AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 271 



sprung, so the souls of men, according to Buddhist faith, rise from 

 the sUme of sin, by their own power and effort, to different heights, 

 and reach the blessedness of Nirvana. Buddha is represented 

 sitting on an open lotus flower, the emblem of purity, and his 

 temples and altars are adorned with vases and imitations of blos- 

 soming lotus plants in bronze, wood or clay. In view of these 

 facts, we may accept the belief that the distribution of this honoured 

 plant in the countries of Chinese culture in Eastern Asia also fol- 

 lowed close upon the spread of Buddhism. 



I do not yet know for a certainty whether the Egyptian lotus, 

 mentioned by several classic writers of ancient times, is the same 

 as ours, or a nearly related plant. Its seeds, the Pythagoras or 

 Egyptian beans {Fabce cegyptiacce, Plin.), were eaten, like those 

 of the Indian lotus in monsoon lands. Theophrast compares its 

 fruit (Torus) very aptly to a round wasp's-nest, and Herodotus to 

 a large poppy head, but the description of its roots by the latter 

 does not at all fit the rhizoma of the holy lotus of Asia. 



Sir Joseph Banks brought the first seeds of the latter from India 

 into England in 1787. They were called " Sacred Indian Beans." 

 Since then the plant has been cultivated in warm aquariums in 

 nearly all European countries and in their Botanical Gardens, 

 occasionally in open ponds in Mediterranean regions, and at mid- 

 summer reaches its highest perfection. In Eastern Asia the pre- 

 dominating most widely cultivated species has pink blossoms, but 

 in Japan and China there is another variety, whose flowers of purest 

 white are no less beautiful.^ 



According to Fortune, a great number of these water-lilies grow 

 on the banks of the river above and below Canton, which are kept 

 in dams like the rice-fields. He writes : " This plant is cultivated 

 partly for decorative purposes, partly for its roots, which are 

 brought to market in great numbers and are much liked by the 

 Chinese." It is the same in Japan, as before noted. 



In midsummer the water-surfaces of old moats and ponds in 

 Tokio are adorned with numberless leaves and flowers of the lotus 

 plant. While nearly all the other Nymphaeacese spread out their 

 dull green leaves flat on the surface of the water, the lotus lifts 

 hers, as she does her flowers, on long stems high above it. A 

 beautiful green colour, fine veining and shell-like arching and 

 cavity distinguishes the leaves also, and they are scarcely less 

 beautiful when the dewdrops lie upon them in the morning like 

 thousands of pearls^ than when these are chased away by the 

 beams of the rising sun. But now the countless buds and tulip-like 

 flowers unfold. Unfortunately, the plant is an ornament of standing 

 waters only during the summer and autumn months, and not 



^ Haku-ren, — " white lotus flower," — as remarked above, is also the designa- 

 tion of the blossom of the Magnolia Yula7t, Desf., and there is indeed great 

 similarity between the two. 



