Upon the ground in the courtyard of a stable, the Holy Child lies in a pool of light emanating from Himself. His mother kneels beside Him, and plain little angels with jewelled head-dresses form a circle round them. To the right is a group of adoring shepherds--to the left Saint Joseph. In the foreground of the picture, before the Infant Christ, there lies a sheaf of corn. There are also two vases. One is of pottery, with a conventional design of grapes and vine leaves, and is filled with orange lilies and the purple and the white iris. In the other, which is of transparent glass, there is columbine and three red carnations; upon the ground are scattered blue and white violets. Each flower is painted with the most exquisite precision. Here the flower symbols all emphasize the spiritual significance of the scene. The scattered violets symbolize humility, for the King of Heaven lies on the ground as a little Child. The white ones among them may denote the innocence of His babyhood. The transparent glass so often seen in Annunciations, is the symbol of His immaculate conception, the group of carnations, alike in shape and colour, typifies the divine love of the triune Godhead, which moved the Son to take a human form for our salvation. The seven blossoms of the columbine, the flower of the dove, are symbols of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit with which He was endowed at birth. The lilies in the vase are His own emblem as the King of Heaven, since He said: ‘I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.’ They are not the _lilium candidum_, the flower of the Madonna’s purity, but the royal lilies of the field, orange, purple and white. Even Solomon, in gold, purple and fine linen, ‘was not arrayed like one of these.’ Lastly there is the vine, pictured upon the vase, and the sheaf of corn, the eucharistic substances which in the sacrifice of the Mass, repeat the sacrifice for which He was born into the world as a little child. It has been said, and reproachfully, of the Northern artists that they preferred gold, jewels and rich embroideries to the more ephemeral loveliness of flowers. This dictum may be just when applied to the early German schools; of Flemish Art it is not true. In this picture, for instance, the little angels are richly dressed but not rose-crowned like their Florentine cousins. They wear instead circlets of precious stones and pearls, from which spring aigrettes with pendant jewels. They carry no flowers and no flowers are used to fill vacant spaces in the picture. Flowers are reserved instead for the highest use of all and are placed in the forefront of the scene to represent the virtues of the Holy One.