4oS FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



expanded they rise up still higher, and present the 

 appearance of a very double flower."^ "The flower 

 is small and white like the lily, which is said to 

 expand at sunrise, and to close at sunset. It is also 

 said that the seed-vessel is then entirely hid in the 

 water, and that at sunrise it emerges again." = "When 

 the inundating waters of the Nile retire, it comes up 

 with the stem like the Egyptian bean, with the petals 

 crowded thick and close, only shorter and narrower. 

 There is a further circumstance related concerning- 

 this plant of a very remarkable nature, that the 

 poppy-like flowers close up with the setting sun, the 

 petals entirely covering the seed vessel ; but at sun- 

 •rise they open again, and so on, till they become ripe, 

 and the blossom, which is white, falls off."^ "They 

 grow in the lakes in the neighbourhood of Alex- 

 andria. I know that in that fine city they have a 

 crown called Antinoean, made of the plant which is 

 there named lotos, which plant grows in the lakes 

 in the heat of summer; and there are two colours 

 of it : one of them is the colour of a rose, of which 

 the Antinoean crown is made, the other is called 

 lotinos, and has a blue flower."* From the foregoing 

 we arrive at the following particulars of the lotos. 

 That it is an aquatic plant, with double poppy-like 



> Theophrastus. ^ Dioscorides. 



' Pliny. ■* Athenseus. 



