338 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



nal structure, are also easily distinguishable in outward appearance. 

 Among other characteristics, it is notable that the " lilies " have round, 

 succulent stems* and the sedges angular, more or less siliceous stalks 

 or culms. t Now, to these two families respectively belong the lotus X 

 and the papyrus,§ the most famous and in ancient times among the most 

 abundant of Egyptian plants. || Various considerations, which will be 

 noted in the proper place, combine to prove that the variety of bundle 

 columns which we have called (a) is an imitation of four lotus stems, 

 and the variety called (b) an imitation of eight papyrus stems. 

 Among these considerations is the difference in form and decoration 

 of the shaft-bases just described ; for the lotus rises in distinct rope- 

 like stems from a tuber deep under water and hence seldom visible, 

 while the papyrus, like all sedges, springs from the mud in a dense 

 clump of stalks surrounded by numerous sheaths.1T Our provisional 

 classification we will now expand into the following : — 

 Order I. — Bundle Columns. 



A. Shaft composed of four lotus stems. 



B. Shaft composed of papyrus stems. 



1. Stems defined, eight in number. 



2. Stems undefined. 



* See Gray, Genera Florae America? Boreali Orientalis Illustrata, (Boston, 

 1848,) vol. i., plates 42 and 43. 



t See, for good engravings of the papyrus-plant, John Hayter, Report on 

 the Hereulaneum MSS., (London, 1811,) plate at end; and Segato, Atlante 

 Monumentale, etc., ii. 59. 



t Nympfuea Lotus, or N. ccerulea, or even N. Nelumbo, the Sacred Bean of 

 India. See Wilkinson, Anc. Egj'ptians, ii. 407 ; the same, quoted in Rawlinson's 

 Herodotus, (New York, 1859,) ii. 128; " Arohaaologia," (Soc. of Antiquaries, 

 London,) xix. 276. 



§ Cyperus Papyrus. For common uses, perhaps, C. dives, or even other sedges. 

 Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, ii. 406; Kawlinson's Herodotus, ii. 129; Hayter, 

 Hereulaneum MSS. 



|| Kenrick (Ancient Egypt, i. 89), says : "The papyrus was found chiefly in 

 the shallow waters of Lower Egypt, and hence became in hieroglyphics the 

 emblem of that district ; . . . the lotus, abounding more in Upper Egypt, was 

 employed to denote that kingdom." He adds, that N. Lotus and N. ccerulea 

 still grow in Egypt; but that N. Nelumbo has not been found. Wilkinson, 

 however, affirms that neither the lotus nor the papyrus is properly included in 

 the present flora of Egypt, the former occurring sometimes in the Delta, but 

 not in the Nile itself, and the latter growing only in the Anapus, near Syracuse. 

 Cf. Isaiah, xix. 6, 7. 



If There is an exasperating misconception everywhere afloat in hand-books 

 of Egyptian antiquities that the lotus has sheaths which are imitated on these 

 columns. See, for example, Long, Eg. Antiqs. in the Brit. Mus., p. 102; 

 T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. of Antiquities, (London, 1843,) i. 14. 



