Note 11 — LOUIS XIV. PERIOD

In the anthemion, the springing point is the base, and the units arrange themselves on either side of a central member, and form a bi-symmetrical figure. This anthemion type of form is met with in almost every style and period of art. The anthemion is sometimes called the honeysuckle pattern. It is an old dogma that the decorative form was suggested by this plant; but its more or less remote resemblance to the buds of the honeysuckle is accidental, not incidental; and the charm, both in nature and in art, is the inherent beauty of a mass of radiating and upspringing forms, instinct with the suggestion of vitality and growth. Hulme, The Birth and Development of Ornament. London, 1893.