LOTUS 



3506 



LOTUS 



of prizes by lot or chance. In the commonest 

 variety of lottery, numbered tickets are sold to 

 the public, prizes being awarded to such as 

 hold numbers corresponding to those on dupli- 

 cate slips drawn from a wheel or other recep- 

 tacle. Before the legitimacy of this form of 

 raising money was seriously challenged, most 

 modern countries resorted to its use to increase 

 their revenues. In America, in the eighteenth 

 century, it was used to raise funds for the erec- 

 tion of public buildings of all kinds, including 

 even churches. Money was so raised for the 

 restoration of the famed Faneuil Hall in Boston 

 after its destruction by fire in 1761. 



The latest lottery to flourish in America with 

 government support was the Louisiana State 

 Lottery, which by the terms of its charter 

 yielded $40,000 annually to the state. In 1890 

 Congress withdrew from this corporation the 

 use of the mails and forced its removal to Hon- 

 duras. Four years later another act of Con- 

 gress prohibited the importation of lottery tick- 

 ets or advertisements and placed heavy penal- 

 ties on the sale of lottery tickets. In Cuba, 

 Mexico and other Spanish-American countries 

 lotteries are yet conducted under state protec- 

 tion. 



LO'TUS. Of the many different plants 

 which bear the name of lotus, probably the 

 most widely known is the Egyptian water lily, 

 whose large white or rose-purple flowers and 

 wide-spreading leaves are familiar sights along 

 the margins of the Nile and neighboring 

 streams. The blossoms, which are sometimes 

 a foot in diameter, are borne on a weak stalk 

 from four to eight feet in height, from which 

 they rise only a little above the surface of the 

 water. The sacred lotus of the Hindus and 

 Chinese is also a member of the water lily 

 family. 



A closely-related American species, known 

 variously as the water chinquapin, lotus and 

 yellow water lily, is found in abundance only 

 in five places in the United States. The largest 

 bed, in Grass Lake, Northern Illinois, about 

 fifty miles northwest of Chicago, is a compact 

 mass of flowers covering about 600 acres, a 

 wonderfully-impressive sight in August. There 

 are <other beds near New York City, at Mon- 

 roe, Mich., and Southern California and near 

 Beardstown, 111., on the Illinois River; in the 

 latter bed the flowers do not grow in a mass, 

 but are spread out along the stream for several 

 miles. 



The name lotus is applied most properly to 

 a member of the pea family, a native of the 



temperate regions of Africa and Asia. There 

 are about eighty spec;es, and the flowers, which 

 resemble those of the pea in shape and size, 

 are white, yellow, red or purple. Important 

 species are the bird's foot trefoil, the winged 

 pea and the coral gem, which grows in the 

 Canary Islands. The green pods of the winged 

 pea are sometimes eaten as a substitute for 

 green beans, and the ripened beans are used as 

 a substitute for coffee. 



The lotus is the national flower of the Hindus 

 and Egyptians. A particular species of the 



In that dark land of mystic dream 

 Where dark Osiris sprung, 

 It bloomed beside his sacred stream 

 While yet the world was young ; 

 And every secret Nature told, 

 Of golden wisdom's power, 

 Is nestled still in every fold. 

 Within the lotus flower. 



WINTER : A Lotus Flower. 



plant, no longer found growing in Egypt, 

 reproduced by the ancient Egyptians in tl 

 picture writing (see HIEROGLYPHICS) and 

 works of art. 



The Lotus-Eaters . In ancient Greek 

 ends, the lotus-eaters, or lotophagi, were a 

 of people who dwelt in Libya, on the nortl 

 coast of Africa, and whose sole food was 

 fruit and blossoms of the lotus tree, 

 plant, which has been identified as the juj 

 tree, possessed the magical property of cai 

 anyone who ate of it to forget his homel 

 and the ties of friends and family. Ten 

 thus describes its effects in his poem, 

 Lotus-Eaters: 



