DECORATED PERIOD, in architecture, the name of the second of the three periods into which the English Gothic was usually divided, generally embracing the first three quarters of the 14th century. It may itself be divided into two, the earlier half being known as the Geometric period, and the later as the Curvilinear, although no definite date separates these two parts. The Geometric Decorated style is characterized by window tracery based on the arch, the circle and the quatrefoil and trefoil, frequently much cusped. (See Cusp.) Windows of great width and height were thus treated, with two, four, six or even eight lights, or main subdivisions. In the later, or curvilinear style, the ogee curve, or curve of double curvature, controls tracery design. Two main types thus developed; one, in which the tracery bars form a net, the other in which flame-like, or flowing forms predominate. (See TRACERY.) In the entire decorated period moulding profiles are heavy and complex; carved ornament is intricate and of great naturalism. The most famous examples are the east end of Lincoln cathedral and the crossing and western part of the choir of Ely. During the decorated period, church vaulting became much complicated and subdivided by the addi tion, first of tiercerons, which are additional vaulting ribs spring ing from the capital, and rising to the ridge ; toward the end of the period there also appeared liernes, which are smaller ribs of little structural value, connecting the more important ribs, and so forming star or network patterns. (T. F. H.)