254 OF THE NYMPHiEA. 



raises and expands them, often, in a bright day, to 

 several inches above the water. To this I can speak 

 irom my own knowledge, and it is confirmed by the 

 history given by Theophrastus of his Lotus, which, 

 according to all appearance, is the Nymphcea Lotus of 

 Linnaeus. "This," says he, " as well as the Cyamus^, 

 bears its fruit in a head. The flower is white, consist- 

 ing of many crowded leaves about as broad as those of 

 a lily. These leaves at sunset fold themselves together, 

 covering the head (or seed-vessel). At sun-rise they 

 expand, and rise above the water. This they continue 

 till the head is perfected, and the flowers fall off"." So 

 far Theophrastus writes as of his own knowledge ; he 

 continues as follows : '^^ It is reported that in the Eu- 

 phrates the head and flowers keep sinking till mid- 

 night, when they are so deep in the water as to be 

 out of reach of the hand, but towards morning they 

 return, 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 Nymphcea, in which, 

 as far as genus is concerned, he is correct, has the fol- 

 lowing remarkable passage : *' The celebrated stories 

 of the Lotus turning to the sun, closing its flowers 



* Exot. Bot. t. 31, 32. 



