THE WATER-GARDEN 279 



The most august, however, of water-plants — and I make 

 no apology to the earthly royalty of Nymphaea, is the 

 heavenly holiness of Nelumhium. But up to this time 

 the Holy Lotus has refused all the blandishments of the 

 unholy West. With hot-water pipes and other expen- 

 sive illegitimate contraptions, it may be lured, in our 

 pools, to emit one or two pale blossoms, but it must not 

 be trusted in winter, and our summers never ripen it 

 sufficiently for next year's show of bloom. And yet I 

 nourish a hope that if one procures Nelwnhium from its 

 most northerly limit of distribution in Japan, from cold 

 places where it is frozen solid for more than a quarter of 

 the year, one ought, in time, to evolve a hardy race that 

 will glorify our garden with a glory as far exceeding Nym- 

 phaea as Nymphaea excels all other glories of the water. 

 This should be no over-sanguine hope, too ; for, though 

 there are many Nelumbiums, yet Nelumbium, speciosum 

 ranges from southerly Ceylon to almost arctic Japan, 

 and should therefore offer in its range some sturdy 

 varieties of constitution. And no pains are too great 

 to pay for the achievement of that end ; to see 

 the Holy Flower, analogue of the human soul, breaking 

 in perfect and flawless loveliness from the filthy slime of 

 the pond. Even so the human soul may break out in 

 perfect and flawless beauty from all the filth and slime of 

 the world. And thus, for its analogy, the Lotus is eternally 

 hallowed, the consecrated flower to that Most Perfect of 

 all souls that ever bloomed out of the world's mire. 



THE END. 



