2;4 



NA TURE 



[July 17, il 



patterns ; we meet them often in the so-called Persian 

 textures and flat ornaments (Fig. 16). 



We now come to the third group of forms — the so- 

 called Cashmere pattern, or Indian palmetta. The de- 

 veloped forms which, when they hive attained their 

 highest development, often show us outlines that are 

 merely fanciful, and represent quite a bouquet of flowers 

 leaning over to one side, and springing from a vessel (the 

 whole corresponding to the Roman form with the vessel), 

 must be thrown to one side, while we follow up the 

 simpler forms, because in this case also we have no in- 

 formation as to either the where or the when the forms 

 originated. (Figs. 17, 18, 19.) 



Here again we are struck by resemblances to the 

 forms that were the subjects of our previous study, we 

 even come across direct transitional forms, which differ 

 from the others only by the lateral curve of the apex of 

 the leaf; sometimes it is the central part, the spadix, 

 that is bent outwards, and the very details show a striking 

 agreement with the structure of the Aroid inflorescence, so 

 much so that one might regard them as actually copied 

 from them. 



This form of ornament has been introduced into Europe 

 since the French expedition to Egypt, owing to the im- 

 portation of genuine Cashmere shawls. (When it cropped 

 up in isolated forms, as in Venice in the fifteenth century, 

 it appears not to have exerted any influence ; its intro- 

 duction is perhaps rather to be attributed to calico-print- 

 ing.) Soon afterwards the European shawl-manufacture, 

 which is still in a flourishing state, was introduced. 

 Falcot informs us that designs of a celebrated French 

 artist, Couder, for shawl-patterns, a subject that he studied 

 in India itself, were exported back to that country and 

 used there (Fig. 20). 



In these shawl-patterns the original simple form meets 

 us in a highly developed, magnificent, and splendidly 

 coloured differentiation and elaboration. This we can 

 have no scruples in ranking along with the mediaeval 

 plane-patterns, which we have referred to above, among 

 the highest achievements of decorative art. 



It is evident that it, at any rate in this high stage of 

 development, resisted fusion with Western forms of art. 

 It is all the more incumbent upon us to investigate the 

 laws of its existence, in order to make it less alien to us, 

 or perhaps to assimilate it to ourselves by attaining to an 

 understanding of those laws. A great step has been 

 made when criticism has, by a more painstaking study, 

 put itself into a position to characterise as worthless, 

 ignorantly imitated, or even original, miscreations such as 

 are eternally cropping up. If we look at our modern 

 manufactures immediately after studying patterns which 

 enchant us with their classical repose, or after it such 

 others as captivate the eye by their beautiful colouring, 

 or the elaborative working out of their details, we recog- 

 nise that the beautifully-balanced form is often cut up, 

 choked over with others, or mangled (the flower springing 

 upside down from the leaves), the whole being traversed 

 at random by spirals, which are utterly foreign to the 

 spirit of such a style, and all this at the caprice of un- 

 cultured boorish designers. Once we see that the 

 original of the form was a plant, we shall ever in the 

 developed artistic form cling, in a general way at least, to 

 the laws of its organisation, and we shall at any rate be 

 in a position to avoid violent incongruities. 



I had resort, a few years ago, to the young botanist 

 Ruhmer, assistant at the Botanical Museum at Schone- 

 berg, who has unfortunately since died of some chest- 

 disease, in order to get some sort of a groundwork for 

 direct investigations. I asked him to look up the literature 

 of the subject, with respect to the employment of the 

 Indian Aracea:' for domestic uses or in medicine. A de- 

 tailed work on the subject was produced, and establishes 

 that, quite irrespective of species of Alocasia and Colocasia 

 that have been referred to, a large number of Aracere were 



employed for all sorts of domestic purposes. Scindapsus, 

 which was used as a medicine, has actually retained a 

 Sanscrit name, " vustiva." I cannot here go further into 

 the details of this investigation, but must remark that 

 even the incomplete and imperfect drawings of these 

 plants, which, owing to the difficulty of preserving them, 

 are so difficult to collect through travellers, exhibit such a 

 wealth of shape, that it is quite natural that Indian and 

 Persian flower-loving artists should be quite taken with 

 them and employ them enthusiastically in decorative art. 

 Let me also mention that Haeckel, in his " Letters of an 

 Indian Traveller," very often bears witness to the effect 

 of the Aracea? upon the general appearance of the vege- 

 tation, both in the full and enormous development of 

 species of Caladia and in the species of Pothos which 

 form such impenetrable mazes of interlooping stems. 



In conclusion, allow me to remark that the results of 

 my investigation, of which but a succinct account has been 

 given here, negative certain derivations, which have been 

 believed in, though they have never been proved ; such 

 as that of the form I have last discussed from the 

 Assyrian palmetta, or from a cypress bent down by the 

 wind. To say the least the laws of formation here laid 

 down have a more intimate connection with the forms, as 

 they have come down to us, and give us a better handle 

 for future use and development. The object of the inves- 

 tigation was, in general words, to prepare for an explana- 

 tion of the questions raised, and even if the results had 

 turned out other than they have, it would have sufficed me 

 to have given an impulse to labours which will testify to 

 the truth of the dead master's words : — 



" Was Du ererbt von deinen Vatern hast, 

 Erwirb es, urn es zu besitzen." 



NOTES 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy-four years, <>f 

 Prof. Lepsius, the celebrated Egyptologist. 



The conference and jury work at the Health Exhibition is 

 now in full swing, and we are glad to note that, with regard to 

 the Conference, all the societies and organisations that have to 

 deal with subjects akin to health or education are taking up the 

 matter very warmly, so that the executive of the Exhibition has 

 the advice and opinion of many experts. The recent open- 

 ing of the Educational Section by the Prince of Wales, to which 

 we have already referred, has recently drawn more attention 

 to the mens Sana, the corpus samtm having up to the present 

 moment been alone regarded. From the first we consider that 

 the matter of education has been placed altogether in far too 

 secondary a position, and if a little more trouble had been taken 

 by those who are responsible for the Exhibition, the educational 

 exhibits might have been as extensive and as important as those 

 regarding health. That is the more to be regretted because so 

 much is being said about education nowadays, especially tech- 

 nical education, by those who know very often very little of 

 what is really wanted, and of what true technical education 

 really means. The members of the various juries are working 

 with a will, and from what we learn we do not think it probable 

 that the objections made to some of the awards last year will be 

 renewed this. The opportunity which has been afforded to the 

 exhibitors of practically nominating a considerable number of 

 jurymen is a measure well adapted to allow the thing to work 

 smoothly. One of the great difficulties encountered by the jury- 

 men has been the hurried way in which the Exhibition itself has 

 been put together and catalogued. We have for too great an 

 extent a succession of shops containing various articles, instead 

 of a complete separation of the various articles among their 

 several classes. This of course gives great trouble to all con- 

 cerned, and is an administrative blunder which should not be 

 allowed to be repeated. 



