26z Ohfcrvations on the Lotus of llgjpt. 



his refidence at Alexandria, with a rofe lotus as a rarity, and 

 faid tliat this lotus, which had grc)\vn up in a country nioill- 

 ened by the blood of lb terrible a lion, ought to be called the 

 Antinoian. The lion of which the poet here fpcaks had ra- 

 vaged a part of Libya, and had at length been deftroyed by 

 the emperor Adrian during a hunting excurfion. 



Independently of the plaufiblc conjectures of feveral wri- 

 ters refpeding the origin of the religious employment which 

 the hLgvptians made of the lotus, thcfe plants, on account of 

 their fiinple and natural properties, mult have been very much 

 celebrated in anlient Egypt. This country being indebted to 

 the Nile for its profperitv, its inhabitants confidered as the 

 fiorns of a great beneiit the plants which grew in the waters 

 of that river. The flowers of the lotus rife to the furface of 

 the water when the Nile begins to increafe, and announce 

 the inundation, which is about to bring abundance along 

 with it. Befides the names of hachonn and 7iavfar, which 

 the Egyptians give to the nvmpha3a, they call them alfo 

 arJis el Nil, that is to fay, which grow up in the Nile. Thefe 

 names certainly refer to the fertility about to be renewed by 

 the prefence of the waters. 



The Egyptians coUefted the roofs of the lotus when the 

 waters ot^lhe Nile retired. At prefent they are fcldom col- 

 leded ; but they multiply very much in the rice-fields, I'o that 

 the peafants are obliged to pull them up after the rice har- 

 veft. They then fometimcs eat thefe roots, which they call 

 biaro. I faw fomc of them fold in the market of Damietta 

 in the month of Frimaire, year 7 : I tailed them, and found 

 that their tafle was not difagrecable. Thefe roots are round, 

 or Ibmcwhat oblong, and fmaller than a common egg. The 

 rind is black, and coriaceous: they exhibit tubercles, traced 

 out by the bafe of the petioles or {hoots. Thefe roots in tiic 

 infide are white and farinaceous; in tbe centre ihey are yel- 

 lowifli. After the inundation they remain I'unk \n the earth 

 which has become dry ; and the following year, when co- 

 vered by water, they fend forth leaves and imall roots merely 

 from the fummit, which has a cuttony appearance. The 

 radiculrc penetrate laterally into the mud, where they product 

 tubercles which become fimilar to the former roots, and 

 which multiply the plant. The Egyptians to colleft the 

 feeds waflied them^ after leaving the rind of the fruit to pu- 

 trefy. This method is the only one that could be employed, 

 otherwife thefe feeds would become mixed and deficcated 

 with the parenchyme of the fruit. Thefe feeds are very fmall, 

 rofe-coloured or gray on the outfide, and farinaceous within. 

 The auticnts compared them to grains of millet, I have 



heard 



