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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
cago or of the modern genus Lotus. It is herbaceous, some- 
times wild, and sometimes cultivated ; but always written 
about as though constituting herbage, and is on one occasion 
cropt by the horses of Achilles. W e shall not pause to identify 
this plant, but proceed at once to the last plant it is our design 
to deal with. 
The Kyamos, or Indian Lotos. This can scarcely claim to be 
one of the kinds of Lotos mentioned by the ancients, since it is 
distinctly alluded to by them as the Egyptian bean, or Kyamos. 
This plant amongst the Hindoos has a sacred character, equal 
to that of the Lotos amongst the Egyptians. It was doubt- 
less Asiatic in its origin, but at one time was plentiful in Egypt, 
whence it has now totally vanished. It is represented on the 
Egyptian monuments, but far less commonly than the Sacred 
Lotos. Some authors declare this to be the veritable u Sacred 
Lotos of Egypt,” a title to which it has no claim. Herodotus, 
after describing the Lotos, adds, tc there are likewise other 
lilies, like roses (and these, too, grow in the river Xile), whose 
fructification is produced in a separate seed-vessel, springing 
like a sucker from the root, in appearance exactly resembling 
a wasp’s nest, and containing a number of esculent seeds, 
about the size of olive-berries. These are also eaten, when 
tender and dry.” 
The descriptions of this plant are so characteristic that there 
never appears to have been any doubt as to what plant was 
intended. 66 This Egyptian bean,” says Dioscorides, was u chiefly 
produced in Egypt, and in Asia, and in Cilicia, in stagnant 
waters.” He says it has a large leaf like an umbrella, and a 
stem a cubit high, of the thickness of a finger. The flower, 
which is like a rose, is twice the size of a poppy : when the 
petals fall off, the seed-vessel is produced with cells, each con- 
taining a bean, a little elevated above the top of the seed- 
vessel, like a bubble in water. The seed-vessel is called 
ciborion or cibotion, and the planting of the beans is effected 
by sinking the seed-vessel in the water, with the beans in it, so 
that they may take root in the mud. The root is thicker than 
a reed, and it is eaten both boiled and raw, and is called collo- 
casia ; the bean is also eaten green : when it is dry it becomes 
of a dark colour, and is larger than the Grecian bean. 
Theophrastus has also given rather a fall description of this 
plant. He says that 66 it is produced in marshes and in stagnant 
waters ; the length of the stem, at the longest, four cubits, and 
the thickness of a finger, like the smooth jointless reed. The 
inner texture of the stem is perforated throughout like a 
honeycomb, and upon the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, 
in circumference and appearance like a wasp’s nest. In each 
of the cells there is a bean projecting a little above the surface 
