Cyamas luteus. 79 



water chinquapin. Inhabits ditches and pools of water with muddy 

 or boggy bottoms ; flowering in July. Rare in the United States. 

 Very abundant about half a mile below Southwark of this city, in the 

 ditches of the meadows bordering the Delaware. In this place it 

 makes a very splendid appearance, and its flowers may be seen at a 

 great distance. 



%vxucs. originally the Greek name of a plant, which does not appear 

 to be specifically different from our common cultivated bean, after- 

 wards extended by Theophrastus and other writers, to the plant here 

 figured, on account of a fancied resemblance in the seeds. 



The following account of the Nelumbium Indicum, which docs not 

 appear to be specifically distinct from our plant, is taken from Rees' 

 Cyclopaedia. It is a native of the East Indies, Coehinchina, China, Sjc. 

 in many parts of which it is esteemed a sacred plant and makes a 

 conspicuous figure in their mythology as the symbol of fertility. It 

 was known to the Greeks, and is said by Herodotus, Theophrastus, 

 and others, to be a native of Egypt ; but no modern traveller lias ob- 

 served it in that country. It has no doubt existed there, as the terms in 

 which it is described, are too decisive to be mistaken, and their ac- 

 counts are confirmed by ancient Egyptian sculptures and mosaics, 

 which are still preserved, and testify that from the earliest times, it, 

 as well as the proper lotus, lias obtained a religious reverence. It is 

 remarkable, that neither Herodotus nor Theophrastus, the most an- 



