Water Lily. 291 



soms expand in bright weather, and in the middle of the day, 

 only closing towards the evening ; when they recline on the 

 surface of the water or sink beneath it. The sinking of 

 flowers under water at night, observes a botanist, having been 

 denied, I have been careful to verify it in this species. The 

 same circumstance has been recorded from the most remote 

 antiquity. The stimulus o[ light which indeed acts evidendy 

 on other blossoms and leaves expands, and raises with pecu- 

 liar force these splendid white flowers, that the pollen may 

 reach the stigma uninjured ; and when the stimulus ceases to 

 act they close again, drooping by their weight to a certain depth. 

 The roots have often been used as an emollient in medicine. 

 When the mystery of fructification has been completed the 

 flower sinks to the bottom, and in silence and solitude ripens 

 its fruit ; which is a large roundish, many celled berry, im- 

 pressed with the marks of the petals and stamens and con- 

 taining numerous seeds. It is a perennial plant which opens 

 in beautiful and extremely odorous blossoms in the month of 

 July. The fine odor has been often, but in vain, endeavored 

 to be extracted from it, but without so far the slightest success. 

 It is the emblem of Eloquence. Like as with ourselves in 

 China and Japan, the ranks and ponds are generally covered 

 with different species of this elegant genus whose large and 

 beautiful blossoms are no less fragrant than handsome. The 

 Blue Lotus— Nymphea Cebulea, grows in Egypt and in 

 Cashmere and Persia, but not in Bengal, where are only seen 

 the red and white, and hence is taken occasion to feign that 

 the Lotus of Hindoostan was dyed crimson by the blood of Irva. 

 In allusion perhaps to the world rising out of the waters, the 

 eastern deities are frequently represented seated on a Lotus 

 flower; a circumstance to which Sir William Jones, in his 

 imitations of Hindoo odes, often elegantly adverts. 



•* Mark where transparent waters glide 



Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed ; 

 There, cradled in the dimpling tide, 



Nymphea rests her lovely bead. 

 Bat conscious of the earliest beam, 



She rises from her humid rest, 

 And tees reflected in the stream 



The virgin whiteness of her breeet. 



