THE SACRED LOTUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10105, 17 March 1911, Page 3

THE SACRED LOTUS.

The Nelumbium speciosurn or "sacred lotus" is interesting for its associations, as well as i'or the beauty of its rose-coloured flowers and its large, shield-like leaves. At one time the plant was found growing in Egypt, but it is no longer to be seen there, except under cultivation. It occurs wild throughout India, China, Japan, Persia, Malaya, and in tropical Australia.

It is considered by many persons the most beautiful member of all the water-lily family; its large, handsome loaves, elevated on erect stalks five or six feet long, together with its lovely cone-shaped flowers, with their delightful fragrance, appear to be perfection. Herodotus described the plant with tolerable accuracy when he compared the receptacle of the flower to a wasp's nest. Sculptured representations of the lotus plant abound among the ruins of Egyptian temples, and many other circumstances prove the veneration paid to this plant by the votaries of Isis. But the worship of the lotus was by no means confined to the ancient Egyptians, for in India, China, Tibet and Japan the plant was deemed sacred, and is still employed in religious incantations and ceremonies. In Japan the Nelumbium is regarded as sacred, the flower of the dead; consequently the blooms are only used at funeral ceremonies. The plant is found chiefly in the ponds and lakes near Buddhist temples, and in the ornamental waters of elaborate landscape gardens. It is. rarely seen in small gardens, except as a pot-plant in a pan of water. In some parts of Japan the plant is cultivated by the acre for its large, fleshy roots, which are a common article of food. Nearly every day they are used at dinner. The largest of them are as big as a man's arm. Cartloads of them are brought into the towns and sold to dealers, who retail them. The roots are only small in spring, and by the time the autumn comes they are getting scaroe. Medicinal properties are assigned to the viscid juice of the leaf-stalks; these abound in spiral fibres, which are carefully extracted and used as wicks to burn in the temples of India, before the idols. The leaves of the lotus are covered with a fine microscopic down, which, by retaining a film of air over the upper surface, prevents it from being wetted when water is poured on it, the water rolling off in drops; this has a very pretty appearance, the drops- of water looking'like drops of molten silver. The Hindoos have a proverb founded on this peculiarity of the leaves, to the effect that the good and virtuous man is not enslaved by passion nor polluted by vice- for though lie may be immersed in trio water* of temptation, yet, like a lotus-leaf, he wili rise uninjured, by them-