270 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" And them amongst the wicked lotos grew, 

 Wicked, for holding guilefully away 

 Ulysses* men, whom rapt with sweetness new, 

 Taking to host, it quite from him did stay." 



SPENSER. 



It is now pretty well ascertained, and generally be- 

 lieved, that Homer's lotus is a species of the rhamnus, 

 a native of Barbary. Dr. Shaw, in his travels in that 

 country, had frequent opportunities of examining this 

 tree : he found it on the very borders of the country of 

 the Lotophagi : others have found it in various parts ; 

 and it is supposed to be disseminated over the edge of the 

 Great Desert, from the coast of Cyrene, round by Tri- 

 poli and Africa proper, to the borders of the Atlantic, 

 the Senegal, and the Niger. Major Rennell saw it in 

 Bengal, where it is called byre, and in dry places on the 

 banks of the Ganges. The people there eat the fruit, as 

 we do sloes and wild berries. 



Pliny describes the fruit of the size of a bean, of a 

 yellow colour, sweet, and pleasant-tasted : he says that 

 it was bruised, made into a paste, and then stored up 

 for food. A sort of wine was also made from it, re- 

 sembling mead, but it would not keep many days. 

 Pliny adds, armies in marching through that part of 

 Africa have subsisted on the lotus. 



Polybius, who was employed by Scipio Africanus to 

 explore the coasts of Africa, says that the fruit is pro- 

 duced by a shrub which is rough and armed with spires, 

 resembling the rhamnus in foliage ; that when ripe, it is 

 of the size of a round olive, is tinged with purple, and 

 contains a hard stone : that being pounded, it is laid by 

 for use ; and that its flavour approaches to that of figs or 

 dates : finally, that a kind of wine is made of it, by ex- 



