28 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
they are eaten both fresh and dried.’’ This is unquestionably 
the Nelumbo and not the true Egyptian lotus. 
Pliny, in his ‘‘Natural History,’’ mentions the name 
“‘lotos’’ for four distinct plants, the herb lotos, the Egyptian 
lotos, a shrub lotos (probably the pomegranate), and tree 
lotos. He refers to the Egyptian lotus as ‘‘Lotometra’’ and 
records that the Egyptian bakers knead the flour of its seeds 
with milk and water to make bread, and further states that 
‘there is not any bread in the world more wholesome and 
lighter than this, so long as it is hot, but once cold, it is 
harder of indigestion and becometh weightie and ponderous.’’ 
He mentions that the seed pods were gathered and piled in 
heaps until they partially decomposed, in which state they 
were easily washed and cleaned free from the outer shell. 
They were then dried and ground into flour. He also draws 
attention to the closing of the flowers at sunset (Nymphaea 
caerulea). 
The confusion caused by both Nelumbo and Nymphaea 
being called ‘‘lotus’’ dates back at least as far as a Greek 
record of a remarkable banquet imagined by Athenaeus. The 
conversation turning upon flowers, one of the feasters tells 
about the ‘‘lotus’’ growing in the marshlands adjacent to the 
city during summer, and says: ‘‘It bears flowers of two 
colors, one like a rose [Nelumbo], its garlands woven with 
the flowers of this color, called garlands of Antinous; but 
the other kind is called lotus garland, being of a bluish color 
{Nymphaea].’’ The lotus of the ancient Egyptians was 
therefore not the pink-flowered Nelumbo, despite the fact of 
its having grown in the Nile Delta for a considerable number 
of years, but either Nymphaea Lotus, of nocturnal habit, or 
Nymphaea caerulea, of diurnal habit. The flower of these 
water-lilies was employed by the ancients in many ways, espe- 
cially as a flower of beauty and ornament. It was the emblem 
of the Nile god, for it was a product of the river. It was 
offered to Osiris as a treasured object. It was associated with 
the bodies of the dead. There is, however, no direct evidence 
that it was a sacred flower or an object of worship. Accord- 
ing to Wilkinson, it was the ‘‘favorite flower in the hands 
of the Egyptians’’ as the rose or orchid would be in the hands 
of any modern people. It was also the symbol of Nefer 
Tum and the resurrection in much the same way that the 
Easter lily is used as a decoration and gift flower during the 
Easter season. 
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