412 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



sented on the monuments, but the white one is chiefly 

 alluded to by ancient authors. 



The tamara, or lotos of India, was described by 

 ancient authors under the name of kyamos, or 

 Egyptian bean. These descriptions are so substan- 

 tial that there is not the slightest doubt of the plant 

 being the Nelumbium speciosum. 1 Nothing can be 

 more explicit than the account given byTheophrastus: 

 He says that " it is produced in marshes and in 

 stagnant waters, the length of the stem, at the 

 longest, four cubits, and the thickness of a finger,, 

 like the smooth jointless reed. The inner texture of 

 the stem is perforated throughout like a honeycomb, 

 and upon the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, in 

 circumference and appearance like a wasp's nest. In 

 each of the cells there is a bean projecting a little 

 above the surface of the seed-vessel, which usually 

 contains about thirty of these beans or seeds. The 

 flower is twice the size of a poppy, of the colour of a 

 full-blown rose, and elevated above the water ; about 

 each flower are produced large leaves, of the size of a 

 Thessalian hat, having the same kind of stem as the 

 flower-stem. In each bean, when broken, may be 

 seen the embryo plant, out of which the leaf grows. 

 So much for the fruit. The root is thicker than the 



1 M. C. Cooke on the " Lotos of the Ancients," in " Popular 

 Science Review," vol. x., p. 262. 



