V. PAPAVER R1IOEAS. 105 



including all sacred things carried at the feasts of Deme- 

 ter, Bacchus, and the Queen of the Air. And this spring- 

 ing of the thorny weeds round the basket of reed, dis- 

 tinctly taken up by the Byzantine Italians in the basket- 

 work capital of the twelfth century, (which I have already 

 illustrated at length in the ' Stones of Venice,') becomes 

 the germ of all capitals whatsoever, in the great schools 

 of Gothic, to the end of Gothic time, and also of all the 

 capitals of the pure and noble Renaissance architecture of 

 Angelico and Perugino, and all that was learned from 

 them in the north, while the introduction of the rose, as 

 a primal element of decoration, only takes place when 

 the luxury of English decorated Gothic, the result of that 

 licentious spirit in the lords which brought on the Wars 

 of the Roses, indicates the approach of destruction to the 

 feudal, artistic, and moral power of the northern nations. 



For which reason, and many others, I must yet delay 

 the following out of our main subject-, till I have answered 

 the other question, which brought me to pause in the 

 middle of this chapter, namely, ' What is a weed? ' 

 5* 



