223 



to your supposition of Pythagoras having borrowed 

 his precept from Egypt, — supposing it, I mean, to 

 apply to the Nymphaa Nelumbo: in case of its so ap- 

 plying, Pythagoras must I think have taken it direct 

 from India. But it appears to me more probable 

 that he did borrow it from Egypt, and applied it (as 

 the Egyptians themselves seem to have done,) to the 

 ordinary Kva/uoc (of the time of Herodotus). Upon 

 this supposition the precept itself would have been 

 very intelligible to the followers of Pythagoras (al- 

 though the reasons for it were not understood) ; but 

 if it contained any allusion to the Nymphaa Nelum- 

 bo, such allusion must have been totally obscure and 

 unavailing to the inhabitants of a country where 

 that plant appears to have been unknown. 

 I am, dear Sir, 



Yours very truly, 



F. Sayers. 



The beautiful plant which has led the botanist and 

 scholar into this elaborate disquisition, was figured 

 in Exotic Botany under the name of Cyamus Ne- 

 lumbo, the Sacred Bean of Iridia, tab. 31, 32. It 

 is denominated Kva/xoa by Theophrastus ; Ny?n- 

 phaa Nelumbo, by Linnaeus and Aiton ; Nyjnphaa 

 indica major, by Rumphius ; Nelumbo nucifera, by 

 Gaertner ; Nelumbium speciosum, by Willdenow ; 

 and Tamara, by Rheede. Those who do not possess 

 the Exotic Botany may not be displeased to hear 

 Sir James Smith's reasoning concerning the name 

 and character of this celebrated plant. 



"Germen superior, green, smooth, inversely coni- 



