Nelumbium or Lotus. 
HIS is an order of plants wholly unlike the 
Nymphaeas. Some of the leaves float on 
the water; the others rise 4 to 8 feet above. 
Each of the towering leaves is accompanied by a 
flower stem, straight, elastic and pointed, not un¬ 
like an Indian arrow, sometimes piercing the leaf 
near the center, but more generally passing the 
edge, though in either case it lifts its gigantic bud 
a foot or more above this waving sea of green to 
unfurl its splendor. The root is tuberous, and in 
size, shape and color resembles a banana. A few 
days after planting the tuber sends out a long } 
smooth, white runner, which makes joints or plants 
from 1 to 4 feet apart. From the first of these 
joints arises the floating leaves, and from those 
formed later the upright leaves and flower stalks. 
The runner will travel 20 to 30 feet during the 
season and branches several times, sending up 
THE LOTUS POND. flowers and leaves at each new joint. On the 
approach of cold weather the ends of the runners dive into the mud from 6 inches to 2 feet deep, entirely below the frost line if 
the bottom of the pond is of soil. Here they form tubers, which remain dormant until the warm days of spring, when from them 
new runners start. 
