536 



On the Cultivation of the Nelumbium. 



informs us, the Nelumbiums grow far better than in the 

 south. All that the plants require is fresh water, and a long 

 and warm summer ; they are not affected by the severest frost 

 of winter. The ditches under the walls of Pekin, which 

 abound in Nelumbiums, are frozen sufficiently strong to bear 

 carts upon the ice. In the summer of 1822, the thermometer 

 of Fahrenheit was for some weeks 93° in the shade in the 

 north of Italy, and in the following winter it was at 25° 

 below the freezing point for above a month. 



In the spring of 1822 I planted some seeds of Nelum- 

 biums in the open air in Italy in a large tub, half filled with 

 earth, covered with tiles, and then water, which was changed 

 every second day. The seeds came up well, but the plants 

 were soon covered with confervas, and rotted away. The 

 same happened to some other seeds which had been sown in 

 a large pot, and plunged in a stone tank forty feet square, and 

 of sufficient depth. I then put some seeds, both of N. spe- 

 ciosum, and N. luteum into a large pot, and plunged it in a 

 small stone basin, in which there was a fountain always play- 

 ing, and the water constantly agitated by having to supply 

 water to a large garden. In this the plants were raised, and 

 they flourished very much, 'throwing up leaves two feet wide, 



light excursions on rivers covered with the flowering Lien-wha. Its seeds, in size 

 and form like a small acorn without its cup, are eaten green or dried as nuts, and 

 are often preserved as sweetmeats ; they have a nutlike flavour. Its roots, some- 

 times as thick as the arm, of a pale green without, and whitish within, in a raw 

 state are eaten as fruit, being juicy and of a sweetish and refreshing flavour, 

 and when boiled, are served as vegetables. Both seeds and roots were frequently 

 sent with the dessert to the Ambassador's table : the former were relished by us, 

 but the latter were too fibrous to be eaten with pleasure. The leaves are said to 

 possess a strengthening quality, the seed vessel to cure the cholic, to facilitate par- 

 turition, and to counteract the effects of poison " 



