Vietnam or Thailand? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week!
Want to type faster? Practice with a typing test or have fun with typing games!
Updated: October 23, 2026
Its distinguishing features are the insertion between ovolo and spiral roll of a torus ornamented with a braided pattern, called a GUILLOCHE; the absence of the palmettes from the corners formed by the spiral roll; and the fact that the channel of the roll is double instead of single, which gives a more elaborate character to that member.
These tiles are thinner than the ordinary brick. In each case similar designs are employed, flowers, palmettes, &c. These are carried out in black upon a white ground and arranged symmetrically about a round hole in the middle of the tile. It has been guessed that they formed centres for a coffered ceiling, and there is nothing to negative the conjecture.
Above an early Renaissance door, made when the building was converted into a sacristy for the later church, is encrusted a piece of ninth-century sculpture, with the usual arches, crosses, and palmettes, and in the adjoining wall is an oculus with an ornamented moulding. By the side of the bishop's palace is a little chapel with a door apparently of the ninth century.
"It has just occurred to me that probably you have no very distinct idea of the shape of a cocoa-palm leaf, which does not bear the slightest resemblance to the palmettes in the greenhouses. It consists of a strong mid-rib about eight feet long, which, at the end next to the tree, spreads out very much as your two clenched fists, placed side by side, do from your wrists.