every branch of manufacture in which embellishment 
is demanded. 
“The history of the origin of the Corinthian or- 
der, which might possibly be contrived to give an 
interest to the invention, though so often repeated 
and so well known, may, nevertheless, be here 
told once more as a pleasing anecdote of ancient 
manners. A young maiden of Corinth having died, 
her mother or nurse collected, in a basket, the toys 
which she had been fond of while alive, and carried 
them to her grave, where she left the basket covered 
with a tile to preserve its contents from the weather. 
The basket happened to be set upon the root of an 
Acanthus. The plant being thus depressed in the 
middle, its leaves and stalks spread outwards, and 
grew up around the sides of the basket till they were 
bent d6wn by the tile, which lay projecting over its 
top. At that time Callimachus, the sculptor, chan- 
ced to pass by the grave, and being pleased with the 
agreeable appearance of the foliage, and novelty of 
the form, he converted it to the purposes of archi- 
tecture; and having made some columns of a more 
delicate proportion than had been used before, he 
adopted the basket and leaves of the Acanthus for 
the capital ; and thus established the symmetry and 
ornaments of the Corinthian order.” 
It is by no means improbable, that architecture 
may have owed the origin of its arch, pointed and 
circular, to the natural outline of trees. The wooded 
avenue, and rows of forest trees, not unfrequently 
represent arches of the most magnificent character; 
the contemplation of which can never fail to inter- 
est, and to gratify the cultivated mind. 
Hort. Kew. 2, y. 4, 69, 
