ACANTHUS

(Gr. Mxctveof, a spine.) A spinv herbaceous plant with pinnatifid leaves, and large whitish flowers enveloped in spiny bracts, found in various parts of the Levant. Its leaf is said by Vitruvius to have been the model on which the architects of Greece formed the leaves of the Corinthian capital, and that the idea of so applying it was derived from the following circumstance: — The leaves of acanthus grow in a tuft close to the ground, and sprout annually. It happened that a basket covered with a tile was left upon the crown of the root of an acanthus plant, which, when it began to grow in the spring, finding itself unable to arrange its leaves in the usual manner, turned them up round the sides of the basket, till encountering the edges of the tile, they gradually curved back in a kind of volute. Other leaves, besides those of the acanthus, are employed in the decoration of capitals; those, for instance, in the composite order of the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus, at Rome, have, from their strong indentations, more re7 ACCELERATION. semblance to parsley than to acanthus leaves, whilst those to the Temple of Vesta, at Rome, have a resemblance to laurel leaves. In Egyptian architecture, the palm leaf frequently occurs. [s. 20]