364 



lotus at Rome, in the court-yard and cloister 

 about the temple of Vulcan, which Romulus 

 built for a perpetual monument and memorial 

 of a victory, and defrayed the charge out of 

 the tenth of the pillage and spoil that he ob- 

 tained from his enemies ; and this tree is at 

 least as old as the city of Rome." 



Pliny writes on the medicinal qualities 

 of the lotus, in his 24<th book, chap. 2d, 

 and says his countrymen called it the Greek 

 bean. He says the fruit is sweet, but that 

 nothing is more bitter than the shavings of 

 the wood. 



Mr. Mungo Park discovered what is sup- 

 posed to be the lotus of the ancients, and says 

 it abounds in all parts of the interior of Afri- 

 ca. Agreeable to his account, it is rather 

 a thorny shrub than a tree. The fruit is a 

 small farinaceous berry, which being pounded 

 and dried in the sun, is made into excellent 

 cakes, resembling in flavour and colour the 

 sweetest gingerbread. This traveller observes, 

 that a sweet liquor is obtained from the lotus, 

 which, we may conclude, had the bewitching 

 qualities described by the ancients. 



A species of the lotus, or nettle-tree, eel- 

 tis, has long been cultivated in this country: 

 as Gerard says, " this is a rare and strange 

 tree in both the Germanics : it was brought 



