FLORAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE EAST. 207 
There Ovid describes the lotos as a tree with “ verdant 
boughs and Theophrastus, in his fourth book, makes 
reference to it in similar terms, describing it as a tree; 
but, in his details, he is more correct, where he describes 
its fruit as resembling a bean, and makes reference to it 
as an immortal plant—an idea essentially Indian in 
character. Strabo, in his seventeenth book, also refers 
to it, and states that Syrtes, on the Mediterranean, as 
well as Menynx, were said to be lotophagitis. The 
compass of the gulf, which modern geographers repre¬ 
sent as composed of two immense sand-banks, comprised, 
according to Strabo, about sixteen hundred furlongs, the 
breadth of the mouth being six hundred; and it was 
extremely fertile in the growth of the lotos. But Strabo, 
whose accuracy is seldom impeachable, represents the 
lotos as a tree, and says that Menynx was the country of 
the lotophagi, or those that feed on lotos trees, of which 
Homer makes mention; and further informs us that 
monuments of Ulysses, as well as his altar, remain 
there; and that the country abounds with lote-trees, the 
fruit of which is exceedingly sweet. The account of 
Strabo is confirmed by Pliny,^ who describes the lote- 
trees as growing in abundance on the two-sand banks of 
the Mediterranean, though Pliny was well acquainted with 
the distinction between this and the true Egyptian lotos. 
It is needless to repeat minute and copious narrative 
here; suffice it that the “ lote-trees ” of these later 
authors, which are doubtless identical with the thorny 
shrub discovered in Africa by Mungo Park, is distinct 
from the true lotos of antiquity, and deserves none of 
* Book xiii., chap. 7. 
