Acanthus
1.
In architecture, the name given to the broad leaf used to enrich the capital of the Corinthian column (see Columna).2.
In botany, a name given by the ancients to three different plants,- (a) in Vergil, a prickly tree, supposed to be holly;
- (b) an Egyptian tree, described by Theophrastus as having pods like those of a bean; and
- (c) an herb, mentioned by Dioscorides, and identical with that which now bears its name.