228 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



These flowers produce a spherical fruit, which, 

 when ripe, is as large as an average-sized cocoa-nut, 

 and full of round seeds, which are farinaceous. On 

 account of this nutritive character the Spaniards 

 have called the plant " water-maize," while patriotic 

 Englishmen, impressed with the beauty and rarity of 

 this colossal flower, have named it, in honor of their 

 sovereign, Victoria B-egina. 



The Lotus is the sacred water-lily of the East, 

 which appears in the mythology of almost every Ori- 

 ental nation. In Egypt, where the flower reaches 

 its greatest beauty, it appears constantly as the throne 

 of Osiris, the god of day. In India, Vishnu was rep- 

 resented as a beautiful youth sleeping on a star-spot- 

 ted serpent and holding the lotus in his hand. One of 

 the holiest volumes of the Buddhists is entitled, 

 " The White Lotus of the Good Law," and Buddha 

 himself is always pictured bearing lotus flowers in 

 each hand. The Syrians regarded it as a symbol of 

 the cradle of Moses, found on the shores of the Nile 

 by Pharaoh's daughter, and wherever the story of 

 the deluge found its way the lotus was associated 

 with the ark. 



Our own water-lily (Nymphcea), growing in ponds 

 and slow-flowing rivers, gives us at least a faint idea 

 of the form and beauty of the Victoria Regina ; but] 

 the South American plant is of gigantic proportions 

 compared with ours. The large disks of round leaves, 

 from five to six feet in diameter, are so many huge 

 dishes of perfume. The leafstalk is below in the cen- 

 tre. The leaves are smooth and green above, with a rim 



