LOTUS. 359 



city Tan, in China, is a great cataract which occasions a 

 mire, wherein grow flowers of a saffron colour, whose 

 like is no where else to be seen in all those countries. 

 Several of these flowers grow upon one root; they are 

 something bigger than a lily of Europe, and much hand- 

 somer; for fashion, resembling tulips; the leaves of the 

 stalks are large and round, and drive upon the water, as 

 the leaves of some weeds do in Europe, which at their 

 occasion they gather and dry, and by this means are fit 

 to be used by shopkeepers instead of paper, to put up 

 their wares in. There are in some places whole pools 

 abounding' with these flowers, which, to say truth, grow 

 not there naturally, but have been sowed by one or other, 

 for they are in great request amongst them." 



Sonnirii in speaking of the lotus Nymphea in his Travels 

 in Egypt says, " this plant is the Noufar of the Arabians ; 

 it is a water lily of white and odoriferous flowers. Its 

 roots form one of the most common aliments of the 

 Egyptians, particularly in the neighbourhood of Rosetta, 

 where the numerous ditches of the fields are covered with 

 them ; they yield a kind of tubercle, which is gathered 

 when the waters are withdrawn ; those which are acci- 

 dentally left are sufficient to reproduce the plant. They are 

 dried and preserved to be eaten ; boiled like our potatoes, 

 which they nearly resemble in taste ; but they have less 

 consistency, and are not so spungy, so that they are 

 swallowed with difficulty, and it would not be easy to 

 eat more than one of them without being obliged to 

 drink. 



" They are sold ready dressed, and at a very low price, 

 in the streets of Rosetta, where the lower classes eat 

 them in great quantities." 



The Romans made repeated efforts to raise this plant, 

 without success, which the ancients have celebrated in 

 their writings. Homer mentions it with other flowers, as 



