Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/149

 138 History of Art is Antiquity. betray no little taste and refinement in those wreaths Greece bor- rowed from Assjrria, we have a thick-set band of rosettes. A fillet seems to hold together the stalks, whose height is proportional A form which is not without analogy with the Persepolitan, yet in some respects distinct from it, is lavishly displayed on the Fig. 65. — Pertepolis. Crowning of siaircue of palace No. 4. Flamdin and Cosrc, Aru amcimtUt Plate CXXXV. Mervd icht," but the form in quci^cm is about as unlike a plant of that kin<I as could well be imagined. The eminent botanist, M. Franchet, is good enough to send me the following : — " To judge from its appearance, the design under discussion would seem to hare been taken from a pahn, the 'hypluene' or ' cham«rop« ; * I incline for the latter, because of the scaly ornaments about the shaft of Uiis kind of column (stalks and leivcs). If my opinion is worth anything, would it not be possible to admit that the finiike leaves ot the cham.xrops suggested the device which here takes the place of capital, and that the stalk of the shrub, with the Fio. 64. — Su:»3. Enamelled lilc. Louvre. Drawn by St. Eliue Gautier. to the surface to be filled in; they are concealed by sessile leaves, and terminate in a fanlike vege- table form, per- haps the com- mon palmetto of the country.' Whatever may have been the original model of the device, it lags far behind the Assyrian scroll, as far as elegance is concerned. Digitized by Google
 * Vieu'Mof speaks of "a herlMceoiis plant that grows plentifully in the ptain of