334 OF THE NYMPH-EJU 



: phrastus writes as of his own know- 

 % e ; he continues as follows : u It is re- 

 ported that in the Euphrates the head and 

 flowers keep sinking till midnight, when they 

 are so deep in the water as to be out of reach 

 of the hand, but towards morning they re- 

 turn, and still more as the day advances. At 

 sun-rise they are already above the surface, 

 with the flower expanded ; afterwards they 

 rise high above the water." Pliny repeats 

 the same account, and Prosper Alpinus, whose 

 purpose is to prove the Lotus of Theophrastus 

 not different from the common Nymphcm, in 

 which, as far as genus is concerned, he is 

 correct, has the following remarkable passage: 

 " The celebrated stories of the Lotus turning 

 to the sun, closing its flowers and sinking 

 under water at night, and rising again in the 

 morning, are conformable to what every body 

 has observed in the ISymphcea" 



I have been the more particular in the 

 above quotations, because the veracity of 

 Theophrastus has lately been somewhat rudely 

 impeached, on very questionable authority. 

 For my own part, I think' what we see of the 

 Nymphcsa in England is sufficient to render 



