388 KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 
mythology of India. The whole inverted base of the horn is carved 
into an elegant leaf of Nelumbo, rising from the water amid a group 
of perforated Chinese rocks. It is encompassed with various plants of 
a more diminutive proportion: a peach-tree and a medlar (or rather 
perhaps the Mangosteen), with Sagittaria, Pothos, and the Nelumbo 
itself in flower and seed, cover the outer surface. Some fantastic lizards, 
with bunches of grapes and the Litchi fruit in their mouths, are crawl- 
ing over the whole.” This graceful antique it has often been my 
privilege to see in the library of the late Sir James Edward Smith. 
Tt came afterwards, as is well known, with the rest of his collections, 
into the possession of the Linnean Society of London, and has been en- 
graved by Lady Smith in the memoirs of her late husband. à 
In ancient Egypt it has been spoken of by Herodotus as “ the Lily of 
the Nile, like a beautiful rose ;” by Athenæus as the ** Egyptian Bean," 
or ** Rose-coloured Lotus ;"and Theophrastus, under the name of “Bean E 
(kvapas), most accurately describes it, having the “fruit like a wasps’ 
nest, containing about thirty beans, a little projecting, each placed ina 
separate cell; the flower is twice as large as a poppy, and of a rose- 
colour,” ete., etc. ; and it is sculptured on the ornaments and repre- 
sented in symbolical pictures of the Egyptian temples. It is faithfully 
depicted in the Mosaics of Palestrina, of which M. Barthélemy has 
given us the history, where Harpocrates is represented on Egyptian 
monuments, sitting under the flower and fruit of the “ Rose-coloured 
Lotus,” the plant now under consideration: yet so entirely lost is it 
to the Egyptians, that, as it has been well observed by M. Poiret, the 
plant thus portrayed would have been unknown to naturalists of the 
present day, had it not been discovered in India. 
Sacred Indian Lotus, or Bean of Egypt. Nelumbium speciosum, 
Willd. India. Flowers, in alcohol (East India Company). A group . 
of flowers and foliage admirably modelled in wax, and presented by 
Mrs. Ewart. Fruit, dry and in alcohol. Root-stock from Seinde (Dr. 
Stocks), where and elsewhere it is much eaten, boiled and in curries. 
Seeds, eaten raw or roasted. Necklaces made of the seeds (Major 
Madden), sold at Benares and considered very sacred.—A drawing 
_ of the entire plant is suspended upon the gallery in Room No. 3 of the 
. Museum. We have dwelt the more upon this plant, because of its 
great beauty, and because it may be seen, in great perfection, during 
the summer and autumn months in the aquaria of the hothouses. 
