Defcription of the Nymphcea Cttrulea. 327 



plrfchaw, of very large dimenfions, and having the fame 

 characters which diftinguifli the one found on ihe Ohio,. 



Until the difcovcry of this bone in America, the tradition 

 of the Indians concerning the great buffalo has been confi- 

 dercd as entitled to very little attention. Many interpreted 

 it as having entire reference to the mammoth, whofe pre- 

 eminent fjze was obvious, and whofe carnivorous teeth were 

 well calculated to excite terror; but I have now no hefitatiou 

 in believing that the tradition, which, with fuch little varia- 

 tion, prevails through all North America, mentioning the 

 antient exiftence of a great bufialo, is a tradition really handed 

 down to them from their forefathers, but, like all other tra- 

 ditions, clouded with fable: yet it is not improbable, fince 

 we find the remains of the mammoth and the great buffalo 

 in the fame country, that the diftinft ideas or each have 

 been in time confounded, the terrible ^oil-i?;- of the one with 

 the name of the other. 



It has been too much the cuftom, whenever any large bones 

 have been found in Europe, to call them all elephants' bones ; 

 and in America, to think them all belonging to the mam- 

 moth : but from the progrefs now made in this inquiry there 

 is reafon to hope for additional light on this interefting fub- 

 je£t, whether it be confidered as a fomidation to theological 

 faith, or regarded as a confpicuous monument in the hiitory 

 of the world. 



LIX. Defcription of the Nymphaea Cterulca. i?y Julius 



C.-E S A R S A V I G N Y, of the lujVltulC of Egjpt *, 



JLT is well known that the lotus of the antient Egyptians 

 was one of the moft celebrated plants of antiquitv. Kifing 

 every year with the waters of a river which overflowed its 

 banks only to fecundate the earth ; fpringing up amidil plains 

 formerly defert, which it embcllinied with its beautiful flow- 

 ers ; and cultivated to ferve as food to the leaft fcnfual, but 

 the molt numerous clais of the inhabitants ; it was judged 

 worthy of homage by one of the firft people in the world, 

 who confidered it as the happy fign of abundance, and as 

 a facred pledge of the favour of the gods. 



it is to the genus of the njmiphrea that the modern bota- 

 nifts have referred the lotus, which has l)een deferibed by 

 mod of the antient hiflorians, and wliieh is emvraven on all 

 the antique monuments of Egypt. Two fpecios of this genus, 



* from Ai:>:u.'is J ■ Mufcum }iut'tonal. No. 5. 



Y 4 one 



