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The ball flower is a Gothic ornament common in England and in Venice. It is analogous to the dogtooth but in the form of a sphere, usually hollowed and decorated with three or four leaves or petals. Facing Works, 11.12 there is a Plate of which figure 3 shows a ball flower in the middle of a capital, and there is a similar image at Plate 14 facing Works, 11.346. There are other references at Works, 9.332, Works, 11.273, Works, 11.346, and Works, 20.213 [n/a]. Ruskin’s reference to it at Notebook M p.22 is odd. It is possible that he is remarking on the unusual form of the ball flower here. It seems equally possible that he has noticed ball flower decoration for the first time, and only later finds the term for it, and adds that later as marginal note.
See the reference from the very end of the journey at Notebook M2 p.184:
The principle of dotting all the mouldings is a bad one to begin with and must be criticised in detail but if it is to be done, better with ball flowers as at Salisbury then with curl papers.
At Works, 9.332 he refers, somewhat disapprovingly, to the ball flower decoration on the spires of Salisbury cathedral and St. Mary's Church, Oxford. There is a later reference to ball flowers in relation to those two buildings at Works, 20.213 [n/a]. At Works, 11.346 he refers to it as the common English ball flower.
Compare Works, 8.121, and Plate 1, Figure 3 facing Works, 8.53. It is earlier than this, and it might be taken to support the view that at that stage he was not familiar with the ball flower as a type of Gothic ornament.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]