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88-634: The Rampurva capitals are the capitals of a pair of Ashoka Pillars discovered in c.  1876 by A. C. L. Carlleyle . The archaeological site is called Rampurva, and is located in the West Champaran district of the Indian state of Bihar , situated very close to the border with Nepal . The lion capital is now in the Indian Museum in Kolkata , while the bull capital is located at

176-528: A chevron device, and with a concave apophyge on which the buds of some flowers are sculpted. Volute capitals, also known as proto-Aeolic capitals, are encountered in Iron-Age Southern Levant and ancient Cyprus , many of them in royal architectural contexts in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah starting from the 9th century BCE, as well as in Moab , Ammon , and at Cypriot sites such as

264-589: A zebu bull. The abacus in particular displays a strong influence of Greek art : it is composed of honeysuckles alternated with stylized palmettes and small rosettes . A similar kind of capital can be seen at the basis of the Sankassa elephant capital. A similar frieze is also visible on the Diamond throne built by Ashoka at Bodh Gaya . These design likely originated in Greek and Near-Eastern arts. The bull

352-532: A "stone bracket", discovered in the archaeological excavations at the ancient Buddhist site of Sarnath . The pillar displays Ionic volutes and palmettes . It has been variously dated from the 3rd century BCE during the Mauryan Empire period, to the 1st century BCE, during the Sunga Empire period. Some capitals with strong Greek and Persian influence have been found in northeastern India in

440-407: A clustering habit results. Exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans , Guihaia , and Rhapis . Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members. Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters and vice versa. Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately ('fan-leaved') or pinnately ('feather-leaved') compound and spirally arranged at the top of

528-552: A combination of a cylinder and a slab. The structures of Armenian palaces, churches, courtyards ( Dvin , Aruch , Zvartnots , Ishkhan , Banak, Haghpat , Sanahin , Ani structures) are diverse and unique. In the Renaissance period the feature became of the greatest importance and its variety almost as great as in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The flat pilaster, which was employed extensively in this period, called for

616-563: A cushion-like convex moulding known as an echinus, and a square slab termed an abacus. In the Ionic capital , spirally coiled volutes are inserted between the abacus and the ovolo. This order appears to have been developed contemporaneously with the Doric, though it did not come into common usage and take its final shape until the mid-5th century BC. The style prevailed in Ionian lands, centred on

704-657: A delicate uniting curve. The sloping side of the echinus becomes flatter in the later examples, and in the Colosseum at Rome forms a quarter round (see Doric order ). In versions where the frieze and other elements are simpler the same form of capital is described as being in the Tuscan order . Doric reached its peak in the mid-5th century BC, and was one of the orders accepted by the Romans. Its characteristics are masculinity, strength and solidity. The Doric capital consists of

792-404: A different set of design principles. In order not to protrude excessively from the wall surface, these structures tend to have a rather flat surface, forming brick-shaped capitals, called "anta capitals". Anta capitals are known from the time of the Doric order. An anta capital can sometimes be qualified as a "sofa" capital or a "sofa anta capital" when the sides of the capital broaden upward, in

880-407: A hybrid capital developed from Ionic and Corinthian elements. The Tuscan and Corinthian columns were counted among the classical canon of orders by the architects of Renaissance architecture and Neoclassical architecture . The Doric capital is the simplest of the five Classical orders : it consists of the abacus above an ovolo molding, with an astragal collar set below. It was developed in

968-463: A large amount of the human diet and several other human uses, both by absolute amount produced and by number of species domesticated . This is far higher than almost any other plant family, sixth out of domesticated crops in the human diet, and first in total economic value produced – sharing the top spot with the Poaceae and Fabaceae . These human uses have also spread many Arecaceae species around

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1056-596: A long plain fluted section which is square, although the shaft of the column is round, and also fluted. The earliest Aegean capital is that shown in the frescoes at Knossos in Crete (1600 BC); it was of the convex type, probably moulded in stucco . Capitals of the second, concave type, include the richly carved examples of the columns flanking the Tomb of Agamemnon in Mycenae (c. 1100 BC): they are carved with

1144-482: A planar rendition of the capital, executed in high relief. This affected the designs of capitals. A traditional 15th-century variant of the Composite capital turns the volutes inwards above stiffened leaf carving. In new Renaissance combinations in capital designs most of the ornament can be traced to Classical Roman sources. The 'Renaissance' was as much a reinterpretation as a revival of Classical norms. For example,

1232-460: A shape reminiscent of a couch or sofa . Anta capitals are sometimes hard to distinguish from pilaster capitals, which are rather decorative, and do not have the same structural role as anta capitals. The origins of the Tuscan order lie with the Etruscans and are found on their tombs. Although the Romans perceived it as especially Italianate, the Tuscan capital found on Roman monuments

1320-565: A top a pillar bearing the edicts of the emperor Ashoka . Like most of Ashoka's capitals, it is brilliantly polished. Located at the site of Buddha's first sermon and the formation of the Buddhist order, it carried imperial and Buddhist symbols, reflecting the universal authority of both the emperor's and the Buddha's words. The capital today serves as the emblem of the Republic of India . Minus

1408-523: A trend towards freer, more inventive (and often more coarsely carved) capitals in Late Antiquity . The anta capital is not a capital which is set on top of column, but rather on top of an anta , a structural post integrated to the frontal end of a wall, such as the front of the side wall of a temple. The top of an anta is often highly decorated, usually with bands of floral motifs. The designs often respond to an order of columns, but usually with

1496-637: A variety of different habitats. Their diversity is highest in wet, lowland forests. South America , the Caribbean , and areas of the South Pacific and southern Asia are regions of concentration. Colombia may have the highest number of palm species in one country. There are some palms that are also native to desert areas such as the Arabian Peninsula and parts of northwestern Mexico. Only about 130 palm species naturally grow entirely beyond

1584-609: A water source, and in desert oases such as the date palm . A few palms are adapted to extremely basic lime soils, while others are similarly adapted to extreme potassium deficiency and toxicity of heavy metals in serpentine soils . Palms are a monophyletic group of plants, meaning the group consists of a common ancestor and all its descendants. Extensive taxonomic research on palms began with botanist H.E. Moore , who organized palms into 15 major groups based mostly on general morphological characteristics. The following classification, proposed by N.W. Uhl and J. Dransfield in 1987,

1672-505: Is a family of perennial , flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales . Their growth form can be climbers , shrubs , tree -like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms . Those having a tree-like form are colloquially called palm trees . Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds , arranged at

1760-414: Is a band of bead and reel pattern, then under it a band of waves, generally right-to-left, except for the back where they are left-to-right. Further below is a band of egg-and-dart pattern, with eleven "tongues" or "eggs" on the front, and only seven on the back. Below appears the main motif, a flame palmette , growing among pebbles. The Sarnath capital is a pillar capital, sometimes also described as

1848-508: Is a revision of Moore's classification that organizes palms into 6 subfamilies. A few general traits of each subfamily are listed below. The Phytelephantoideae is the sixth subfamily of Arecaceae in N.W. Uhl and J. Dransfield's 1987 classification. Members of this group have distinct monopodial flower clusters. Other distinct features include a gynoecium with five to 10 joined carpels, and flowers with more than three parts per whorl. Fruits are multiple-seeded and have multiple parts. From

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1936-605: Is from Dravidian *aṭ-ay-kkāy ("areca nut"). The suffix -aceae is the feminine plural of the Latin -āceus ("resembling"). Palm originates from Latin palma semantically overlapping with sense of " hand front " (due to similar splayed shape) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European * pl̥h₂meh₂ , a direct descendant folm once existed in Old English. Whether as shrubs, tree-like, or vines, palms have two methods of growth: solitary or clustered. The common representation

2024-697: Is in fact closer to the Greek Doric order than to Etruscan examples, its capital being nearby identical with the Doric. The Romans invented the Composite order by uniting the Corinthian order with the Ionic capital, possibly as early as Augustus 's reign. In many versions the Composite order volutes are larger, however, and there is generally some ornament placed centrally between the volutes. Despite this origin, very many Composite capitals in fact treat

2112-496: Is often called "anomalous secondary growth". The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, and inflorescences. Ceroxylon quindiuense , Colombia's national "tree", is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 metres (197 ft) tall. The coco de mer ( Lodoicea maldivica ) has the largest seeds of any plant, 40–50 centimetres (16–20 in) in diameter and weighing 15–30 kilograms (33–66 lb) each ( coconuts are

2200-683: Is possible north of subtropical climates, and some higher latitude locales such as Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Pacific Northwest feature a few palms in protected locations and microclimates . In the United States , there are at least 12 native palm species, mostly occurring in the states of the Deep South and Florida . Palms inhabit a variety of ecosystems. More than two-thirds of palm species live in humid moist forests, where some species grow tall enough to form part of

2288-460: Is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, and trunk-forming members. Some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea . Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters. The trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud and

2376-477: Is without inscriptions, presumably because its twin pillar, the Rampurava lion pillar already had them and therefore there was no need to repeat. It is thought that the bull symbol is not related to the bull Nandi of Hinduism , as Ashoka was quite eclectic in his choice of animals for his pillars anyway: lions, elephants, camels, geese, and horses are known. Capital (architecture) The Composite order

2464-593: The De architectura , by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, better known as Vitruvius , dedicated to the emperor Augustus . The various orders are discussed in Vitruvius' books iii and iv. Vitruvius describes Roman practice in a practical fashion. He gives some tales about the invention of each of the orders, but he does not give a hard and fast set of canonical rules for the execution of capitals. Two further, specifically Roman orders of architecture have their characteristic capitals,

2552-541: The Buddha or Bodhisattvas , usually as central figures surrounded by, and often under the shade of, the luxurious foliage of Corinthian designs. Byzantine capitals vary widely, mostly developing from the classical Corinthian, but tending to have an even surface level, with the ornamentation undercut with drills. The block of stone was left rough as it came from the quarry, and the sculptor evolved new designs to his own fancy, so that one rarely meets with many repetitions of

2640-566: The Dasypogonaceae . For a phylogenetic tree of the family, see the list of Arecaceae genera . The Arecaceae were the first modern family of monocots to appear in the fossil record around 80 million years ago (Mya), during the late Cretaceous period. The first modern species, such as Nypa fruticans and Acrocomia aculeata , appeared 69 Mya, as evidenced by fossil Nypa pollen. Palms appear to have undergone an early period of adaptive radiation . By 60 Mya, many of

2728-469: The Ionic . Composite capitals line the principal space of the nave. Ionic capitals are used behind them in the side spaces, in a mirror position relative to the Corinthian or composite orders (as was their fate well into the 19th century, when buildings were designed for the first time with a monumental Ionic order). At Hagia Sophia, though, these are not the standard imperial statements. The capitals are filled with foliage in all sorts of variations. In some,

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2816-587: The Maurya Empire palace of Pataliputra , dating to the 4th–3rd century BC. Examples such as the Pataliputra capital belong to the Ionic order rather than the later Corinthian order . They are witness to relations between India and the West from that early time. Indo-Corinthian capitals correspond to the much more abundant Corinthian-style capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in

2904-676: The Mediterranean Basin , the Near East , and the wider Hellenistic world including the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom , numerous variations on these and other designs of capitals co-existed with the regular classical orders. The only architectural treatise of classical antiquity to survive is De architectura by the 1st-century BC Roman architect Vitruvius , who discussed

2992-495: The architrave ; on their backs they carry other brackets at right angles to support the cross timbers. The bull is the most common, but there are also lions and griffins . The capital extends below for further than in most other styles, with decoration drawn from the many cultures that the Persian Empire conquered including Egypt , Babylon , and Lydia . There are double volutes at the top and, inverted, bottom of

3080-579: The canopy and shorter ones form part of the understory . Some species form pure stands in areas with poor drainage or regular flooding, including Raphia hookeri which is common in coastal freshwater swamps in West Africa. Other palms live in tropical mountain habitats above 1 thousand metres (3 thousand feet), such as those in the genus Ceroxylon native to the Andes . Palms may also live in grasslands and scrublands, usually associated with

3168-555: The city-state of Tamassos in the Archaic period. The orders, structural systems for organising component parts, played a crucial role in the Greeks' search for perfection of ratio and proportion. The Greeks and Romans distinguished three classical orders of architecture, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders; each had different types of capitals atop the columns of their hypostyle and trabeate monumental buildings. Throughout

3256-599: The dosseret required to carry the arch , the springing of which was much wider than the abacus of the capital. On eastern capitals the eagle, the lion and the lamb are occasionally carved, but treated conventionally. There are two types of capitals used at Hagia Sophia : Composite and Ionic. The composite capital that emerged during the Late Byzantine Empire , mainly in Rome, combines the Corinthian with

3344-560: The inverted bell -shaped lotus flower, this has been adopted as the National Emblem of India , seen from another angle, showing the horse on the left and the bull on the right of the Ashoka Chakra in the circular base on which the four Indian lions are standing back to back. On the side shown here there are the bull and elephant; a lion occupies the other place. The wheel "Ashoka Chakra" from its base has been placed onto

3432-406: The 4th-7th centuries the capitals of Armenian architectural facades and masonry facades are tall rectangular stones with a total volume, which are converted into a slab by means of a bell. In the structures of the early period ( Ereruyk , Tekor , Tsopk , etc.) they were sculpted with plant and animal images, palm trees. In the 10th century and in the following centuries, capitals are mainly formed by

3520-639: The Buddha died in Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh). The lion pillar is inscribed with the Major Pillar Edicts of the Edicts of Ashoka , Pillar Edicts I, II, III, IV, V, VI. The Rampurva bull capital is noted as one of the seven remaining animal capitals from the Pillars of Ashoka . It is composed of a lotiform base, with an abacus decorated with floral designs, and the realistic depiction of

3608-647: The Ceroxyloideae and Phytelephantoideae. Studies have suggested the lack of a fully resolved hypothesis for the relationships within the family is due to a variety of factors, including difficulties in selecting appropriate outgroups, homoplasy in morphological character states, slow rates of molecular evolution important for the use of standard DNA markers , and character polarization. However, hybridization has been observed among Orbignya and Phoenix species, and using chloroplast DNA in cladistic studies may produce inaccurate results due to maternal inheritance of

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3696-574: The IUCN, and was published in 1996. The rarest palm known is Hyophorbe amaricaulis . The only living individual remains at the Botanic Gardens of Curepipe in Mauritius . Some pests are specialists to particular taxa . Pests that attack a variety of species of palms include: The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory in classical antiquity . The Romans rewarded champions of

3784-526: The Middle East and North Africa. A wide range of common products and foods are derived from palms. In contemporary times, palms are also widely used in landscaping. In many historical cultures, because of their importance as food, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, and fertility. The word Arecaceae is derived from the word areca with the suffix "-aceae". Areca is derived from Portuguese , via Malayalam അടയ്ക്ക ( aṭaykka ), which

3872-580: The Rathayatra carts which carry the deities of Krishna and his family members in the cart festival of Jagganath Puri in India are marked with the emblem of a palm tree. Specifically it is the symbol of Krishna's brother, Baladeva. In 1840, the American geologist Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) published the first tree-like paleontology chart in his Elementary Geology , with two separate trees of life for

3960-970: The Senate Vestibule in the United States Capitol in 1807, he introduced six columns that he "Americanized" with ears of corn (maize) substituting for the European acanthus leaves. As Latrobe reported to Thomas Jefferson in August ;1809, Another example is the Delhi Order invented by the British architect Edwin Lutyens for New Delhi 's central palace, Viceroy's House, now the Presidential residence Rashtrapati Bhavan , using elements of Indian architecture . Here

4048-558: The abacus has become square (See the more complete discussion at Ionic order ). According to the Roman architect Vitruvius , the Ionic order's main characteristics were beauty, femininity, and slenderness, derived from its basis on the proportion of a woman. The volutes of an Ionic capital rest on an echinus, almost invariably carved with egg-and-dart. Above the scrolls was an abacus, more shallow than that in Doric examples, and again ornamented with egg-and-dart. It has been suggested that

4136-583: The area around Paris. The most varied were carved in 1130–1170. In Britain and France the figures introduced into the capitals are sometimes full of character, these are referred to as historiated (or figured capital). These capitals, however, are not equal to those of the Early English Gothic , in which foliage is treated as if copied from metalwork, and is of infinite variety, being found in small village churches as well as in cathedrals. Armenian capitals are often versions of Byzantine forms. In

4224-530: The area. The sale of seeds to nurseries and collectors is another threat, as the seeds of popular palms are sometimes harvested directly from the wild. In 2006, at least 100 palm species were considered endangered, and nine species have been reported as recently extinct. However, several factors make palm conservation more difficult. Palms live in almost every type of warm habitat and have tremendous morphological diversity. Most palm seeds lose viability quickly, and they cannot be preserved in low temperatures because

4312-407: The base. The stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single- seeded drupe (sometimes berry-like) but some genera (e.g., Salacca ) may contain two or more seeds in each fruit. Like all monocots , palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem ( secondary growth ) via

4400-517: The budget allowed, carvers were able to indulge their inventiveness. Capitals were sometimes used to hold depictions of figures and narrative scenes, especially in the Romanesque . In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture capitals throughout western Europe present as much variety as in the East, and for the same reason, that the sculptor evolved his design in accordance with the block he

4488-584: The building's date. Capitals occur in many styles of architecture, before and after the classical architecture in which they are so prominent. The two earliest Egyptian capitals of importance are those based on the lotus and papyrus plants respectively, and these, with the palm tree capital, were the chief types employed by the Egyptians, until under the Ptolemies in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, various other river plants were also employed, and

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4576-545: The capital had a band of vertical ridges, with bells hanging at each corner as a replacement for volutes. The Delhi Order reappears in some later Lutyens buildings including Campion Hall, Oxford . [REDACTED]   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). " Capital (architecture) ". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Palm tree The Arecaceae ( / ˌ ær ə ˈ k eɪ s i . iː , - ˌ aɪ / )

4664-698: The center of the porch of the Rashtrapati Bhavan , the Indian Presidential Palace. Waddell in 1896 suggested that the death or parinirvana of Gautama Buddha was in the region of Rampurva: "I believe that Kusīnagara, where the Buddha died may be ultimately found to the North of Bettiah , and in the line of the Açōka pillars which lead hither from Patna (Pāțaliputra)." Modern scholarship, based on archaeological evidence, believes that

4752-476: The centre of the National Flag of India The Pataliputra capital is a monumental rectangular capital with volutes designs, that was discovered in the palace ruins of the ancient Mauryan Empire capital city of Pataliputra (modern Patna , northeastern India ). It is dated to the 3rd century BC. The top is made of a band of rosettes , eleven in total for the fronts and four for the sides. Below that

4840-471: The chloroplast DNA. Chemical and molecular data from non-organelle DNA, for example, could be more effective for studying palm phylogeny. Recently, nuclear genomes and transcriptomes have been used to reconstruct the phylogeny of palms. This has revealed, for example, that a whole-genome duplication event occurred early in the evolution of the Arecaceae lineage, that was not experienced by its sister clade,

4928-466: The coast of Asia Minor and Aegean islands . The order's form was far less set than the Doric, with local variations persisting for many decades. In the Ionic capitals of the archaic Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (560 BC) the width of the abacus is twice that of its depth, consequently the earliest Ionic capital known was virtually a bracket capital. A century later, in the temple on the Ilissus ,

5016-503: The cold kills the embryo. Using botanical gardens for conservation also presents problems, since they can rarely house more than a few plants of any species or truly imitate the natural setting. There is also the risk that cross-pollination can lead to hybrid species. The Palm Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) began in 1984, and has performed a series of three studies to find basic information on

5104-468: The conventional lotus capital went through various modifications. Many motifs of Egyptian ornamentation are symbolic , such as the scarab , or sacred beetle, the solar disk , and the vulture . Other common motifs include palm leaves, the papyrus plant, and the buds and flowers of the lotus . Some of the most popular types of capitals were the Hathor , lotus, papyrus and Egyptian composite. Most of

5192-729: The deserts, it also created a more amenable habitat for the people to live in by providing shade and protection from the desert winds. An indication of the importance of palms in ancient times is that they are mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible , and at least 22 times in the Quran . The Torah also references the "70 date palm trees", which symbolize the 70 aspects of Torah that are revealed to those who "eat of its fruit." Arecaceae have great economic importance, including coconut products, oils, dates, palm syrup , ivory nuts, carnauba wax, rattan cane, raffia, and palm wood . This family supplies

5280-404: The different proportions of each of these orders and made recommendations for how the column capitals of each order were to be constructed and in what proportions. In the Roman world and within the Roman Empire , the Tuscan order was employed, originally from Italy and with a capital similar to Greek Doric capitals, while the Roman imperial period saw the emergence of the Composite order , with

5368-412: The entire context, as in Greek Revival . There are numerous newly invented orders, sometimes called nonce orders , where a different ornamentation of the capital is typically a key feature. Within the bounds of decorum , a certain amount of inventive play has always been acceptable within the classical tradition. These became increasingly common after the Renaissance. When Benjamin Latrobe redesigned

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5456-400: The foliage of the Greek Corinthian capital was based on the Acanthus spinosus , that of the Roman on the Acanthus mollis . Not all architectural foliage is as realistic as Isaac Ware's ( illustration, right ) however. The leaves are generally carved in two "ranks" or bands, like one leafy cup set within another. The Corinthian capitals from the Tholos of Epidaurus (400 BC) illustrate

5544-488: The front and back of the column, the Composite volutes are normally treated as four different thinner units, one at each corner of the capital, projecting at some 45° to the façade. The Lion Capital of Ashoka is an iconic capital which consists of four Asiatic lions standing back to back, on an elaborate base that includes other animals. A graphic representation of it was adopted as the official Emblem of India in 1950. This powerfully carved lion capital from Sarnath stood

5632-449: The games and celebrated military successes with palm branches. Early Christians used the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful over enemies of the soul, as in the Palm Sunday festival celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem . In Judaism , the palm represents peace and plenty, and is one of the Four Species of Sukkot ; the palm may also symbolize the Tree of Life in Kabbalah . The canopies of

5720-500: The habitat, and those with small habitat ranges are most vulnerable to them. The harvesting of heart of palm, a delicacy in salads, also poses a threat because it is derived from the palm's apical meristem , a vital part of the palm that cannot be regrown (except in domesticated varieties, e.g. of peach palm ). The use of rattan palms in furniture has caused a major population decrease in these species that has negatively affected local and international markets, as well as biodiversity in

5808-432: The history of the Middle East and North Africa. In the text "Date Palm Products" (1993), W.H. Barreveld wrote: One could go as far as to say that, had the date palm not existed, the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the "old" world would have been much more restricted. The date palm not only provided a concentrated energy food, which could be easily stored and carried along on long journeys across

5896-414: The lands occupied by the Dorians , one of the two principal divisions of the Greek race. It became the preferred style of the Greek mainland and the western colonies (southern Italy and Sicily ). In the Temple of Apollo , Syracuse (c. 700 BC), the echinus moulding has become a more definite form: this in the Parthenon reaches its culmination, where the convexity is at the top and bottom with

5984-504: The modern phylogenomic data, the Phytelephantoideae are tribe in the Ceroxyloideae subfamily. Currently, few extensive phylogenetic studies of the Arecaceae exist. In 1997, Baker et al. explored subfamily and tribe relationships using chloroplast DNA from 60 genera from all subfamilies and tribes. The results strongly showed the Calamoideae are monophyletic, and Ceroxyloideae and Coryphoideae are paraphyletic. The relationships of Arecoideae are uncertain, but they are possibly related to

6072-660: The modern, specialized genera of palms appeared and became widespread and common, much more widespread than their range today. Because palms separated from the monocots earlier than other families, they developed more intrafamilial specialization and diversity. By tracing back these diverse characteristics of palms to the basic structures of monocots, palms may be valuable in studying monocot evolution. Several species of palms have been identified from flowers preserved in amber, including Palaeoraphe dominicana and Roystonea palaea . Fossil evidence of them can also be found in samples of petrified palmwood . The relationship between

6160-490: The northwestern Indian subcontinent , particularly in Gandhara , and usually combine Hellenistic and Indian elements. These capitals are typically dated to the first century BC, and constitute important elements of Greco-Buddhist art . The Classical design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form, and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples . Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of

6248-409: The same design. One of the most remarkable designs features leaves carved as if blown by the wind; the finest example being at the 8th-century Hagia Sophia (Thessaloniki) . Those in the Cathedral of Saint Mark, Venice  (1071) specially attracted John Ruskin 's fancy. Others appear in Sant'Apollinare in Classe , Ravenna  (549). The capital in San Vitale, Ravenna  (547) shows above it

6336-399: The same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants . This explains the cylindrical shape of the trunk (almost constant diameter) that is often seen in palms, unlike in ring -forming trees. However, many palms, like some other monocots, do have secondary growth, although because it does not arise from a single vascular cambium producing xylem inwards and phloem outwards, it

6424-486: The second largest). Raffia palms ( Raphia spp.) have the largest leaves of any plant, up to 25 metres (82 ft) long and 3 metres (10 ft) wide. The Corypha species have the largest inflorescence of any plant, up to 7.5 metres (25 ft) tall and containing millions of small flowers. Calamus stems can reach 200 metres (656 ft) in length. Most palms are native to tropical and subtropical climates. Palms thrive in moist and hot climates but can be found in

6512-536: The small, lush leaves appear to be caught up in the spinning of the scrolls – clearly, a different, nonclassical sensibility has taken over the design. The capitals at Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna ( Italy ) show wavy and delicate floral patterns similar to decorations found on belt buckles and dagger blades. Their inverted pyramidal form has the look of a basket. Capitals in early Islamic architecture are derived from Graeco-Roman and Byzantine forms, reflecting

6600-485: The status of palms in the wild, use of wild palms, and palms under cultivation. Two projects on palm conservation and use supported by the World Wildlife Fund took place from 1985 to 1990 and 1986–1991, in the American tropics and southeast Asia, respectively. Both studies produced copious new data and publications on palms. Preparation of a global action plan for palm conservation began in 1991, supported by

6688-411: The stem. The leaves have a tubular sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity. The flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each and may be distinct or joined at

6776-488: The sturdy and primitive Tuscan capitals , typically used in military buildings, similar to Greek Doric, but with fewer small moldings in its profile, and the invented Composite capitals not even mentioned by Vitruvius, which combined Ionic volutes and Corinthian acanthus capitals, in an order that was otherwise quite similar in proportions to the Corinthian, itself an order that Romans employed much more often than Greeks. The increasing adoption of Composite capitals signalled

6864-482: The subfamilies is shown in the following cladogram: Calamoideae Nypoideae Coryphoideae Ceroxyloideae Arecoideae Evidence for cultivation of the date palm by Mesopotamians and other Middle Eastern peoples exists from more than 5,000 years ago, in the form of date wood, pits for storing dates, and other remains of the date palm in Mesopotamian sites. The date palm had a significant effect on

6952-484: The top of an unbranched stem, except for the Hyphaene genus, who has branched palms. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts . Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families. They have been important to humans throughout much of history, especially in regions like

7040-418: The training of most of the masons producing them. In both periods small columns are often used close together in groups, often around a pier that is in effect a single larger column, or running along a wall surface. The structural importance of the individual column is thereby greatly reduced. In both periods, though there are common types, the sense of a strict order with rules was not maintained, and when

7128-433: The transition between the earlier Greek capital, as at Bassae , and the Roman version that Renaissance and modern architects inherited and refined (See the more complete discussion at Corinthian order ). In Roman architectural practice , capitals are briefly treated in their proper context among the detailing proper to each of the " Orders ", in the only complete architectural textbook to have survived from classical times,

7216-647: The tropics, mostly in humid lowland subtropical climates, in highlands in southern Asia, and along the rim lands of the Mediterranean Sea . The northernmost native palm is Chamaerops humilis , which reaches 44°N latitude along the coast of Liguria , Italy . In the southern hemisphere, the southernmost palm is the Rhopalostylis sapida , which reaches 44°S on the Chatham Islands where an oceanic climate prevails. Cultivation of palms

7304-531: The two volutes as different elements, each springing from one side of their leafy base. In this, and in having a separate ornament between them, they resemble the Archaic Greek Aeolic order , though this seems not to have been the route of their development in early Imperial Rome . Equally, where the Greek Ionic volute is usually shown from the side as a single unit of unchanged width between

7392-645: The types are based on vegetal motifs. Capitals of some columns were painted in bright colors. Some kind of volute capital is shown in the Assyrian bas-reliefs , but no Assyrian capital has ever been found; the enriched bases exhibited in the British Museum were initially misinterpreted as capitals. In the Achaemenid Persian capital , the brackets are carved with two heavily decorated back-to-back animals projecting right and left to support

7480-697: The volutes of ancient Greek and Roman Ionic capitals had lain in the same plane as the architrave above them. This had created an awkward transition at the corner – where, for example, the designer of the temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis in Athens had brought the outside volute of the end capitals forward at a 45-degree angle. This problem was more satisfactorily solved by the 16th-century architect Sebastiano Serlio , who angled outwards all volutes of his Ionic capitals. Since then use of antique Ionic capitals, instead of Serlio's version, has lent an archaic air to

7568-426: The world. Along with dates mentioned above, members of the palm family with human uses are numerous: Like many other plants, palms have been threatened by human intervention and exploitation . The greatest risk to palms is destruction of habitat , especially in the tropical forests , due to urbanization , wood-chipping , mining , and conversion to farmland . Palms rarely reproduce after such great changes in

7656-479: Was carving, but in the west variety goes further, because of the clustering of columns and piers . The earliest type of capital in Lombardy and Germany is known as the cushion-cap, in which the lower portion of the cube block has been cut away to meet the circular shaft. These types were generally painted at first with geometrical designs, afterwards carved. The finest carving comes from France, especially from

7744-473: Was formalized in the 16th century following Roman Imperial examples such as the Arch of Titus in Rome. It adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves. From the highly visible position it occupies in all colonnaded monumental buildings, the capital is often selected for ornamentation; and is often the clearest indicator of the architectural order . The treatment of its detail may be an indication of

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