448 THE UNIVERSE. 



las that we can scarcely make them out, the lilies and irises 

 exhibit grand and sumptuous structures of this class, which 

 rivet every person's attention ; and yet some exotic plants 

 leave them far behind in this respect. 



The flower of one Aristolochia, which grows on the banks 

 of the Magdalena, presents the appearance of a helmet with 

 great edges. The opening of it is so large that it will admit 

 the head of a man ; and Humboldt relates that, when trav- 

 elling along by this river, he sometimes encountered sav- 

 ages wearing this flower on their heads like a hat. 



But it is on the surface of rivers that the pomp of vege- 

 tation is displayed. Nature nowhere shows another flower 

 which, for size united to coloring, can be compared to 

 those of the Nymphsese and the Nelumbia, commonly 

 called water-lilies and lotuses. By gentle gradations they 

 pass from the purest white to the most velvety red or the 

 most delicate blue ! In every age these magnificent plants 

 have attracted man's attention, and been the object of his 

 admiration. Art has made a splendid use of them, and to 

 them the ancient myths owe some of their most delicate 

 and beautiful conceptions. 



They play a great part in mythology and on Egyptian 

 monuments. The colonnades of Thebes and Philae, which 

 seem to defy the hand of time, are crowned with capitals 

 representing flowers of the Nymphaea in full bloom, with 

 which the sculptors of the Pharaohs have sometimes inter- 

 mingled bunches of dates. 



There is no Egyptian monument on which Isis is not rep- 

 resented surrounded by the lotus, or holding bouquets of it 

 in her hands. This flower was the indispensable ornament 



