Historical. 13 



these (Bk. 22, chap. 21) he calls "lotometra" and states that the 

 Egyptian bakers knead the flour of -its seed with milk or water to make 

 bread. He adds, to give the quaint English of Philemon Holland's free 

 translation (p. 125). "There is not any bread in the world (by report) 

 more wholesome and lighter than this, so long as it is hot ; but being once 

 cold, it is harder of digestion and becommeth weightie and ponderous." 

 In book xiii (ch. 17) the " Egyptian lotus " (a Nymphaea) is described in 

 almost the same words as those of Dioscorides : its occurrence and habitat, 

 its poppy-like head, and seed resembling millet. He tells us that the 

 Egyptians gather the heads, lay them in heaps until they putrefy, then 

 wash the seeds clean, dry and grind them. Pliny repeats the story of the 

 closing of the flower at sunset, stating only that it is covered with leaves 

 until sunrise ; also that the flower is white. But though he is more 

 reserved in statement here than is Dioscorides, he goes farther in telling 

 of the behavior of the " Egyptian lotus" in the Euphrates (chap. 18). 

 There, he says, the flower is plunged beneath the water at evening, so 

 deep that a man cannot reach any part of it with his hand ; but after 

 midnight it rises slowly, appearing above water again at sunrise. He 

 tells us in addition that its root is covered with a black rind, and is good 

 to eat, especially when boiled or roasted, and that it is excellent for 

 fattening hogs. Nelumbo is mentioned by Pliny in two places under the 

 names " colocasia," "cyamos" and Egyptian bean {/aba). The description 

 of Nymphaea in Bk. 25, ch. 7, reads much like that of Dioscorides. A 

 few new features are introduced. The name and the plant, it is said, 

 originated from a nymph who died of jealousy through love of Hercules ; 

 hence the plant is called by some Heraclion ; but by others it is called 

 rhipsalos, for its club-like rhizome {radix). It grows in water and has 

 broad, floating leaves. The other features of the plant, its names, locali- 

 ties, and uses, and the yellow Thessalian variety are exactly as given by 

 Dioscorides, and the identities of all these are subject to the same doubts 

 and assurances as those given in discussing that writer. 



At that remarkable banquet imagined by Athenaeus, the conversation 

 turned on Alexandria, whereupon one of the feasters tells about the 

 " lotus " which grows in the marshes near that city in summer ; " it bears 

 flowers of two colors, one like that of the rose, and it is the garlands 

 woven of the flowers of this color which are properly called garlands 

 of Antinous ; but the other kind is called the lotus garland, being of a 

 bluish {xuaUav) color" (Bk. 15, ch. 21). The first plant is probably 

 Nelumbo, the second Nymphaea caerulea Sav. ; we have here the first 



