THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 387 



Indian mythology is therefore not so irrational when 

 it relates, that the god Vishnu, armed with a trident, 

 crossed the abyss of eternal waters on a leaf of the Nym- 

 phsea, and that one of these served as a floating sea-shell 

 for the graceful goddess Lakshmi. 



There are some other leaves which, though they certainly 

 do not spread out in elegant sheets of verdure like those 

 of the Victoria, nevertheless in unfolding extend their nu- 

 merous divisions in a much more extraordinary manner. 

 This is seen in the taliput palm {Corypha umhramlifera) , 

 a great palm which grows in India, and the specific name 

 of which denotes the broad shadow which its crown of 

 verdure projects upon the ground. Its leaves are sup- 

 ported by a long powerful petiole as high as a man, and 

 under their vast cover forty persons can shelter themselves. 

 We sometimes see leaves of this tree fixed to the ceiling 

 of a collection of natural history, one of them covering it 

 completely. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE FLOWER. 



When we brush a flower Avith our fingers, when its 

 colour attracts our attention and its perfume intoxicates 

 us, it seems as if we knew all about it. But this is a mis- 

 take. Nothing is more diflicult than to conceive an exact 

 idea of what a flower is. Famous botanists like Haller 

 and Adanson have given it up; others have said nothing 

 of value on this head. 



