The flag of the Solomon Islands features this pattern, with its five stars representing the five main island groups in the Solomon Islands. This arrangement is called, in heraldic terminology, in saltire for its usual orientation with the sides of the square vertical or horizontal, or in cross when the square is diagonally oriented. In heraldry, groups of five elements ( charges) are often arranged in a quincunx pattern.When used to describe a tree-planting pattern, the same word can also refer to groups of more than five trees, arranged in a square grid but aligned diagonally to the dimensions of the surrounding plot of land however, this article considers only five-point patterns and not their extension to larger square grids.ġ2th-century Cosmatesque mosaic in the Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Sicily The OED also cites a 1647 reference to the German astronomer Kepler for an astronomical/astrological meaning, an angle of 5/12 of a whole circle. The first citation for a geometric meaning, as 'a pattern used for planting trees', dates from 1606. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the first appearances of the Latin word in English as 15 ('in the sense 'five-twelfths of a pound or as '' i.e. However, these dots were not always arranged in a quincunx pattern.

On the Roman quincunx coins, the value was sometimes indicated by a pattern of five dots or pellets. The quincunx was originally a coin issued by the Roman Republic c. 211–200 BC, whose value was five twelfths ( quinque and uncia) of an as, the Roman standard bronze coin.

The quincunx palliser