AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 55 



crowned panther. Fig. 303 is a representation of the Columbine ; it is taken from Sherbourne, 

 Dorsetshire : a piece of 14th century work, and an admirable illustration of the due conventionalism 

 required by reason of the nature of the material in which the design is worked, all the characteristic 

 effect of the flower being produced without that painful elaboration and sense of labour lost that 

 must have ensued had a more literal rendering of Nature been attempted. The design, fig. 304, 

 is a simple repeat, based on the leaf-form represented in fig. 306. 



The generic name, Aquikgia, is bestowed upon this plant from a fancied resemblance of the 

 spur-like member to the claws of an eagle, Lat. Aquila, while the familiar English name. Columbine, 

 is derived from Columba, a dove, the petals clustering together, and presenting very much the appear- 

 ance of a group of doves or pigeons, as may be very well seen in the flower shown at fig. 300, or in 

 the enlarged buds marked 307, 308. An old name, now fallen into disuse, is the Culverwort, which, 

 though very different in sound to Columbine, is very similar in sense, being derived from the 

 Anglo-Saxon Cul/re, a pigeon. 



PLATES 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44. 



" Surely these are points not wholly uninteresting or uninstructive ; they are historical details which many persons may 

 rationally desire to know, and such as no man ever needs to feel himself ashamed of knowing. If I do not here give him the most 

 full and satisfactory intelligence on, each particular, let it be remembered that at least I neither cut off nor obstruct his way to more 

 copious sources ; on the contrary, I studiously direct the enquirer to further information, wheresoever the opportunity is afforded 

 me." — Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer, i8ji. 



The remaining plates are more especially devoted to the application of plants to the 

 purposes of design, and from the general sameness of purpose that runs through them, may very 

 conveniently be treated as a whole, dealing with them in the order to which our title refers, first 

 giving some slight description of the natural growth, and secondly, of the ornamental treatment 

 to which it most readily lends itself, adding to these any subordinate points that nevertheless it 

 would be well to take the opportunity of mentioning, if they can in any way be shewn to be 

 helpful to the practical designer. 



In fig. 309, the plant selected is the Cratoegus oxycantha, known familiarly as the Hawthorn, 

 Whitethorn, or May, a tree that at almost all periods has been regarded with affection and interest. 

 By the ancient Greeks and Romans it was adopted as the emblem of Hope. In France it is 

 called L'^pine noble, from a legendary belief that it supplied the thorny crown of our Saviour ; 

 hence it is affirmed that sounds of sighing are heard proceeding from it on the eve of each Good 

 Friday. Another legend relates that on the coming to England of St. Joseph of Arimathea as a 

 missionary, he planted his hawthorn staff in the earth one Christmas day, when it immediately 

 budded and blossomed ; a manifest and miraculous proof to the doubting heathen of his sacred 

 mission. It has also heraldic and antiquarian interest, for after the defeat and death of Richard III. 

 at Bosworth, the royal crown was hidden by one of his adherents in, a hawthorn bush; it was 

 however soon found, and being carried to Lord Stanley, he placed it on the brow of his son-in-law, 

 crowning him amidst the exultation of the victorious army, Henry VII., hence the House of Txidor 

 bore as a badge, a crown and hawthorn bush. It is also one of the earliest plants of Summer, and 

 Cowley, Pope, Dryden, Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Kirke White, Thomson, and Moore, aniongst 

 other poets, sing its praises. In Scotland it is the badge of Clan Ogilvie. The plant is subject to 

 considerable variation, both in the form of the leaves and the colours of the blossoms and fruit. The 

 Hawthorn is one of the favourite plants of the carvers of the Decorated period ; good examples of 

 it may be seen at Southwell, Exeter, Winchester, Ely, and Hereford. The present example, fig. 

 309, is a spandrel from Lincoln Cathedral ; though so simple in composition the effect is decidedly 

 good, and the overlapping arrangement herein introduced may prove a suggestive feature capable 

 of pleasing introduction in work of more ambitious character. 



The Ivy ( Hedera Helix), figs, 310, 316, is so familiar a plant that any attempt at describing 

 it is palpably superfluous ; we prefer rather, therefore, to dwell on other features connected with 

 it It is like the preceding plant, a great favourite with the Mediaeval carvers, and examples 

 of its introduction into wood and stone carving of Decorated work are very numerous. Fig. 310 is 

 a design of our own, while fig. 316 is, like fig. 309, a spandrel from Lincoln. The Ivy is in classic 

 art dedicated to Bacchus, and an Ivy crown was the reward of the successful poet, while the priests 

 at marriage festivals presented the newly-wedded pair with a wreath of Ivy, as a symbol of the 

 closeness of the tie that should bind them to each other. The characteristic features distinguishing 

 the Ivy at various periods of its growth can scarcely be legitimately ignored, if anything 

 approaching a naturalistic treatment is attempted. Ivy, when climbing, throws up numerous long 

 sterns furnished with more or less acutely five-pointed leaves, but when it has arrived at the 



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