When, at their noontide height, his fervid rays, 

 Tn a bright deluge burst on Cairo's spires, 



With what new lustre then thy beauties blaze, 

 Full of the god, and radiant with his fires ! 



Brilliant thyself, in stole of dazzling white* 

 Thy sister plants more gaudy robes infold ; 



This flames in red, and that, intensely bright. 

 Amid th' illumin'd waters burns in gold.-\ 



To brave the tropic's fiery beam is thine, 

 Till in the distant west his splendors fade; 



Then, too, thy beauty and thy fire decline, 

 With morn to rise, in lovelier charms array'd. 



What mystic treasures, in thy form conceal'd, 

 Perpetual transport to the sage supply; 



Where nature, in her deep designs reveal'd, 

 Awes wondering man, and charms th' exploring eye. 



In thy prolific vase, and fertile seeds. 



Are trac'd her grand regenerative pow'rs ;:|: 



Life, springing warm, from loath'd putrescence, breeds, 

 And lovelier germs shoot forth, and brighter flow'rs. 



Thus, from Arabia borne, on golden wings. 

 The Phoenix on the Sun's bright altar dies ; § 



But from his flaming bed, refulgent, springs. 



And cleaves, wdth bolder plume, the sapphire skies. 



* The subject of this poem is the white Nelumbium, which I saw in fine flower in the Royal gardens at Kew last August. The same 

 Cowley says of the white lily, it seemed clothed in light. 



t There are three varieties of this plant, or if we constitute it, with Ju'ssieu, into a genus separate from the Nympheeas, by the term JVe- 

 lumbium, or if we make it, with Linnaeus, of the genus Nymphsea, we shall then have three distinct species of this beautiful aquatic, the red 

 white, and yellow. The leaves are in the shape, and of the size of an inverted umbrella, and majestically expand above the surface of the 

 stream. The flowers rise gracefully among the foliage, and altogether constitute one of the grandest and most lovely objects in the creation. 

 The white is dazzling, the red, and yellow, pvire and unmixed. 



X This plant, says a great mythologist, grows in the water; and, amongst hs broad leaves, puts forth a flower, in the centre of which is 

 formed the seed-vessel, shaped like a bell or inverted cone, and punctuated on the top with little cavities or cells, in which the seeds grow to 

 maturity, decay, and again shoot forth; for, the orifices of these cells being too small to let the seeds drop out, when ripe, new plants germinate 

 in the places where they are formed, the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish them, until they acquire such a degree of magni- 

 tude as to burst it open and release themselves; after which, like other aquatic weeds, they take root wherever the current deposits them 

 This plant, therefore, being thus productive of itself , and vegetaling from its own matrice, without being fostered in the earth, was naturally 

 adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the Deity upon the waters. See Mr. Knight's Work, p. 85. The fact, however, is that as 

 with some few other seeds, the cotyledons, or seminal leaves, ^arly manifest themselves, as in the radish, where the rudiments of the young 

 plant may at any time be seen, and in that state are deposited into the soft prolific bosom of the earth, where they readily take instant root 



§ Dr. Darwin, in his Temple of Nature, says, p. l62, " that the Phoenix rising from its own ashes is an hieroglyphic emblem of the destruc- 

 tion and resuscitation of all things. It is represented with the Dog-star over its head. 



" So when Arabia's bird, with age oppress'd. 

 Consumes delighted on his spicy nest, 

 A filial Paoenix from his ashes springs, 

 Crown'd with a star, on renovated wings; 

 Ascends exuUing from his funeral flame, 

 And soars, and shines, another, and the same." 



^n 





