88 THE KEV. F. A. WALKER, I>.D., F.L.S., OX 



branches Avere trained upon houses (Cohimell, 7, 9). Its 

 leaves were ovate, ck)wny underneath, and its berries red 

 and sAveet tasted. I may now conckide this enumeration 

 by remarking- that there are two common and well known 

 Avild flowers in our English botany, that both possess the 

 generic name of Lotus, and were recorded by me in the list 

 of jilants occurring in my Cambridgeshire parish. 



(1) Lotus ea-corniculatus. The common birdsfoot trefoil. 



(2) Melilotus ojicmalis. Common melilot. 



As likewise both of the papilionaceous order, they are akin 

 to, if not the same as, the Greek lotos, the clover of Menelaus 

 of Sparta, and which is perhaps the IrifoUuni melilotus of 

 Linnaeus. 



In the compound " Meli-loins. " we may perhaps trace some 

 reminiscence of the /xeXLrjBea Kapirov, honey sweet fruit of 

 the Lotos in the land of tlie Lotophagi (Hom. OJ., Lib. 

 IX, 94). 



Lotos the Water Lily. 



It may not be out of place here to mention the passages 

 wherein the poets have celebrated the blossoming of the 

 Lotus. 



There is found in the Rhone a beautiful lily of the Yalis- 

 nerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or 

 four feet, thus preserving its head above water in the swell- 

 ings of the river. 



" And Valisiieriau Lotus thither flown 

 From struggUng with the waters of tlie Ehone."' 



It is a fiction of the Indians that Cupid was first seen 

 floating in one of these down the river Ganges, and that he 

 still loves the cradle of his childhood. 



" And the Nelunibo bud that floats for ever 

 With Indian Cupid down the holy river." 



Edgar Allan Poe, Al Aaraaf* p. 147. 



* Or according to the different dictum of another poet, 

 " Love still has something of the sea 

 From which his mother rose."' 



It is noteworthy that the Al Aaraaf of Mahometans and Amenti of 

 Egyptians, both ju'obably signifying Hades or realm of the unseen, are 

 both mentioned in connection with the lotus. 



