of this species, "with leaves purplish on both sides; flowers dark crimson, calycine petals richly coloured internally, and anthers flat; furrowed, adhering to the top of the filaments: the petals are more than fifteen, less pointed and broader than the blue, with little odour."*

Veneration for the Lotos continues to exist in Hindustan, Tibet, and Nepaul, as powerfully now as in ancient times. "The Tibetians," says Sir William Jones, “are said to embellish their temples with it, and a native of Nepal made prostrations before it on entering my study, where the fine plant and beautiful flowers lay for examination." With the Egyptians it ornamented the head of Osiris, and it still adorns some of the divinities of India. was supposed to have served at the birth of one of these, for his cradle. The new-born god was seen floating on a flower on the water. A boy sitting on a Lotos, is found

* Jones, vol. v. p. 128.

It

+ See Voyage à Siam des Pères Jesuites envoyés par

on some ancient Greek medals and engravings, and is said to represent the dawn.* But, abstracted from this tradition, both Hindus and Egyptians paid adoration to the sun; and venerated water, considering heat and moisture as the sources of production, and indispensable to existence. The appearance, therefore, on the water of a flower of uncommon beauty, as if spreading to salute the rising orb, and of its again

le Roi (Louis XIV.) aux Indes et à la Chine;-and Sketches on the Hindūs, vol. ii. pp. 123 to 232.

See Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, vol. iii. p. 170, and vol. xl. p. 275. M. de Guignes observes: "Il est singulier de trouver un livre Indien qui porte le nom de Fleur de Lotos, plante qui étoit si célébre en Egypte. Cette métaphore est prise des fables Indiennes. Abraham Roger rapporte, d'après le Vedam, que Dieu ayant dessein de faire le monde, avoit laissé flotter sur l'eau la feuille d'un arbre sous la forme d'un petit enfant qui jouoit avec le gros orteil dans sa bouche, et qu'il tira de son nombril une certaine fleur qu'ils nom. ment Tamara, d'où Brahma étoit sorti. Cette fleur qui est le Lotos, croît dans les étangs; ils l'estiment beaucoup, et Lacshmi, femme de Vishnu, est toujours représentée avec cette fleur à la main."-See likewise Sketches on the Hindūs, vol. ii. Sketch 13.

seeming to close on his disappearing, were circumstances which might easily be interpreted by the priesthood to proceed from something more than natural causes.

Whether veneration for the Lotos was adopted by the Egyptians from the Hindūs, or whether it originated from causes common to both countries, may be doubtful; but Sir William Jones imagines that even the name Nile may have been taken from the Sanscrit word Nila, blue. Dionysius, he observes,* calls that river an azure

* Dionysius, Orbis Descriptio, &c.

Mr. Wilford informs us that Hindu authors also name this river Cali as well as Nila. "The river Cali took its name from the goddess Ma-ha-cali, supposed to have made her first appearance on its banks in the character of Rajarajeswari, called also Isani and Isi; and, in the character of Sati, she was transformed into the river itself. The word Cala signifies black; and, from the root Cal, it means also devouring, whence it is applied to Time; and from both senses in the feminine, to the goddess in her destructive capacity; an interpretation adopted, as we shall see hereafter, in the Puranas. In her character of Ma-ha-cali she has many other epithets, all implying different shades of black,

stream, an appearance which it is said to present, before it is disturbed by the waters flowing into it, during the rains, from the mountains of Abyssinia.

Dr. Edward Smith supposes the Indian Lotos, and the Egyptian plant, Nymphæa Nilufer, to be different. The former he distinguishes under the names of Cyamus, and the Indian Bean; and observes, that the latter became important in the Egyptian mythology, only as a substitute for the former; and hence, says he, "I have for some time presumed to deduce an argument in support of the doctrine now prevalent, on other grounds, that the religion of the Egyptians was adopted from the East." He proceeds, afterwards, to suppose the seeds of the Cyamus to be "the celebrated Pythagorean bean;" and he rejects the

or dark azure; and in the Calica-puran, they are all ascribed to the river. They are Cali, or Cala, Nila, Asita, Shyama, or Shyamala, Mechaca, Anjanabha, Crishna." See Asiat. Res. vol. iii. p. 303, article on Egypt and the Nile from the ancient books of the Hindūs, by Mr. Francis Wilford.

various conjectures of Aristotle and Cicero, which are unquestionably far from being satisfactory. It has, indeed, been objected to Dr. Smith's opinion, that it cannot be imagined that Pythagoras would forbid the use of an exotic vegetable, perhaps even unknown in Greece.* The argument is specious, but not conclusive. The author of it allows that the beans of the Lotos preserve their qualities for years; and we know that many of the productions of Africa and Asia, were, in the time of Pythagoras, brought in abundance to Greece, especially to Athens, and consequently to Magna Græcia. But Diogenes Laertius says, that beans were forbidden by Pythagoras in conformity to the decrees of the priesthood who preside at the mysteries. Therefore, taking this as the only reason assigned by him who made the ordinance, it certainly gives strength to Dr. Smith's supposition, and confirms the opinion entertained of Pythagoras having borrowed many of his

* Botanical Magazine, vol. xxiii. pl. 903.