THE WHITE WATER LILY. 
107 
THE WHITE WATER LILY. 
NYMPIIvEA ALBA. 
“ Mark where transparent waters ghde, 
Soft flowing o’er their tranquil bed ; 
There, cradled in the dimpling tide, 
Nymphrea rests her lovely head. 
But conscious of the earliest beam, 
She rises from her humid rest, 
And sees reflected in the stream 
The virgin whiteness of her breast 
Till the bright day-star to the west 
Declines, in Ocean’s surge to lave, 
Then folded in her modest vest 
She slumbers in the rocking wave.” 
If the rose be queen of the bower, the water lily, from 
the size and beauty of its corolla and leaves, may 
certainly aspire to be queen of the stream; and we are 
fully prepared to admit the poetical propriety of the 
Indian name of these lovely aquatic flowers: “Cumuda,” 
or “ Delight of the waters.” There are several species 
of this elegant genus, mostly natives of both hemi¬ 
spheres ; of which N. lotos, N. eaerulea, and our own 
