ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 97 



Now, Mr. G. Nicholson, in his ' Enclyopaedia of Horti- 

 culture,' says that the Nehiinbuivi is not an African plant. 

 The yellow Neliunbiiun belongs to the West Indies 

 and Southern States of North America, while the red 

 NelujubtHin, or Indian lotus, is Asiatic or Australian. 



Moreover, he says that Nymphoea lotus of the 

 Egyptians is either red or tulnie ; and NympJuva stel- 

 lata, the blue one, also of the Egyptians, belongs to 

 tropical Africa. So that Miss Edwards' statement that 

 the rose lotus {Ncbinibiuiii speciosuni) has disappeared 

 from Egypt may be erroneous, for it seems // ivas never 

 there. It is not likely that a plant like the Nelum- 

 biitin, so easily propagated by seed and root, would 

 have disappeared from Egypt had it been there. The 

 seed head of the Nehivibiwii is so characteristic and 

 so different from that of the NympJicea, that, were it 

 ever in Egypt, it could not have helped being re- 

 produced on their monuments. 



However, Miss Edwards states that the ' white and 

 the blue lotus ' abound in the neighbourhood of Rosetta 

 and Damietta. The red one appears to be a variety 

 of the white, and both are to be seen on the Egyptian 

 wall-paintings of the British Museum. The red variety 

 may not be common now. Natives eat the seeds of 

 the Nymplioea, and in ancient times it appears they 

 ground them and made a sort of bread of them. 



The seed-vessel is not unlike a poppy head, and indeed 



7 



