Oct. 1, 1870.J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



231 



THE LOTUS. 



I HASTEN to correct a misapprehension. In 

 describing the Lotus, I did not indicate it 

 specifically as an object of direct worship, but as 

 an adjunct thereof. 



Your correspondent C. F. White, breaking off 

 abruptly, has omitted a very important passage 

 from his quotation. Sir Gardner Wilkinson pro- 

 ceeds : " though it is an emblem of the god Nofre 

 At moo." (iv. 411.) 



As our great Egyptologist has beeii thus referred 

 to, I will condense his further remarks. He states, 

 generally, that the Lotus was a favourite flower with 

 the ancient Egyptians : it appears freely introduced 

 in views of their interiors, and was indispensable 

 at a grand banquet ; it was a frequent offering to 

 their gods, kings, and dead ; finally, lotus-buds are 

 found in their tombs. 



It was, as above stated, an emblem of the god 

 Nofre Atmoo, nofr = good (fig. 199). Ehoou, also, 



Fig. 199. Nofre Atmoo, after Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 



their god of day, who has been identified with 

 Eos, is sometimes represented as sitting in the 

 flower of the Lotus. Sir Gardner is quite certain 

 that this refers to the Kymphce.a Lotus, the common 

 white lily of the Nile. 



The learned Von Bunsen remarks that almost all 

 that, was known of the ancient Egyptians till with- 

 in a period of about forty years, is only the account 

 of the Greeks, who may have quite misunderstood 

 the matter. 



Foremost of these is Pythagoras, who originated 

 the theory of the Egyptian bean, — Kua/iog, the Ne- 

 lumbium speciosum of botanists. It is from a Greek 

 source that we have Sir G. Wilkinson's quotation, 

 " When Egyptians approached the place of divine 

 worship, they held the flower of the agrostis 



[lotus! in the hand." It is from classical writers, 

 only, that wc know the N. speciosum ever grew in 

 Egypt, where it is now unknown. 



Herodotus (ii. 92) says : "Great numbers of lilies, 

 which the Egyptians call lotus, springup in the water : 

 these they gather and dry in the sun ; then, having 

 pounded the middle of the lotus, which resembles a 

 poppy, they make bread of it, and bake it. The 

 root also of this 'lotus is fit for human food, and is 

 tolerably sweet, and is round, and of the size of an 

 apple. There are also other lilies, like roses, that 

 grow in the river, the fruit of which is contained in 

 a separate pod, that springs up from the root in 

 form very like a wasps' nest ; in this there are 

 many berries fit to eat, both fresh and dried." The 

 latter is the " bean," N. speciosum ; the former are 

 N. Lotus and N. carulea, both still met with in 

 Egypt. 



Whoso complains of this ambiguity will please 

 remember that the same doubt shrouds the identifi- 

 cation of our own sacred mistletoe, at a much more 

 recent epoch. A. H. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Larva of the Lace-wing Fly and its 

 Food. — In vol. v., page 15, is a very interesting- 

 account of the transformation of the Lace-wing Fly, 

 from the elliptical stalked eggs to the perfect 

 insect, with an account of the ravages it makes 

 among aphides ; whence its name of Aphis-lion. It 

 has fallen to my lot to detect another food-supply to 

 these ravenous larvae, viz., the eggs and larvae of 

 Lepidoptera. The circumstances were these : I was 

 preparing a paper on the eggs of Articulata for the 

 Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society, and 

 had for days been watching different batches of eggs, 

 in hopes that I might be able to exhibit the larvae 

 escaping from the egg. One batch of the Dots 

 {Mamestra persicarite) deposited on a plant of 

 prince's feather, being most advanced, I plucked 

 the leaf about five o'clock in the afternoon of 

 Thursday, July 25th. Turning the leaf up, I noticed 

 a larva of the Lace-wing upon the eggs, and ap- 

 parently engaged in feeding; I cut off the portion 

 of leaf, and placed the eggs and larva in a live-box, 

 and then watched the proceedings for half an hour 

 under the microscope, and had the satisfaction of 

 seeing it deliberately insert its powerful jaws in one 

 egg after another, draw out, and devour the im- 

 mature larva. Two members of my family also 

 witnessed the same state of things with other eggs, 

 and the same evening several members of the Society 

 saw the larva suck other eggs. The next morning 

 I found some of the Dot larvae had escaped from the 

 egg in the night. As one of these approached the 

 Aphis-lion, apparently unconscious of danger, it was 

 seized and sucked dry. This state of things con- 



