NYMPHtEA NELUMBO; 



OR, 



SACRED EGYPTIAN BEAN. 



In hot climates, where water is the best boon of Heaven, flourish the several kinds of Nym- 

 phseas. These present the purest colours, and are of an azure hliie, or blushing red, or pale 

 yellow, the three primary colours, and also of a dazzling lohite, all which majestically, (different 

 from our humble aquatics), rise with their foliage above the surface of the flood, and present 

 their luxuriant leaves to the vaulted heavens. Nature, as if designing these plants to be the 

 masterpiece of her creative power, besides superior grace and beauty, has also added utility ; 

 for the seed-vessels contain nourishing food for man, as also the roots, which produce, as will be 

 hereafter shewn, the profitable potatoe. As the Egyptians worshipped whatever was useful, 

 they accounted these plants sacred ; in their feasts they crowned themselves with the flowers, 

 and their altars are decorated with the same. The Egyptian Ceres has the seed-vessel of the 

 blue lotos in her hand^ which the Romans corrupted into the poppy; and sometimes also that 

 of the Nelumbo, which the Greeks mistook for the horn of Amalthea. The subject of this 

 narrative, however, relates wholly to the Nymphaea Nelumbo, which some modern naturalists, 

 instead of reckoning as a Nymphaea, have formed it into a distinct genus ; for its calyx, instead 

 of being large, consists of four narrow leaves, and the corolla is more multiplied than in the 

 other water-lihes, and, wholly unlike other nymphaeas, it has stamina with anthers, on long and 

 slender filaments, and its seed-vessel, like an inverted cone, is flat at the top, and pierced with 

 hollows, like an honey-comb, for the reception of its beans, or seeds. 



The following Eastern Hymn transfused into the English tongue by Sir William Jones, gives 

 us the antiquity of the flower of the Nelumbium, as received among the Asiatics: 



AN HINDOO HYMN. 



Spirit of spirits, who, through every part 

 Of space expanded and of endless time. 

 Beyond the stretch of lab'ring thought sublime. 

 Bade uproar into beauteous order start. 



Before heaven was, thou art: 

 Ere spheres beneath us rolled, or spheres above, 

 Ere earth in firmamental ether hung, 

 Thou sat'st alone; till, through thy mystic love, 

 Things unexisting to existence sprung,' 



And grateful descant sung. 



* 



* The mythology of the Hindoos referred all to one primitive God. 



