PLANTS: 

 %^tix &dvml (ira&jtir anir (itatanmital ^rmtmmt. 



♦ — » 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Every rational creature has all Nature for his dowry and estate ; it is his if he will."— Emerson. 



|HE application of vegetable forms to the creations of ornamental art has been in the past 

 so universal, that we need scarcely dwell at length upon the value of a knowledge of such 

 forms to the ornamentist, in order that he may either study, with due appreciation, the 

 labours of his predecessors, or himself follow in their footsteps. 



In almost all periods of art, Nature has been largely drawn upon, the only marked ex- 

 ceptions being in Celtic ornament, where, though vegetable forms are met with in MSS., the 

 greater bulk of the ornament is zoomorphic, consisting of entwining monsters, or, at other times, 

 composed of very curious and complicated arrangements of interlacing bands ; or in those styles 

 where a religious prohibition of the representation of any living thing deterred the designer. 

 Under this head we may include all art under Mahomedan influence ; for, though the Persians to 

 some extent disregard the law, the forms are generally very conventional, and in this respect, as 

 in several others, they place themselves under the ban of those who deem themselves true 

 followers of the prophet. How far we may ourselves regard such use as opposed to religious 

 obligations, may be readily tested by a consideration of the directions so carefully given to 

 Solomon for his guidance in building a house meet for the Deity, where the lily, the pomegranate, 

 the palm, and other plants, are frequently mentioned as parts of the general scheme of decoration ; 

 while, in our own beautiful cathedrals, we may study how little our forefathers felt such subjects 

 unfit for highest use, since many of them have their capitals, stringcourses, spandrils, &c,, masses 

 of beautiful plant form — the sturdy oak, the graceful maple or bryony, the lowly buttercup, the 

 still lowlier fungus, being introduced in their work : all creations of the one great Father of all, and, 

 as testifying to His all-wise care and protection, not unworthy, humble and common-place as some 

 might think them, of honoured place in His house. 



Orn3,mentists too commonly overlook the treasures that Nature scatters around them, and, 

 by a slavish adherence to a few set forms, deprive themselves of a valuable means of imparting 

 enhanced interest to their work. No remedy for this can be so effectual as personal study and 

 familiar acquaintance with rural scenes ; but as, unfortunately, such opportunity of quiet study is 

 frequently out of the power of the designer, either from press of work or other restraining cause, 

 he must be content, at some loss of both pleasure and profit to himself, to derive his material from 

 the labours of others. We have said at some loss of pleasure — for there is an enjoyment in the 

 actual study of Natural beauty — > 



" In the sweet Spring days. 

 With whitening hedges and un crumpling fern, 

 And blue-bells trembling by the forest ways, 

 And scent of hay new mown '* — 



that no attention to its merely pictured charms can compensate ; and we have said, also, at some 

 loss of profit — for there is no comparison between referring merely to the work of another and 

 actually handling the natural plant, and noting its characteristic features in all their living beauty. 

 Many are, no doubt, deterred from a study, of plants from an idea that .Botany is too 

 technical a thing to be of any benefit to them. They exclaim, with Wordsworth — 



" Let Nature be your teacher — 

 Sweet is the lore which Nature brings ; our meddling intellect 

 Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things, we murder to dissect. 

 Enough of Science and of Art : close up those barren leaves ; 

 Come forth, and bring with you a heart that watches and receives " — 



as they recall some such passage as this — " Leaves ovate-oblong, subserrate, pulverulento- 

 tomentose." Without for a moment undervaluing the technicalities of botanical science, for they 



