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many petaled flowers. This is a native of the Cape of 
Good Hope. There are many other varieties of Nym- 
phees, but the foregoing are the most prominent, and 
also many other aquatie plants of interesting habits, but 
too numerous to mention here. 
NELUMBIUM SPECIOSUM. OR EGYPTIAN LOTUS. 
“The Lotus-flower, whose leaves I know 
Kiss silentiy, 
Far more than words can tell thee, how 
I worship thee.”—MooreE. 
This genus contains several beautiful species, which 
are aquatic plants, growing in ponds and slow-running 
streams. Nelumbium Speciosum is the Sacred Bean or 
Sacred Lotus of India. It is a native of both the East 
and West Indies, China, Japan, Persia, and Asiatic Rus- 
sia. According to Thunberg, it is esteemed a sacred 
plant in Japan, and pleasing to their deities, the images 
of their idols being often represented as sitting on its 
large leaves. The worship of the Lotus was common 
with the ancient Egyptians; it is not now, however, to 
be met with on the Nile. Herodotus described the plant 
with tolerable accuracy, comparing the receptacle of the 
flower to a wasp’s nest. Sculptured representations of it 
abound among the ruins of Egyptian temples, and many 
other circumstances prove the veneration paid to this 
plant by the votaries of Isis. The Chinese have several 
varieties, the more beautiful being the rose colored flow- 
ering one. They have always held it in sacred regard. 
That character has not, however, limited it to merely 
ornamental purposes, for the roots are not only served up 
in Summer with ice, but they are also laid up with salt 
and vinegar for the Winter. The leaves are covered with 
a fine microscopic down, which, by retaining a film of 
air over the upper surface, prevents it from being wetted 
