A great part of Egyptian ornament and decoration is composed of symbolic forms, the remainder is made up of geometrical ornament, such as checkers, meanders, frets, rosettes, diapers of lotus and other forms. Natural forms of flowers and foliage were not copied direct, but only used in shape of geometric abstractions, and their arrangement as diapers in surface decoration was derived, in the first instance, from the older arts of weaving and matting. The old Egyptians were skilled in weaving both plain and figured fabrics, chiefly from flax and hemp fibre. The lotus form was pre-eminently the leading motive in Egyptian floral ornament. The papyrus (from which our word paper is derived) and the palm are next in importance as motives from which Egyptian ornament is derived. The lotus-plant (_Nymphæa nelumbo_) the variety in which the leaves grow up out of the water and do not lie on its surface, is shown at Fig. 121, and drawings, evidently from nature, at Fig. 122, from the tomb of Ptah-Hotep. The lotus flower in ornament may be seen in the ceiling decorations from tombs at Fig. 123, Nos. 3 and 5; at Figs. 118, 124; and in the painted frieze from Thebes (Fig. 125), where the similarity between this and the Assyrian lotus, fir-cone and daisy may be noticed (see Fig. 167). [Illustration: Fig. 121.—The Nymphæa nelumbo; Flower, Leaf, and Fruit. (P. & C.)] The bi-lateral rendering of the lotus plant is not common in Egyptian ornament, though it is the oldest form of the lotus known, as it occurs on the prehistoric pottery of Koptos, and on tombs of the Fourth Dynasty (Fig. 126), and earlier. Two lotus flowers are here seen tied together; the general outline of the flower is only rendered which would enclose the sepals and petals when seen in a side view. [Illustration: Fig. 122.—Drawings of the Lotus from the Tomb of Ptah-Hotep. (P. & C.)] The lotus flower and bud alternating in a border ornament may be regarded as the prototype of the Greek palmate borders. We are inclined to believe in Professor Goodyear’s theory, that the egg and tongue decoration on the Greek ovolo moulding is nothing more than a disrupted lotus and bud ornament developed in transition through the Rhodian pottery decoration. The shells and the tongue were originally the lotus calyx, and the egg or pebble the lotus bud. [Illustration: Fig. 123.—Specimens of Ceiling Decoration at Thebes; from Prisse. (P. & C.)]