138 PROSERPINA. 



instinct of its being so, caused the twisted pillar to be used 

 in the Lombardic Gothic, at first, merely as a pleasant 

 variety of form, but at last constructively and universally, 

 by Giotto, and all the architects of his school. Not that 

 the spiral form actually adds to the strength of a Loin- 

 bardic pillar, by imitating contortions of wood, any more 

 than the fluting of a Doric shaft adds to its strength by 

 imitating the canaliculation of a reed; but the perfect 

 action of the imagination, which had adopted the encir- 

 cling acanthus for the capital, adopted the twining sternma 

 for the shaft ; the pure delight of the eye being the first 

 condition in either case: and it is inconceivable how much 

 of the pleasure taken both in ornament and in natural 

 form is founded elementarily on groups of spiral line. 

 The study in our fifth plate, of the involucre of the waste- 

 thistle,* is as good an example as I can give of the more 

 subtle and concealed conditions of this structure. 



14. Returning to our present business of nomenclature, 

 we find the Greek word, ' steimna/ adopted by the Latins, 



* Carduus Arvensis. 4 Creeping Thistle/ in Sowerby ; why, I cannot 

 conceive, for there is no more creeping in it than in a f urzebush. But 

 it especially haunts foul and neglected ground; so I keep the Latin 

 name, translating ' Waste- Thistle/ I could not show the variety of the 

 curves of the involucre without enlarging; and if, on this much in- 

 creased scale, I had tried to draw the flower, it would have taken Mr. 

 Allen and me a good month's more work. And I had no more a month 

 than a life, to spare : so the action only of the spreading flower is indi- 

 cated, but the involucre drawn with precision. 



