THE WATER-GARDEN 279 
The most august, however, of water-plants—and I make 
no apology to the earthly royalty of Nymphaea, is the 
heavenly holiness of Nelumbium. But up to this time 
the Holy Lotus has refused all the blandishments of the 
unholy West. With hot-water pipes and other expen- 
sive illegitimate contraptions, it may be lured, in our 
pools, to emit one or two pale blossoms, but it must not 
be trusted in winter, and our summers never ripen it 
sufficiently for next year’s show of bloom. And yet I 
nourish a hope that if one procures Nelumbium from its 
most northerly limit of distribution in Japan, from cold 
places where it is frozen solid for more than a quarter of 
the year, one ought, in time, to evolve a hardy race that 
will glorify our garden with a glory as far exceeding Nym- 
phaea as Nymphaea excels all other glories of the water. 
This should be no over-sanguine hope, too; for, though 
there are many Nelumbiums, yet Nelumbiwm speciosum 
ranges from southerly Ceylon to almost arctic Japan, 
and should therefore offer in its range some sturdy 
varieties of constitution. And no pains are too great 
to pay for the achievement of that end; to see 
the Holy Flower, analogue of the human soul, breaking 
in perfect and flawless loveliness from the filthy slime of 
the pond. Even so the human soul may break out in 
perfect and flawless beauty from all the filth and slime of 
the world. And thus, for its analogy, the Lotus is eternally 
hallowed, the consecrated flower to that Most Perfect of 
all souls that ever bloomed out of the world’s mire. 
THE END. 
