100 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
represented on plates and vases ; the sculptures 
show it in many sacred uses, even as a burnt- 
offering; Isis holds it; and the god Nilus still 
binds a wreath of water-lilies around the throne 
of Memnon. 
From Egypt the Lotus was carried to As- 
syria, and Layard found it among fir-cones and 
honeysuckles on the later sculptures of Nine- 
veh. The Greeks dedicated it to the nymphs, 
whence the name Wymphea. Nor did the 
Romans disregard it, though the Lotus to 
which Ovid’s nymph Lotis was changed, ser- 
valo nomine, was a tree, and not a flower. Still 
different a thing was the enchanted stem of 
the Lotus-eaters of Herodotus, which prosaic 
botanists have reduced to the Zizyphus Lotus 
found by Mungo Park, translating also the yel- 
low Lotus-dust into a mere “ farina, tasting like 
sweet gingerbread.” 
But in the Lotus of Hindostan we find our 
flower again, and the Oriental sacred books are 
cool with water-lilies. Open the Vishni Purana 
at any page, and it is a Sortes Liliane. The 
orb of the earth is Lotus-shaped, and is upborne 
by the tusks of Vesava, as if he had been sport- 
ing in a lake where the leaves and blossoms 
float. Brahma, first incarnation of Vishnu, cre- 
ator of the world, was born from a Lotus; so 
was Sri or Lakshmu, the Hindoo Venus, god- 
