THE LILY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 175 



The actual number of blooms upon the lily 

 stalk has also its significance. Some think they 

 should be three in number, two fully opened 

 flowers and one in bud, forming what Rossetti 

 terms the ' Tripoint.' 



' r the centre is the Tripoint: perfect each 

 Except the second of its points, to teach 

 That Christ is not yet born.' 



Several of the masters of the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries painted the two flowers 

 with the bud or three fully-opened blooms, but 

 more often, arguing possibly that this hly was 

 the emblem of God the Son when made Man, 

 and not of the Holy Trinity, they painted simply 

 a natural lily plant with clustering buds and one 

 or many blossoms, taking the whole plant as the 

 symbol. 



Sometimes the vase holds three distinct 

 stalks of hhes with a single bloom on each, an 

 arrangement which was suggested, it is said, by 

 the Dominican legend of the doubting Master. 



A Master of the Dominicans, unable to believe 

 in the stainlessness of the Blessed Virgin, went 

 to ask help of the saintly brother Egidius. 



' O Master of the Preachers,' said Egidius, 



