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RURAL HOURS. 
is on the northern frontier, Sodus Bay, Lake Ontario. It is also 
found at one point in the Connecticut, and in the Delaware, 
below Philadelphia. Wherever it is seen, it attracts attention, 
from the great size of the leaves and the blossom. 
This noble flower belongs to a very celebrated family ; it calls 
cousin with the famous Hindoo and Egyptian Lotus, being one of 
the varieties of that tribe. In Hindoo and Egyptian fable, these 
plants were held very sacred, as emblems of the creation. In 
Ilindostan, the lotus was an attribute of Ganga, tlie goddess of 
the Ganges, and was suj^posed to have been produced by Vishnu, 
before the earth w'as created, and when its first petals unfolded, 
they discovered the deity Brama lying within. In Egypt, the 
flower Avas sacred to Isis, believed to have been given her by 
Osiris, and was associated wnth tlieir own sacred river, the Nile ; 
it was also the emblem of Upper Egypt, as the papyrus was of 
Lower Egypt. Very many traces of these ancient superstitions 
are still seen blended Avith the architecture, bas-reliefs, paintings» 
&c., &c., and whatever remains to us of those nations. There 
appear to have been several kinds of lotus represented on the an- 
cient Egyptian monuments. One was Avhite, Avith a fruit like that 
of the poppy ; another bore blue flowers, Avith the same fruit ; 
the third, and the most celebrated, is mentioned by Herodotus as 
the lily-rose, and Avas also called the floAver of Antinous ; the 
blossom was of a beautiful red, and tlie fruit like the rose of a 
watering-pot, with large seeds like filberts. These are all said to 
be foimd at present in India, but Avhat is singular, the finest, the 
lily-rose, has now disappeared from Egypt, Avhere it was for- 
merly in such high consideration. The blue A^ariety is still found 
there. 
