230 



its leaves and flowers to our plant, the original Lo- 

 tus of India. Hence I have for some time presumed 

 to deduce an argument in support of the doctrine, 

 now prevalent on other grounds, that the religion 

 of the Egyptians was adopted from the East. 



" Innumerable illustrations respecting the Ta- 

 ?»ara, Lotus, or Nelumbo, as connected with the 

 poetry or religion of the Hindus, may be found in 

 the learned works of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Knight, and 

 others. In the fourth volume of the Amcenitates 

 j4cade7?iic(£, p. 234, a carved horn of a rhinoceros, 

 sent to Linnaeus from China, is described. This is 

 now before me, and is an exquisite specimen of 

 Oriental sculpture, evidently alluding to the mytho- 

 logy of India. The whole inverted base of the horn is 

 carved into an elegant leaf of Nelumbo, rising from 

 the water amid a group of perforated Chinese rocks. 

 It is encompassed with various plants of a more 

 diminutive proportion ; a peach tree and a medlar 

 (or rather perhaps the mangostan), with Sagittaria, 

 Potkos, and the Nelumbo itself in flower and seed, 

 cover the outer surface. Some fantastic lizards, 

 with bunches of grapes and the Lit-che fruit in 

 their mouths, are crawling over the whole. 



" We have to add some remarks on the botanical 

 characters and name of this plant. 



" Adanson, Gaertner, Jussieu and Willdenow are 

 most unquestionably justified in separating it from 

 Nymphma, with which Linnaeus and other writers 

 have confounded it. The very peculiar fruit, unlike 

 anything else in the vegetable kingdom, and the 

 stigmas, so totally different from those of Nym- 



