58 NOTICES OF BOOKS AXL> MEMOIKS. 



hiarti) served for food, a use wliich tradition carries back to the 

 first king, Meues. The employment of the seed as a means of 

 uourishment is no longer the custom in Egypt, but according to 

 Schweinfurth''' survives in the region of the Upper Nile among the 

 inhabitants of Bachr-el-Rhasal. On the other hand, according to 

 Delilef the rhizome is still boiled and eaten. Both species are 

 figured frequently on monuments. The blue flowers of Nijinplma 

 cccndea, Savigny, with entire foliage -leaves, are easily recognised in 

 several representations. Two well-preserved fiower-buds of this 

 species are, according to a communication of Prof. R. Caspary, in 

 the British Museum. 



As to the remains of Xi/mphma flowers in the Leyden 

 Museum, see above.] 



The far more frequently represented white-flowered Nymj)hcBa 

 Lotus, L., is easily to be distinguished from our native Xymphcea 

 alba, L., by the sharply dentate leaves. The old Egj^ptian 

 name of the Lotos flower " seschnhi " is preserved in the Arabic 

 speech of the modern Egyptians in the form of '' bischnm." The 

 white one, according to Delile,| is distinguished as biscJmin-el- 

 chansir (Swine's Lotos), while the blue is called Uschnin arabi 

 (Arabian Lotos). The monographer of the Xyiiiphaacetr, Prof. R. 

 Caspary, who has closely studied the monumental representations 

 of the Egyptian X}/}n2}h(Face(E,vf ill treat exhaustively of this subject 

 in his expected work. 



In this place there is another water-plant, Xelumbiumspeciosum, 

 Willd., closely related to Xywphaa, to be mentioned, which 

 possesses a wide distribution in Asia, and also occurs ou 

 the lower Volga at Astrachan. This Asiatic form, which is 

 not rarely cultivated in our greenhouses, has rose-red flowers, 

 while a very closely allied American form has yellow flowers. The 

 frequent occurrence of Xeluinbium in Egypt is certified by several 

 accounts of the old writers, as also by monumental representations, 

 at least in later times. The beautiful mosaic in the Museo 

 Borbonico in Naple: is well-known, on which a Nile-landscape is 

 indicated by crocodiles and Xehunbium. Herodotus § charac- 

 terises the Xelumbiian very strikingly by comparing the fruit with 

 a wasp -nest. He mentions that the seeds which are sunk in cavities 

 of the receptacle are eaten. Yet more exhaustively does Theo- 

 phrastus describe this plant under the name of >£va/xo? (faba 

 Aegyptia), used by most writers of antiquity. StraboH has left us 



* ' Im Herzen von Africa,' i., p. I.JO. 



+ L. c, p. :i06. 



J Loc. cit. 



§ Lib. II., Cap. 92, Kn^iu aCpi^y.uv l^ir,i ojj.oi6raTov, What Herodotus meant 

 by the statement o ku^ttck; bv uXXv) y.ciXvyA 7roc^a,(pvoiJLivy Ix tv(; ptl^viq yUsrut 

 remains uncertain if one translates y.ci.Xv^ by calyx, or as Lhardy (Herodotus, 

 i. 207) by stem. 



II ' Hist, plant.' Lib. iv., cap. 8, 7 and IS. 



% P. 799, Casaub. Compare E. Meyer, l. c, p. lol &. 



