6 THE FLORIST AND 
from the land. At present they gather them rarely, but they multiply so 
in the ricefields, that the inhabitants are obliged to root them up, after the 
gathering of the rice. Besides, they sometimes eat these roots, which they 
call Biaro. I have seen them sold in the market. I tasted them, and found 
in their taste nothing disagreeable. These roots (rhizomes) are rounded, or 
slightly oblong, and less thick than an ordinary egg. The bark is black 
and coriaceous. The interior is white and farinaceous, yellowish towards 
the centre. The Egyptians, to gather the seeds, wash them, after having 
rotted the bark of the fruit. I have heard the inhabitants call them 
Dochn el hachenin, that is, seed of Bachenin, but they told me that these 
seeds were of little use."* 
These two Lotus are, as well as the following, frequently represented on 
the monuments of the Egyptians ; and it is from having confounded the 
fruit (figured on the medallions), with that of the Poppy, that most authors 
have made this latter plant one of the attributes of Isis ; an error which, 
at the same time, both the resemblance of the fruits in question with those 
of the Papaver, arid the fact that Poppies were really one of the attributes 
of Ceres, the Isis of Greece, explain. 
3d. The Nelumhium speciosum. This admirable plant, clearly desig- 
nated by Herodotus as a Lily of the Nile, resembling roses, is called by 
Athenseus Red Lotus and Egyptian bean. It is also under the name 
of Bean, that Theophrastus has left this most remarkable description. It 
is thought that this is the bean which Pythagoras forbid his disciples 
to use. 
Although very much spread in the Nile at the time these ancient authors 
lived, although figured in the most distinct manner on the monuments of 
Egypt, the red Lotus has completely disappeared from this country. It 
inhabits in abundance all the warm regions of Asia. Its characters are 
so manifestly distinct from those of the true NympJicea, that it appears 
superfluous to establish a contrast between this Lotus and the preceding 
ones. Let us return rather to the Nymphcea ccerulea. 
Tubercles of this beautiful plant, brought from Egypt by the late Prof. 
Delile, and kept two years without being planted, retained, nevertheless, 
sufficient vitality to vegetate, when placed in the warm vase in the garden 
of the Museum of Paris. They produced flowers there in July, 1801. 
Since then, without doubt, the plant has remained an acquisition to our 
gardens, where its beauty merits a distinguished place. We must observe, 
* Delile, in Ann. du Mus. I. p. 380-1. 
