanceolate leaves, straight 

 or curved, with strongly-marked ribs ; ** (e) Ovate leaves, divided 

 palmately like fans ; "ft if) Long, fern-like, pinnate leaves ; XX 

 (g) Short scraps of stem-like astragal pieces ; §§ (h) Projecting semi- 

 circular brackets, reiterating in miniature the form of the whole cap- 

 ital ; mi (i) fhnbryonic volutes or scrolls ;^HT ( /) Peculiar two-horned, 

 calyx-like figures ; *** (k) Even grape-vines.f ft 



A slight examination of these capitals suggests three remarks about 

 the disposition of these decorations. First, they do not enter into the 

 interior composition of the capital ; indeed, they often seem to have 

 stems which are slipped under the astragal. Second, as a rule they are 

 evenly distributed around the entire circuit of the simple capitals, but 

 grouped in and about the vertical hollows between the half-bells of the 



* Lcpsius, i. 88, 89. 



t In the great columns in the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak. 



J It is said that there is a good classification of Ptolemaic capitals in 

 the MS. department of the British Museum. See Wilkinson, Anc. Egs., ii. 293, 

 note 1. 



§ De'scription, i. 8, fig. 15. 



|| Ibid., i. 8, figs. 1, 2, 4. 



Tf Lepsius, i. 81, a, b; 108, viii. 



** Description, i. 8, fig. 15. Compare leaflets of Cruet/era Thebaica, Descr., 

 (Natural Hist,) iii. 1. 



tt Ibid., i. 75, figs. 1, 4,6. Compare the same palm as under (d). 



ft Ibid., i. 8, fig. 14. 



§§ Ibid., i. 56. 



Illl Ibid., i. 41. 



If Ibid., i. 75, fig. 11 ; 78, fig. 5; Lepsius, i. 108. 



*** Ibid., i. 75, fig. 9. 



ttt Ibid., i. 77, fig. 9. 



