280 
THE LOTE OR LOTOS OP THE ANCIENTS. 
It is not, however, quite clear that the name was confined to one species only of water- 
plant, but rather the contrary; for if we may credit the writings of Herodotus and 
Theophrastus, besides the generally acknowledged species ( Nymphcea Lotus), the Nelumbo 
{Nelumbium speciosum) was also called by that name, and was in their day a common 
plant in Egypt, being generally supposed to be a native. The descriptions of these 
authors are also so clear and minute, that no room is left for doubt as to the Nelumbo 
being the plant to which the above authors allude ; and these accounts of theirs are in a 
great measure confirmed by ancient Egyptian sculptures and mosaics, which are still in 
a state of preservation. No traces of this plant, however, in an indigenous form are to 
be met with in that country in the present day, and it would seem not improbable that 
the plant was only a partially naturalised introduction, and was never found in a truly 
wild state. 
The Nelumbium speciosum, as is well known, is a native of the East Indies, and 
although it might at one time have been abundant in Egypt, was probably afterwards lost. 
The roots and seeds were supposed to form the ancient preparation called “ Colocasia ,” 
but Dr. Patrick Browne is of opinion that the products of two very different plants were 
confounded under the above name, namely, the seeds of Nelumbium speciosum, and the 
roots of Caladium Colocasia. The seeds of the former are about the size of, and possess 
something of the flavour of almonds. The ancient Homans are said to have made repeated 
efforts to raise this plant, and cultivate it in Italy ; but were always unsuccessful, although 
they introduced the seeds from Egypt. 
Besides the Nelumbo, another water-plant (a real native of Egypt) was long held 
sacred to superstitious veneration in that country, being dedicated to Isis : this also was 
named Lotos, which appellation some have supposed to have been adopted in consequence 
of the ill success which attended the naturalisation and spread of the East Indian kind 
( Nelumbium ) ; and from the great resemblance which exists betwixt the two, both in habit 
and appearance, this kind is called 
Nymph^a Lotus, Lin., and is identical with the Castalia mystica of Sal. Ann. Bot. 
ii. p. 73. It is not unlikely that this plant and not the Nelumbo was the original sacred 
Lotos of the Ancients. Some of the ancient Roman writers, however, were of opinion that 
the Mythology of Egypt migrated with the introduction of the Nelumbo from India, aud 
that thereupon the Nelumbo was the original sacred plant, but this not succeeding well, 
the Nymphaea, an indigenous plant, was cultivated as a substitute. Be this as it may, the 
Nymphsea Lotus is universally acknowledged in the present day as the true Egyptian 
Lotos. The roots are tuberous and eatable. The flowers are large and white. The 
sepals are all tinted with red at the margin. The seeds were dried and ground, as were 
also the tuberous roots, and were by the ancients made into a kind of bread. The flowers 
sink every evening languidly upon or beneath the water, which peculiarity was taken 
notice of by the writers of early days. The leaves are peltate ; sharply serrated ; under 
surface pilose at the nerves, and pubescent between them. It is a stove aquatic, and is at 
the present day abundant in Egypt, growing in slow running streams, especially in the Nile 
near Rosetta and Damietta, and in rice fields during the time they are under water. The 
plant was introduced to this country in 1802, and is of easy cultivation. There is little 
doubt but this plant is also alluded to in the sacred writings, especially in Hosea xiv. 5, 
where the translators have rendered the Hebrew word “ Lily ” instead of Lotos ; and 
again in Isaiah xix. 6, where the same word is again rendered “ flags ” instead of Lotos. 
The Lotos (Agotos) of Homer and Dioscorides, the former of whom is supposed to have 
written about 900, and the latter about 300 years, before the Christian Era, is quite a different 
plant from the Egyptian Lotus, being evidently a leguminaceous one. Modern botanists, 
by comparing the descriptions of those authors with plants growing in the localities men- 
tioned in their writings, have come to the conclusion that the Lotus of these writers 
was one of the Birds-foot Trefoils, and have in consequence named it Lotus Dioscorides 
in our Botanical Catalogues. 
The plant is a hardy annual with branched, erect stems, growing about 2 feet high. 
Leaflets obovate, thickish, emarginate, glaucous. Stipules ovate, shorter than the petiole. 
