THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 165 



This plant, which is very nearly allied to the Nymphaacea, 

 is also called the Water Bean. The so-called Beans (which 

 do not resemble Beans in any way) are partially buried in. 

 the cushion-like top of the elongated flower-stalk, called the 

 torus, which forms the centre of the flower ; they are, pro- 

 perly speaking, fruits in which the seed is contained, the 

 upper end of which projects a little out of the torus ; they 

 are often eight in number, sometimes many more ; one, in 

 the centre of the flat, yellowish-green, round torus (which is 

 sometimes three times the size of a five-shilling piece at the 

 time the fruit is ripe), the rest being placed round in circles. 

 The Nelumbium speciosum is said to have been formerly 

 common in Egypt, but to be extinct there now; at the 

 present day it is chiefly found in the East Indies. Some 

 think it was this species of Lotus which was called by the 

 Egyptians " the Sacred Bean/' and the flower of it is sup- 

 posed to be that mythic Lotus which so often occurs on 

 the monuments of Egypt and India ; but there appears to 

 exist a diversity of opinion as to the species. 



In the accounts which travellers give of the wild parts of 

 the Himalaya Mountains, we can again trace out many of 

 the different regions in the list of forest-trees, such as Box 

 and Yew, Chestnuts and Oaks, and immense Pines; we 



