pfant Ts)oi*e, "bege?^/, oriel Isijric/*. 459 



NASTURTIUM.— According to Rapin, the Nasturtium was 

 once a young Trojan huntsman ; but the Jesuit poet gives no details 

 of the metamorphosis, merely stating that 



" Shield-like Nasturtium, too, confusedly spread, 

 With interminjjling Trefoil fills each bed — 

 Once graceful youths ; this last a Grecian swain, 

 The first an huntsman on the Trojan plain." 



Te shield-like form of the Nasturtium's leaves and its curiously- 

 shaped flowers, which resemble golden helmets, have obtained for 

 the plant the Latin name of " Tropcrolum " (trophy). Its old English 



names were Yellow Lark's-heels and Indian Cress. The seed 



of the Nasturtium, according to Macer Floridus, possess a great 



})ower to repel serpents. Linnaus has recorded that his 



daughter Elizabeth Christina observed the flowers of the Nas- 

 turtium emit spontaneously, at certain intervals, sparks like elecflric 

 ones, visible only in the evening.' 



NEEM. — The Neem-tree (Azardimchta hidica) is considered 

 by the Indians a sacred tree, and is described b}^ their poets as the 

 type of everything bitter. Its bark is used as a substitute for 

 Cinchona in cases of fevers. 



NELUMBO.— The Nelumbo, Sacred Lotus, or Padma {Ne- 

 lumhium spcciosum), was the Sacred Bean of Egypt, the Rose 

 Lily of the Nile spoken of by Herodotus. The beauty of its 

 blossoms, which are sometimes of a brilliant red colour, but 

 rarely white, hanging over broad peltated leaves considerably 

 above the surface of the water, render this the most lovely and 

 graceful of all the Water Lilies ; and at the same time it is the most 

 interesting on account of its remote historical associations. Four 

 thousand years ago the Nelumbo was the emblem of sancftity in 

 Egypt amongst the priests of a religion long since defuncft ; and the 

 plant itself has long been extinci: in that country, though in India 

 and China the flowers are held especially sacred, and the plant is 

 commonly cultivated. The Chinese call this sacred flower the 

 Lien-7vha, and prize it above all others. Celebrated for its beauty by 

 their poets, and ranked for its virtues among the plants which, ac- 

 cording to Chinese theology, enter into the beverage of immortality, 

 this Lien-wha is to the Chinese what the Gul or Rose is to the 

 Persians; and a moonlight excursion on a tranquil river covered 

 with its yellow blossoms is numbered by the inhabitants of the 

 Flowery Land among the supreme delights of mortal existence. 

 (See also Lotus and Nymph^a). 



NETTLE.— The Nettle is one of the five plants which are 

 stated by the Mishna to be the " bitter herbs " ordered to be par- 

 taken of by the Jews at the Feast of the Passover. In Ireland, 



the Nettle of Timor is known as Daoun Setaii, or the Devil's Apron ; 

 and in the southern parts of the island it is a common pracftice for 

 schoolboys, once a year, to consider themselves privileged to run 



