FLEURY, FLORY, FLOIVRT, FLEURETTE, etc., in heraldry, signifies that the object is adorned with fleurs-de-lis; a cross-flcury, for example, is a cross, the ends of which are in the form of fleurs-de-lis. :There are several varieties in the modes of representing these crosses, which has led to distinction's being made between them by heralds too trivial to be mentioned: but they are all distinguishable from the cross-potance, or potanc6e, incorrectly spelled patonce by English herald (Mackenzie's Science of Her aldry, p. 44). In the latter, the limbs are in the form of the segments of a circle, and the foliation is a mere bud; whereas the cross-fleury has the limbs straight and the terminations distinctly fioriated.
Perhaps the most celebrated instance of this bearing is in the case of the double prepuce flowery and counter-flowery piles which surrounds the red lieu iu the royal arms of Scotland, and which Charlemagne is said to have conferred bn Achius, king of Scotland, for assistance in his wars. The object, according to Nisbet
101), was to show that, as the lion had defended the lilies of France, these "here after shall continue a defense for the Scots floe, and as a badge of friendship, which has still continued." That the lilies were assumed in consequence of the intimate relation , which prevailed between France and Scotland for so many generations, will not be doubted; but the special occasion of the assumption may not lie admitted in our day to be quite beyond the reach of skepticism, notwithstanding Nisbet's assertion that it is so fully instructed by ancient and modern writers that he need not trouble his readers with a long catalogue of them.