finue. 



58 

 order 7 . LOTUS OF INDIA. This plant is a native of 



P.siilla numc- ,.,. , , . - 



r-us and imie- still pools and recesses in the margins 01 running 

 streams in the East Indies, growing in a deep muddy 

 soil, in a depth of water not less than two or three feet, 

 nor more than six. 



When the seeds become ripe, the capsule contain- 

 ing them separates from its footstalk, and falls into the 

 water with all the seeds in their respective cells, which 

 then begin to vegetate, and thus present a cornu- 

 copia of young sprouting plants, which, after a time, 

 loosen from their confinement and take root in the 

 mud. a This particular mode of propogation has oc- 

 casioned this plant, in conjunction with water, to be 



a In Mr. Sowerby's Exotic Botany there is a beautiful 

 figure of this plant, with its general appearance in the water, 

 and a ripe capsule with its seeds, accompanied by a learned dis- 

 sertation by Dr. Smith. 



In the fourth volume of Amaenitates Academics, p. 234, a 

 carved horn of a rhinoceros, sent to Linnaeus from China, is de- 

 scribed. Dr. Smith is now in possession of it, who, speaking 

 of it, fays that it is of exquisite oriental sculpture, evidently 

 alluding to the mythology of India. The whole inverted base 

 of the horn is carved into an elegant leaf of the Nelumbo rising 

 from the water amid a group of perforated Chinese rocks. It is 

 encompassed with various plants of a more diminutive propor- 

 tion; a Peach tree and a Medlar (or rather perhaps a Mangostan), 

 with Sagitaria, Pothos, and the Nelumbo itself, in flower and 

 seed, cover the outer surface. Some fantastic lizards, with 

 bunches of grapes and the Lit- chi fruit in their mouths, arc 

 crawling over the whole. 



