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Historical. 17ancient writers wrong in their synonymy;colocasia, he said, was an aroid." Lotus Aegyptia " he believed to be the white flower which, from itsresemblance to the European waterlily, he had no hesitation in calling a" larger nymphaea";in fact he regardsit as practically identical with thespecies so familiar about Venice. For both have the poppy-like head, andseed like millet, and both, he said, retreat under water at sundown toemerge again in the early morning, " as is observed by everyonein thecommon nymphaea"{quae in communi nymphaea ab omnibus animadvertitur).Indeed he was surprised that Pliny and others thought thisbehavior strangein the Egyptian lotus. Both flowers and leaves aresubmerged at night, according to Alpinus, the flowers emerging first, atsunrise, and a little later all the leaves appear. Of course this does notreally occur; but the flower of Nymphaea alba closes into a tight budduring the afternoon and is covered by the dull green sepals, to openagain with the light of the next ;day the disappearance of the leaves,however, must have been purely owing to darkness, and their reappearanceafter the flower must have been due to their darker color. Alpinusstated that the white Egyptian lotus was called by the Arabs " nuphar,"and by the Hebrews " Arais el Nil." After the publication of the workjust discussed, Alpinus received numerous tubers of the Egyptian lotusfrom a Venetian doctor in Cairo ;they were of the size of a walnut, ovate,with fibrous roots, blackish outside, yellowish within ;they were said to beeaten freely by the Egyptians, both raw and cooked the sender also said;that the plant resembled the lesser nymphaea (JV. alba L.) exceptflowers"The which, if it be true, this is the lotus niloticus ofwere blue.that tHfeAthenaeus." Alpinus figures it with entire leaves, insuring its identitywith N. caertilea Sav. At a still later date (1735 b), the same writersummed up the knowledge of the Egyptian lotus (" Lotus Aegyptia ") ina " dissertation " on the subject. As synonyms are given Lotus niliacum,Nymphaea, and Nuphar Aegyptium. The flower and its stalk are calledArais el Nil, the leaf and petiole Bis el Nil, the root (tuber) Biarum.Four plates are devoted to it ;one shows the whole plant, with its dentateleaves, ovoid tuber and the fruit devoid of floral leaves ;another showsthe calyx and fruit on a larger scale ;the third shows two fully openflowers, and the fourth gives an enlarged view of a leaf and a tuber. Theflower is described as having the four outer leaves green outside andwhite within, each with five to seven or more longitudinal nerves, spreadingwide open when in bloom. Within these are about 12 smaller leaves[petals], pure white ;then 25 to 40 long acute leaves [outer stamens],3