361 
Leguminous Fruits. 
brought there, were not in their natural situation. The plant 
has disappeared in Egypt, but few specimens of it are found in 
Syria, Cilicia, and Greece ; but Nymphcea lotus , of which the 
ancients likewise make mention, still grows there. Egypt has 
lost several animals and many plants. 
Nelumbium speciosum is the holy padma of the Indians, the 
celebrated lotos flower, the fruit and root of which are eaten ; a 
plant with which the mythology of that people delights to sport. 
With them the bean is as it was with the ancients, especially 
the Romans. The prohibition to eat beans, which is ascribed 
to Pythagoras, is derived from the Indians. Gellius ascribes 
the well known verse, in which the eating of beans is forbidden, 
to Empedocles, and says, Empedocles, non a Jabulo edendo , sed 
a rei venerece proluvio voluisse homines deducere , (Noct. Attic. 
1. iv. c. 11.) The Geoponicae mentions it as a verse of Orpheus. 
There is no doubt that this prohibition was derived from the 
ancient Egyptians, as is distinctly stated by Herodotus, (1. ii, 
c. 37.) ; and that it was ascribed to all those who disseminated 
the ancient Egyptian learning. Originally this prohibition 
might have come from India, founded on the holy padma , and 
applied by the northern nations to a fruit which served them as 
its substitute. The lively padma was an image of procreative 
nature, because the embryo lies completely undeveloped in the 
nut. The imagination of the ancients saw in the embryo of our 
bean, a resemblance to the human members, as Theophrastus 
says, (Hist. PI. 1. viii. c. 2.) Among the Romans, whose lan- 
guage and customs were more nearly related to the Indian than 
to the Greek, the bean was a holy fruit, as was evinced by the 
Jubaria dedicated to the Carna Dea, by the black beans, with 
which the Lemures were expelled, and by the Faba refervoa , 
which was brought back from the seed that had been sowed, 
that something might be returned. The bean is widely dis- 
persed ; it is cultivated every where in Europe, and in Asia as 
far as the north of India and China ; and from the most ancient 
times, if we may trust the Memoir, s. 1. Chinois. In the Ara- 
bic, it has a name which is not now in use, Xsl>, instead of 
which, the term V is now used. 
