THE IRIS. 399 



Others, again, incline to the belief that the flower 

 was the original device ; and it certainly is difficult 

 to suppose that the name originated in that of the 

 king who adopted it, or that the fleur de Louis, or 

 fleur de St. Louis, as it was sometimes written, was 

 gradually corrupted into fleur de luce, and thence 

 into fleur de lys. Indeed, the love of punning de- 

 vices,* and of play upon words, common in those 

 days, is more likely to have discovered a resemblance 

 between the name of the flower and that of the 

 king, after it had been employed as a device, than 

 to have led to its adoption. Nor is there any proof 

 of its having been first adopted by a Louis. The 

 device is very unlike the real flower ; and it has, 

 therefore, been conjectured that it was derived from 

 some other object, the form of which had obtained for 

 it a particular respect, in consequence of its being 

 considered a proper symbol of the Trinity. At the 

 same time we must admit that the conventional 

 mode of drawing in those days may have so repre- 

 sented the lily. 



This plant was considered peculiarly sacred to the 

 Virgin Mary, as shewn in the pleasant and suggestive 



* See above, " Broom" and "Thistle." In the same spirit is 

 the old representation of the Dominican friars under the form 

 of dogs Domini canes which protect the flock and kill the 

 wolves ; and they are thus figured by Simone Memmi in the 

 chapter house of S. Maria Novella, at Florence. A dog is 

 sculptured, among the figures in the porch of the Duomo of 

 Verona, habited in a white dress with a cowl, and bearing an 

 open book, in which is written A. B. Porcell. But this, 

 probably, refers to some individual. I believe it to be of the 

 twelfth century. 



