by the mafterly papers of Savigny and De Lile, publifhed 

 in the firft volume of the Annates du Mufium d'Hiftoire Naturclle, 

 in 1802 (vide Annals of Botan\\ vol, 2. page 174. ) which 

 contain a very fair and fatisfaclory account of the Egyptian 

 Lotus, and a careful diftiu£tion of it from the Egyptian Bean ; 

 together with every thing that has been faid of thefe plants by 

 Herodotus, Theophrastus, and other ancient writers. 



Whether in the Egyptian mythology the Nymphaea Lotus 

 became important only as a fubftitute for the Sacred Bean, as 

 Dr. Smith prefumes, we leave to others to decide,- to us, how- 

 ever, it feems probable that a plant which made its appearance 

 only with the inundation of the Nile, the fource of all fertility 

 in Egypt, and difappeared as the water receded, lying con- 

 cealed in the arid fand, until revivified by the fucceeding inun- 

 dation, could not fail to be celebrated by the ancient Egyptians, 

 independent of any refemblance it might bear to the Sacred 

 Bean. Even the prefent inhabitants diitinguifh it by the name 

 of the fpoufe of the Nile, a term expreflive of its being con- 

 fidered bv them as the fymbol of the fertility about to be 

 renewed by the fojourn of the waters upon the earth. Our 

 prefent plant which grew, as Theophrastus informs us, in 

 ftagnant waters, and not in the lands overflowed by the Nile, 

 appears to have had a lefs powerful claim to the adoration of 

 the fuperftitious Egyptians. 



Befides, the more frequent occurrence both of the flower 

 and fruit of the Nymph^a Lotus y than of the Nelumbium, 

 on the fculptured monuments and fymbolic tables of the ancient 

 temples of Egypt, militates againft the Prefident's opinion ; as 

 does alfo the blending of the fruit of the former plant with the 

 ears of corn, to form the infignia of Isrs, as the fymbols of 

 fertility and abundance, and the probable conjecture, that the 

 Poppy' was dedicated to Ceres, whofe attributes are fo fimilar 

 to thofe of the Egyptian goddefs, entirely on account of its 

 refemblance to the Lotus. It is remarkable too, that if the 

 Nelumbium was really the celebrated Lotus of antiquity 

 Herodotus and Theophrastus, who have defcribed both 

 plants, fhould have agreed in applying the name of Lotus to 

 the Nymphaea. 



The conjecture of our learned friend, that the Beans, faid to 

 be forbidden by Pythagoras to be eaten by his difciples, were 

 the fruit of the Nelumbium, although favoured by the cir- 

 cumftance, that this celebrated philofopher is fuppofed to have 

 imbibed his doctrines from the Egyptian priefts, may, perhaps, 

 be rendered dubious by the apparent abfurdity of profcribing 

 the ufe of a vegetable altogether unknown in Greece ; a con- 

 duct 



