No. 129.] 481 



ably introduced it. It was in vain that Prosper Alpin and tlie 

 savans, attached to that memorable commission to Egypt, sought 

 for it in the lakes and canals where it grew abundantly in the 

 time of Herodotus. It is seen on the medals of the Ptolemies. 

 Its stalks grouped into bundles decorate the bases of the colossal 

 granite Egyptian figures now at the Louvre, Its leaves served 

 as models for the columns of temples, its young fruits and flow- 

 ers surround the head of Antique Antinous, and they are sculptured 

 on the base of the statue of the Nile, copied from that of Home 

 which we see in the garden of the Tuilleries and in our national 

 museum. Finally, when Plutarch speaks of a crown of mellilot, 

 and when he ranks that plant among those which grow in the 

 Nile, he evidently means a crown of the flowers of Nympheacea, 

 and not the leguminous plant which at this day bears the name. 

 The Nelumbium of ancient Egypt grew in the lakes and canals 

 where boats sailed. Strabo says the leaves were as large as 

 Thessalian hats. They used them as plates, as goblets, and that 

 the shops were provided with them, for sale. The seeds con- 

 tinued to be known by the liomans for a long time and as a sort 

 of food, but at length, little by little, the plant has disappeared 

 from the waters of the Nile, and no trace is left but its figure on 

 medals and hieroglyphs. 



The leaves of this plant yielded a sweet milk, white like that 

 of the poppy, and in abundance. The form of the leaf is that of 

 a large vase resting on the water, and is often filled by rain. The 

 inside of this vase has no stomata, (mouths,) so that water stands 

 on it like mercury, the drops of water roll up and never enter 

 the leaf The flower was well described by Herodotus, I can- 

 not compare it to anything better than an enormous tulip, and 

 the comparison is better still as to the buds. At the time of full 

 bloom they measure about one foot eight inches in diameter, or 

 five feet in circumference. The flower is supported on a stem 

 more than three feet in length. The petals are imbricated, that 

 iSj resemble scales. The color at the extremities is a very lively 

 rose; there are 12 to 15 of these scales, the numerous stamini 

 disposed in many rows, are like white thread. The flower opens 

 two days in succession, but closes up at night. Its odor resem- 



[Assembly, No. 129.] .31 



