Chap. III.] 



VARIETIES OF THE LOTUS. 



123 



are the large red and white Lotiis^, Avhose flowers may be 

 seen from a great distance reposing on their broad green 

 leaves. In China and some parts of India the black seeds 

 of these plants, which are not unhke httle acorns in sliape, 

 are served at table in place of almonds, which they are 

 said to resemble, but Avith a superior dehcacy of flavour. 

 At some of the tanks where the lotus grows in profu- 

 sion in Ceylon, I tasted the seeds enclosed in the torus 

 of the flowers, and found them white and delicately- 

 flavoured, not unhke the smaU kernel of the pine 

 cone of the Apennines. This red lotus of the island 

 appears to be the one that Herodotus describes as 

 abounding in the Nile in his time, but which is now 

 extinct ; with a flower resembhng a rose, and a fruit in 

 shape hke a wasp's nest, and containing seeds of the 

 size of an olive stone, and of an agreeable flavour.^ 

 But it has clearly no identity w^ith those Avhich he 

 describes as the food of the Lotophagi of Africa, of tlio 

 size of the mastic^, sweet as a date, and capable of being- 

 made into wine. 



One species of the water lily, the NymiDlicea ruhra, Avith 

 smaU red flowers, and of great beauty, is conmion in the 

 ponds near Jafliia and in the Wanny; and I found in 

 the fosse, near the fort of Moeletivoe, the beautifid blue 

 lotus, N. steUata, wdtli hlac petals, approaching to purple 

 in the centre, which had not previously been supposed to 

 be a native of the island. 



Another very interesting aquatic plant, which was disco- 

 vered by Dr. Gardner in the tanks north of Trincomalie, is 

 the Desmanthus natans, with highly sensitive leaves float- 



^ Nelunibiimi speciosum. 



^ Herodotus, b. ii. s. 92. 



^ The \\'ords are "fart i^uynBoc 

 oaov re r»;c cx^""^" (Herod, b. iv. S. 

 177) ; and as nylvog means also a sqiii/l 

 or a sea-onion, the fruit above referred 

 to, as the food of the Lotophagi, must 

 have been of infinitely larger size 

 and in every way different from the 



lotus of the Nile, described in the 

 2ud book, as well as from the lotus 

 in the East. Lindley records the 

 conjecture that the article referred to 

 by Herodotus was the tiah/,-, the berry 

 of the lote-bush (Zih/phi/s lofm), 

 which the Arabs of IJarbary still eat. 

 ( Vegetable Kingdom, p, 582.) 



