December 17, rag?. 



SUPPLEMENT TO 



THE GA RDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



*55 



" bird's-foot trefoil," Lotus corniculatus, and the black or dark velvety- 

 brown L. Jacobceus, are two well-known plants with which the name is 

 associated in the fields and gardens of our own time. The " Lotus tree n 

 of South Europe is Diospyrus Lotus, a not uncommon tree in botanical 

 gardens. The Japanese Lotus tree is Diospyrus kaki, which when in 

 fruit resembles a large-leaved plum tree covered with fruits, in shape and 



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Melumbium Rhizomes and Seeds 



Mauritius, and in Cochin China respec- 



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colour not unlike tomatos, except for the four large leathery bracts around 

 the stalk. The Japan D. kaki, or Keg Fig, is now much grown in 

 California and other South American States, and in Italy and South 

 J* ranee, where a sweetmeat of it, called " Figue-caques " is made. The 

 v irginian Date Plum, or Tree Lotus, is Diospyrus virginiana, with fruits 

 as large as Siberian crabs, eatable only after frost, and of which beer, cider, 

 and a spirituous liquor have been made in North America by both 

 settlers and the native Indians. D. mabola and D. decandra are 

 Jruit-bearing trees in the 

 tively. 



One cannot use the word Lote or Lotus without naturally think- 

 g of the Lotus eaters of the Greeks, the Lotophagi of Ho 



(lOOO B.C.). 6 



In modern literature 44 a Lotus eater n is a sort of Harold Skimpole, or 

 a person who gives himself up to mere pleasure-seeking and indolent 

 enjoyment. The classical Lotophagi, however, were a peaceful and hos- 

 pitable people, who lived in a fertile district of Cyrenaica, on the North 

 n ^ ai ? c °ast, and who appear to have depended for their sustenance on 

 ne fruit of the true Lotus tree, or Zizyphus Lotus, African or Jujube Tree 

 °tus. Its fruits are yellow, skin wrinkled, of the size of a small olive, 

 weet and farinaceous. The leaves are two to three inches long, ovate, 

 errate or crenulate, three-veined, bases of the petiole spinose, the fruits 

 eing solitary in the axils of the leaves on the slender flexuose branchlets. 

 fr ? w * ld lr * North Africa, and is cultivated in South Europe. The Lotus 

 uit of the ancients is fabled as having made the companions of 



thIt SS £ S and other strangers to forget their homes and native land, so 

 at they had no desire to return. This life in the happy valley, with its 

 Pre Se ^ an & uor > a delicious satisfaction, has been muse beautiiully ex- 

 Pnf^j ,7 the late Poet Laureate, Tennyson, in his well-known poem 

 entitled 44 The Lotos Eaters." 



J Jujuba, is found in North Africa, India, and 



straha, and forms a tree of thirty to fifty feet 

 ln height. 



is In . arcl ^ tectu re the word lotus or lotos, for it 

 s pelt both ways (\wtos), is used in speaking of 

 0 J? 0rn ament in the form of the Egyptian Lotu>, 



dom ater ^ ly ' . mu ch used in early religious ana 

 a t e arc hitecture, and especially frequent a* 



tern? 1111 * 1 ° r ca P ital on Egyptian columns, in the 

 IJ1 Ples, and on wall sculptures, &c. 



* The dew is on the Lotus ! Rise, great Sun I 

 t And lift my leaf, and mix the wave with me 



Om mani padme hum,' the sunrise comes ! 



The dewdrop slips into the shining sea/' 



11 Light of Abia.'— Arnold. 



2 j 7 ^ — - 



An allied species, 



The Story of Osis. 



( From a roll of papyrus found in a mummy case in the Fayoum, t 



to Mr. Flinders Pelrie ) 



41 The dawn was red as the sun rose over the marshes and lit the 

 tops of the great pillar stones with rosy light. Then Osis, the beautiful 

 daughter of Pharaoh, and her maids went forth to the river to bathe, 

 One little slave girl, the favourite one and an Hebrew, sighed. 4 Now. 

 little one, 7 said Osis, 4 what aileth thee ? J 4 Ah ! most beautiful,' said the 

 girl, 4 how much is one day like unto another. We eat, and drink, and 

 sleep, and bathe in the river, but Horus comes not nigh us nor dwells in 

 our palaces.' 4 What would you, little one? ' said Osis. 1 To love is not 

 everything. To love is often to kill your soul alive.' 1 Not so, fairest 

 one,' said the Hebrew girl. 4 Last night I saw a young water carrier 

 kiss a fisherman's daughter beneath the tamarisks and oleanders, and 

 then they laughed and sang together, and were as happy as children of 

 the gods.' 'Ah I so it may have seemed to thee, child,' said Osis ; 1 but 

 so the Sun God kisses away the dewdrops from the Lotus flowers, and 

 behold day by daydo they not fadeand wither before thineeyes V 4 Daughter 

 of the Highest,' said the maid, 'and so would I also die gladly if Amasis 



would but love me, for I should ever after have the jewel in the Lotus 



love and contentment— in my heart.' Osis said no more, but after that 

 night the pretty dark-eyed maid was no more seen amongst those who 

 bathed in the river. 



"II. 



"Now a year or more had passed as does a summer's day, and the 

 cruel law had gone forth that all the firstborn in Egypt should be slain. 

 The chief steward sat with Ba Salah, he who built the great temple and 

 tombs for Pharaoh. 4 How goes on that stripling, Amasis?' said he. 

 fc He doeth well,' said the great builder, 4 since Osis granted him his 

 heart's desire, and when I am gone no builder in Egypt will be greater 

 than Amasis. His tall pillars have pleased the heart of the Great One, 

 and he has still better work to come.' 4 It is all very wonderful,' said the' 

 steward, 4 and since Osis befriends him all is well.' 



"Again and again in the rosy dawn the white-robed women went 

 down to the river to bathe, and a little cry came from the water lilies and 

 reeds, and when the girls looked down, behold, there was a basket of 

 rushes, and in it a baby boy, who ceased crying, and stretched up his 

 hand as Osis passed. The maids shrank back, and looked on the face 

 of their mistress sore afraid. 4 Take up the child,' she said, 'and hide 

 him in the house quickly, so that none may see,' and it was so. 



III. 



44 And some evil days passed, and others came, but the boy grew up in 

 the house of Osis, and was taught of the scribes ; and day by day he saw 

 the Lotus lilies in the pools and tanks, and watched the slaves and their 

 cruel overseers as they built the great pyramid of brick, and made the 

 great tanks of the temples, and watered the rare trees and flowers in the 

 palace garden. And is it not written how he became the deliverer of 

 his people from bondage in Egypt, and 

 how he led them towards the promised 

 land ? 



Day by day Amasis worked in 

 buildings, forming here columns 

 like bundles of papyrus, and carving 

 Lotus buds and flowers on his 



v y 



the 



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great 



pillars, and at eventide he went home 

 to his house under the date palms in 

 the corner of the great garden. And 

 his dark-eyed wife laughed and sang, 

 and sometimes Osis with two or three 

 of her maids came to the little lodge in 



and the wife of Amasis 



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the garden, 



them 



gave 

 seeds 



cakes with black 



sweet 



in them, very nice to eat, and 

 clear amber wine to drink from elegant 

 little glasses, that shone with all the 

 colours of the rainbow. And in one 

 of the smaller room* of the temple at 

 Karnac you can to this day see Amasis 

 and his wife offering Lotus flowers to 

 Osis, because, as it is written, 4 she 

 (Osis) did good to her people, and loved 

 those who served her faithfully and 

 well' 



"And Osis the most beautiful." . . 



The end of the papyrus roll is 

 here worm-eaten and torn and 

 utterly undecipherable. 



Nelumbia, like their cousins the 



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