b2 THE KEY, F. A. WALKEE^ D.D., P.L.S., ON 



p/iosa, and nij}np]iala; on the same principle, that most grace- 

 ful and lovely genus of dragon flies, calepte)'ij,v, is Icnown 

 in common parlance among the French as les demoiselles. 

 Here again a too lavish use of tlie same Avord, or of kindred 

 words with the same derivation, is to be deprecated. 



There is good reason for terming our white water lily 

 (ni/mpha'a alba) by a Latin generic name nympliwa. Water 

 nymphs were imagined to be beings of surpassing grace, and 

 so, beyond all question, is the white lily of our lakes and 

 rivers. There is also good reason for terming our yellow 

 Avater lily {niipliar luteum) by another appellation, an ^\.rabic 

 generic name nupliar {nufar — related to nofr, good). For 

 Avliatever the scientific affinities of mip/tar luteum are, or are 

 Jiot, it is obviously not nearly so closely related to our Avhite 

 Avater lily as is the niimplura lotus of Egypt, and probably the 

 nijmphcca nelnmho of India, too. But again Ave are confronted 

 Avith the difficulty of the Egyptian species having both the 

 Latin generic name (nymphwa) of our Avhite Avater lily, Avhich 

 it does resemble, and the Arabic generic name [nnphar) of 

 <mr yelloAV Avater lily, Avhich it does not resemble. The 

 Buddhists of Tibet and others call it ne-nuphav. The 

 Egyptian god Xofr-Atmoo bore it on his head, and so its 

 name Xufar is connected Avith his title -Vo/V, or good, and 

 the compound of Nofr Nofretari occurs in the title (Nofretari) 

 of an Egyptian queen Nofretari, the Avife of Rameses II, as 

 giA'en in another paper tliat I have had the honour of reading 

 before a meeting of the Institute. 



Sijinbolism of the Lotus. — On this floAver the Egyptian 

 lotus, also, Harpocrates is often seated. He Avas the 

 Egyptian Aurora, or day spring, not the God of Silence, 

 as the Greeks supposed, but figured Avith his finger in his 

 mouth, to show one of the habits of childhood, of Avhich he 

 Avas the emblem. Hence he represented the beginning of 

 day, or the rise and infancy of the sun, Avhich Avas typicall}'' 

 jjortrayed rising cA-ery morning from that flower, or from 

 the Avater, and this may have given rise to the notion of 

 Proclus, that the lotus floAver Avas typical of the sun. Era- 

 tosthenes also says this son of Isis AA^as the " God of Day." 



Egyptian Mythology not Necessarily Derived from 

 that of the hindoos. 



It is not a matter of necessity to suppose, as some haA^e 

 held, that because, in the representations of Egyptian, as of 



