volute (volut)

and a. [ IMG:content-1945.jpg:[blocks in formation] Corinthian, and Composite capitals, of which it is a characteristic ornament. The number of volutes in the Greek Ionic capital is four, two each on opposite faces. In the Corinthian and Composite orders they are more numerous, in the former order being sixteen in number. See helix, 2 (with cut), and cuts under Acanthus, Corinthian, Ionic, and composite. Also voluta. 2. In conch.: ( a ) A member of the Volutidæ. The volutes are chiefly tropical shells, especially of In do Pacific waters, some of them of great rarity and beauty, and highly prized by collectors, as V. imperial is, the imperial volute, which shows beautiful sculpture and tracery, and has a circlet of spines like a diadem crowning the very large body whorl (see cut under Voluta ). The peacock-tail volute, Voluta (or Scaphella ) junonia, of quite another form, is white with orange spots, and was long considered one of the rarest of 6788 coiled in a helix somewhat in the form of a volute. It is commonly made in a conical form, so that the spring can be compre ed in the direction of the axis about which it is coiled. 1. A water