ELM FAMILY 
states. The fruit is sweet and not unpleasant, and is loved 
by the birds. 
The type is ancient, traces of Ce/f’s have been found in the 
miocene rocks of Europe. 
The European Nettle, Ce/fis australis, is supposed to have 
been the Lotus of the ancients, whose fruit Herodotus, Dios- 
corides, and Theophrastus describe as sweet, pleasant, and 
wholesome. Homer makes Ulysses say : 
I sent explorers forth—two chosen men, 
A herald was the third—to learn what race 
Of mortals nourished by the fruits of earth 
Possessed the land. They went and found themselves 
Among the Lotus-eaters soon, who used 
No violence against their lives, but gave 
Into their hands the lotus plant to taste. 
Whoever tasted once of that sweet food 
Wished not to see his native country more 
Nor give his friends the knowledge of his fate ; 
And then my messengers desired to dwell 
Among the Lotus-eaters, and to feed 
Upon the lotus, never to return. 
—OpysseEy, Book IX, 
262 
