religious tenets from the Hindus, not from the Egyptians; and that he issued the ordinance as one of those tenets, without presuming to explain the mystery in which it was involved.*

Herodotus, when speaking of the Egyptian Lotos, says, that the inhabitants used both its seed and root as articles of food; and he adds, that the seed resembled that of the poppy, and that the root was round, and about the size of an ordinary apple.† If we admit this statement of the father of history to be correct, it appears to afford additional proof in favour of the statements above given; for it is a well known fact, that no extremity, no reward whatever, will induce a Hindu to eat of the Lotos...

The aquatic plant that bears the general name of Lotos, though of various species, is probably of the same genus: but how it

* In the works attributed to him, there is one on Mysteries, which began by saying, respect in silence sacred things.

+ Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 92.

came to obtain the name of Lotos, we know not; as the Rhamnus Lotos, which (as already observed) gave the name to the people called by the Greeks Lotophagæ, is a shrub growing in a dry soil.*

But, besides the Lotos, many other flowers were anciently, as they are now, objects of veneration with the Hindus. They hold principal places in their mythology, and furnish to their poets many beautiful allegories. Those venerated by the Egyptians and Greeks, are so universally known, as to make it superfluous to repeat their names; we shall, however, mention a few of those

* Besides the different authors above quoted on the subject of the aquatic Lotos, see Theophrastus, on Plants.-Dioscorides, on what is termed Materia Medica.-Prosper Alpinus de Plant. Exotic.; and Historia Egypti Naturalis.-Rumphius, Herbarium Amboinense, vol. vi. p. 168.-Hortus Malabaricus, vol. ii. The few words Virgil says of it in the Georgics, are of no consequence, and evidently refer to the shrub of the Syrtis Minor: nor does the short mention made of it by Diodorus Siculus throw any light on the subject; but he seems to allude to an aquatic plant.

which enter into the mythology of the Hindus.

Sara, or Arrow-cane, named also Gundra, or Playful, and Tajanaca, or Acute. "This beautiful and superb grass, is highly celebrated in the Puranas; the Indian god of war was born in a grove of it, which burst into a flame; the gods gave notice of his birth to the nymph of the Pleiads, who descended and suckled the child, thence named Carticeya. This plant is often described with praise by the Hindu poets, for the whiteness of its blossoms; which, by the effects of the sun-beams, give to a large plain, at some distance, the appearance of a broad river. The internodal parts of the culms, are made into implements that serve the inhabitants of Hindustan to write on their polished paper."

Durva, called likewise Amanta, belongs to the genus Agrostis of Linnæus. "Its flowers, in their perfect state, are among the loveliest objects in the vegetable world,

* Jones.

and appear, through a lens, like minute rubies and emeralds in constant motion from the least breath of air. It is the sweetest and most nutritious pasture for cattle, and its utility, added to its beauty, induced the Hindūs in their earliest ages to believe that it was the mansion of a benevolent nymph. It is celebrated in the Vedas, in the text of the A't'harvana."*

66

The Cusa, or Cusha, named also Darbha and Pavitra, by the description of its leaves, seems to be the Ficus Religiosus of Linnæus. "Every law-book, and almost every poem in Sanscrit contains frequent allusions to the holiness of this plant; and in the fourth Veda we have the following address to it at the close of a terrible incantation: Thee, O Darbha, the learned proclaim a divinity, not subject to age or death: thee, they call the arm of Indra, the preserver of regions, the destroyer of enemies: a gem that gives increase to the field. At the time when the ocean resounded, when the clouds mur

*Jones.

mured, and lightnings flashed, then was Darbha produced, pure as a drop of fine gold. Some of the leaves taper to a most acute evanescent point, whence the Pundits often say of a sharp minded man, that his intellects are as acute as the point of the Cusa leaf."*

The Bandhuca, a species of the Ixora of Linnæus, is often mentioned by the Hindu poets. It is perhaps the Ixora Coccinea venerated by the Chinese under the name of Santanhoa.

The Singata, placed by the Hindūs among their lunar constellations, seems to be the same as the Trapa Bicornis of Lin

næus.

Chandana, or Sandalum, is frequently mentioned in the ancient books of the Hindūs." A Sanscrit stanza, of which the following version is literally exact, alludes to the belief that the Vansa, or Bhânse, or bamboos, as they are vulgarly called, often take fire by collision: it is addressed,

* Jones.