t^ijjtrvathns on tfoe "Lotus of Egypt. 2^7 



that I have here given philofophers a further inducement to 

 admire with me the great and nohle operations of the divine 

 providence, which fo evidently appear in the different changes 

 effefted in air and water, and which are fo neceffary for fup- 

 porting and maintaining the creation. 



GroPiingen, 

 February 26, 1S03. 



XLV. Obfervut'ions oil the Lotus of Egypt, By Alike 

 Raffenau-Dklile, Member of the Injiitute of Egypt"*" .. 



OINCE mv return from Egypt T prefented to the Mufeum 

 of Natural Hiltory different kinds of feeds and feveral bulhs 

 of the nymphiea ca-rulea, of which an accurate defcription was 

 given in Egypt by C. Savigny, my colleague. Thefe bulbs 

 beg-.m to germinate towards the end of Meffidor, when kept 

 immerfcd in water. I collected them in the ifland of Ro- 

 fetta in the month of Ventofe, year 8; and though I had kept 

 them two years without planting them, they had not become 

 deficcated: one of the plants of the nymphaea has already pro- 

 duced feveral flowers fomewhat fmaller, lefs odorous, and of 

 a paler blue colour, than thole in Egypt. 



Though I made a tour with the Commiflion of Arts into 

 Upper Egypt <kiring the time of the inundation, which is 

 that alfo of the increafe of the two kinds of nympha;a of the 

 Nile, we met with none of thefe plants in that country. 



The waters of the Nile rife to a confiderable hciglit in the 

 Said, and much lefs in Lower Egypt. The nymphaea, there- 

 fore, eafily reaches the furface of the water, during the in- 

 undation, in the lakes and the canals of the Delta, where 

 they are not hurt by the current of the river. It is, perhaps, 

 for a contrary reafon that the nvmphcca does not grow in the 

 Said. 



We obfervcd the nymphsea crerulca painted and enoraven 

 on the Egyi>tian monuments much ofiener than the two kinds 

 of lotus mentioned by the olde(l hiftorians. This nvmpha;a 

 has a great refemblaixce to thefe kinds of lotus, and appears 

 to be a third fpecies of it. 



Moft authors who have undertaken to make known the 

 lotus in regard to its antiquity have fallen into many errors; 

 but Mahudel, of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles 



* From Ainiales du Mufeum Nai'ional d' Uijloire Nuturelle, No. 5. 



Vol. XV. No. 59. S Lcttres, 



