250 



NA TURE 



[July 10, i S84 



ment, I ask your permission to go back at once to the very 

 oldest of the known forms. They come down to us from 

 the golden era of Greek decorative art — from the fourth or 

 fifth century B.C., — when the older simple styles of archi- 

 tecture were supplanted by styles characterised by a 

 greater richness of structure and more developed orna- 

 ment. A number of flowers from capitals in Priene, 

 Miletus, Eleusis, Athens (monument of Lysicrates), and 

 Pergamon ; also flowers from the calathos of a Greek 

 caryatid in the Villa Albani near Rome, upon many 

 Greek sepulchral wreaths, upon the magnificent gold hel- 

 met of a Grecian warrior (in the Museum of St. Peters- 

 burg), — these show us the simplest type of the pattern 111 

 question, a folded leaf, that has been bulged out, inclosing 

 a knob or a little blossom (see Figs. 3 and 4). This is 

 an example from the Temple of Apollo at Miletus, one that 

 was constructed about ten years ago, for educational pur- 

 poses. Here is the specimen of the flower of the monu- 

 ment to Lysicrates at Athens, of which the central part 

 consists of a small flower or fruits (Figs. 5 and 6). 



The form passes over into Roman art. The larger scale 

 of the buildings, and the pretensions to a greater richness 

 in details, lead to a further splitting up of the leaf into 

 Acanthus-like forms. Instead of a fruit-form a fir-cone 

 appears, or a pine-apple or other fruit in an almost 

 naturalistic form. 



In a still larger scale we have the club shaped knob 

 developing into a plant-stem branching off something 

 after the fashion of a candelabra, and the lower part of 



the leaf, where it is folded together in a somewhat bell- 

 shaped fashion, becomes in the true sense of the word a 

 campanulum, out of which an absolute vessel-shaped form, 

 as e.g. is to be seen in the frieze of the Basilica Ulpia 

 in Rome, becomes developed. 



Such remains of pictorial representation as are still 

 extant present us with an equally perfect series of deve- 

 lopments. The splendid Graco-Italian vessels, the richly 

 ornamented Apulian vases, show flowers in the spirals of 

 the ornaments, and even in the foreground of the pictorial 

 representations, which correspond exactly to the above- 

 mentioned Greek relief representations. [The lecturer 

 sent round, among other illustrations, a small photograph 

 of a celebrated vase in Naples (representing the funeral 

 rites of Patroclus), in which the flower in question appears 

 in the foreground, and is perhaps also employed as 

 ornament (Figs. 7 and 8).] 



The Pompeian paintings and mosaics, and the Roman 

 paintings, of which unfortunately very few specimens have 

 come down to us, show that the further developments of 

 this form were most manifold, and indeed they form in 

 conjunction with the Roman achievements in plastic art 

 the highest point that this form reached in its develop- 

 ment, a point that the Renaissance, which followed hard 

 upon it, did not get beyond. 



Thus the work of Raphael from the loggias follows in 

 unbroken succession upon the forms from the Thermae of 



Titus. It is only afterwards that a freer handling of the 

 traditional pattern arose, characterised by the substitution 

 of, for instance, maple, or whitethorn, for the Acanthus-like 

 forms. Often even the central part falls away completely, 

 or is replaced by overlapping leaves. In the forms of this 

 century we have the same process repeated. Schinkel 

 and Bbtticher began with the Greek form, and have put it 

 to various uses ; Stuler, Strack, Gropius, and others fol- 

 lowed in their wake until the more close resemblance to 

 the forms of the period of the Renaissance in regard to 

 Roman art which characterises the present day was 

 attained (Fig. 9). 



Now what plant suggested this almost indispensable 

 form of ornament, which ranks along with the Acanthus 

 and Palmetta, and which has also become so important 

 by a certain fusion with the structural laws of both ? 



We meet with the organism of the form in the family 

 of the Aracea? or Aroid plants. An enveloping leaf 

 (bract), called the spathe, which is often brilliantly coloured, 

 surrounds the florets, or fruits, that are disposed upon a 

 spadix. Even the older writers — Theophrastus, Dios- 

 corides, Galen, and Pliny — devote a considerable amount 

 of attention to several species of this interesting family, 



especially to the value of their swollen stems as a food- 

 stuff, to their uses in medicine, Sic. Some species of 

 Arum were eaten, and even nowadays the value of the 

 swollen stems of some species of the family causes them 

 to be cultivated, as, for instance, in Egypt and India, &c. 

 (the so-called Portland sago, Portland Island arrowroot, 

 is prepared from the swollen stems of Arum maculatum). 

 In contrast with the smooth or softly undulating outlines 

 of the spathe of Mediterranean Araceae, one species 

 stands out in relief, in which the sharply-marked fold of 

 the spathe almost corresponds to the forms of the orna- 

 ments which we are discussing. It is Dracunculus vul- 

 garis, and derives its name from its stem, which is 

 spotted like a snake. This plant, which is pretty widely 

 distributed in olive-woods and in the river-valleys of the 

 countries bordering on the Mediterranean, was employed 

 to a considerable extent in medicine by the ancients (and 

 is so still nowadays, according to von Heldreich, in 

 Greece). It was, besides, the object of particular re- 

 gard, because it was said not only to heal snake-bite, but 

 the mere fact of having it about one was supposed to keep 

 away snakes, who were said altogether to avoid the places 

 where it grew. But, apart from this, the striking appear- 



