108 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
N. alba, are the most noted. The latter is very hardy; 
not only braving our climate, but being found in much 
higher latitudes, both in Europe and North America, 
even near or within the arctic circle. The first men¬ 
tioned, (N. lotos, or Nilufer, according to the Indian or 
Persian nomenclature,) which resembles our common 
white species, is the true Egyptian lotos, and has ob¬ 
tained the greatest celebrity, from the veneration with 
which it was regarded throughout the East, and from 
the many mythological fables to which it has in conse¬ 
quence given birth. Not only by the Egyptians but 
also by the Hindoos and Persians, it was consecrated 
to the sun, which they invoked as “ lord of the lotos,” 
and represented 
“ Robed with light, with lotos crown’d.” 
It seems, indeed, to occupy the place in their poetry 
which the rose does in that of the Europeans. In 
allusion, perhaps, to the world rising from the waters, 
the Eastern deities are frequently represented seated on 
a lotos flower; a circumstance to which Sir W. Jones, in 
his imitations of Hindoo odes, often elegantly adverts. 
In the hymn to Narayena, which signifies moving on the 
water , the first rising of the god is thus described: 
