177); and as [Greek: schinos] means also a _squill_ or a _sea-onion_, the fruit above referred to, as the food of the Lotophagi, must have been of infinitely larger size and in every way different from the lotus of the Nile, described in the 2nd book, as well as from the lotus in the East.

Lindley records the conjecture that the article referred to by Herodotus was the _nabk_, the berry of the lote-bush (_Zizyphus lotus_), which the Arabs of Barbary still eat.
(_Vegetable Kingdom_, p.

582.)] One species of the water lily, the _Nymphaea rubra_, with small red flowers, and of great beauty, is common in the ponds near Jaffna and in the Wanny; and I found in the fosse, near the fort of Moeletivoe, the beautiful blue lotus, _N.

stellata_, with lilac petals, approaching to purple in the centre, which had not previously been supposed to be a native of the island.
Another very interesting aquatic plant, which was discovered by Dr.
Gardner in the tanks north of Trincomalie, is the _Desmanthus natans_, with highly sensitive leaves floating on the surface of the water.

It is borne aloft by masses of a spongy cellular substance, which occur at intervals along its stem and branches, but the roots never touch the bottom, absorbing nourishment whilst floating at liberty, and only found in contact with the ground after the subsidence of water in the tanks.[1] [Footnote 1: A species of _Utricularia_, with yellow flowers (U.
stellaris), is a common water-plant in the still lakes near the fort of Colombo, where an opportunity is afforded of observing the extraordinary provision of nature for its reproduction.