This sentence forms the Alpha and Omega of Lama worship, and is unceasingly repeated by the devotees of Thibet and the slopes of the Himalayas. For the easy multiplication of this prayer, that extraordinary contrivance, the praying-wheel, was invented. In accordance with the principles of this belief, Jin-ch'au represents all creation as a succession of worlds, typified by Lotus-flowers, which are contained one within the other, until intelligence is lost in the effort to multiply the series ad infinitum.-A legend connected with Buddha runs as follows:-In an unknown town, called Bandnumak, Bipaswî Buddh arrived one day, and having fixed his abiding place on a mountain to the east of Nâg-Hrad, saw in a pool a seed of the Lotus on the day of the full moon, in the month of Chait. Soon afterwards from this Lotus-seed sprang a Lotusflower, in the middle of which appeared Swayambhû, in the form of a luminary, on the day of the full moon in the month of Asvins.Another Buddhist legend relates that the King Pându had the imprudence to burn a tooth of Buddha, which was held in high reverence among the Kalingas: but a Lotus-flower sprang from the middle of the flame, and the tooth of Buddha was found lying on its petals.In Eastern India, it is popularly thought that the god Brahma first appeared on a sea of milk, in a species of Lotus of extraordinary grandeur and beauty, which grew at Temerapu, and which typified the umbilicus of that ocean of sweetness. To that flower is given eighteen names, which celebrate the god's different beauties; and within its petals he is believed to sleep during six months of the year. Kâmadeva, the Indian Cupid, was first seen floating down the sacred Ganges, pinioned with flowers, on the blossom of a roseate Lotus.-The Hindus compare their country to a Lotus-flower, of which the petals represent Central India, and the eight leaves the surrounding eight divisions of the country. The sacred images of the Indians, Japanese, and Tartars are nearly always found seated upon the leaves of the Lotus. The sacred Lotus, as the hallowed symbol of mystery, was deemed by the priests of India and China an appropriate ornament for their religious structures, and hence its spreading tendrils and perfect blossoms are found freely introduced as architectural enrichments of the temples of the East.Terms of reverence, endearment, admiration, and eulogy have been freely lavished by Indian writers on the flowers of the Lotus, dear to the sick women of their race from the popular belief of its efficacy in soothing painful feelings. Nearly every portion of the human body has been compared by Indian poets to the Lotus; and in one of their works, the feet of the angels are said to resemble the flowers of that sacred plant. -The Persians represent the Sun as being robed with light and crowned with Lotus.By the Japanese, the Lotus is considered as a sacred plant, and pleasing to their deities, whose images are often seen sitting on its large leaves. The blossom is deemed by them the emblem of purity

because it is unsullied by the muddy waters in which it often grows with the flowers of the Mother-wort it is borne aloft in vases before the body in funeral processions.- -The Chinese make the Lotus typical of female beauty: their god Puzza is always represented as seated upon the leaves of the plant. The Lotus is stated to be held sacred by the Egyptians because it conceals the secret of the gods; from the throne of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, it rises in the midst of the waters, bearing on the margin of its blossom the four genii. It is the " Bride of the Nile," covering the surface of the mighty river, as it rises, with its fragrant white blossom. Like the Indians, the ancient Egyptians represented the creation of the world under the form of a Nymphæa that floated on the surface of the waters. The Lotus was consecrated by the Egyptians to the Sun, and the dawn of day was figured by them as a youth seated upon a flower of the Nymphæa. The god Osiris (the Egyptian Phoebus) is represented as having his head decorated with the sacred Lotus. Oblations of flowers were common among the offerings of the Egyptians to their gods. A papyrus in the British Museum (lent by the Prince of Wales) represents the altar of the god Re or Ra piled up with Lotus-blossoms and other offerings. Upon approaching a place of worship, the ancient Egyptian always held the flower of the Lotus or Agrostis in his hand. A single flower was sometimes deemed a suitable oblation, or a bouquet of the Lotus or Papyrus, carefully arranged in a prescribed form, was offered. The Lotus typified Upper Egypt; the Papyrus, Lower Egypt. In the British Museum are several Egyptian statues with sceptres of the Lotus; and a mummy with crossed arms, holding in each hand a Lotus-flower. In the mummies of females the Lotus is found, placed there probably to typify regeneration or purification. A bust of Isis emerging from a Lotus-flower has often been mistaken for Clytie changing into a Sunflower. The Egyptians cultivated three species of Nymphæacea-the Nymphæa cerulea, or blue-flowered Lotus; the Nymphea Lotus, a white-flowered variety, which still grows profusely in Lower Egypt, and which is the flower represented in the mosaic pavement at Præneste; and, lastly, the Nelumbium speciosum, or Sacred Bean-the "Rose Lily" of Herodotus-the true Lotus of the Egyptians, whose blossoms are of a brilliant red colour, and hang over broad peltated leaves: its fruit is formed of many valves, each containing a Nut about the size of a Filbert, with a taste more delicate than that of the Almond. It has been thought that the use of the seeds in making bread, and the mode of sowing them, by enclosing each seed in a ball of clay, and throwing it into the water, may be alluded to in the text, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.' The Nelumbo maintains its sacred character in Africa, India, China, Japan, Persia, and Asiatic Russia; it has, however, disappeared from Egypt.The Arabians call the Lotus, Nuphar; and the Syrians regard it as a symbol of the cradle of Moses, and typify,

-The collar of the

also, the Ark of Noah by the same flower.order of the Star of India is composed of the heraldic Rose of England, two Palm-branches crossed, and a Lotus-flower, alternating with each other.

LOVE PLANTS.-The Clematis Vitalba was formerly called Love, because of its habit of embracing; from its clinging to people, the Galium Aparine has obtained the name of Loveman; Levisticum officinale is Loveage; the Solanum Lycopersicum is the Apple of Love; Nigella damascena is Love-in-a-mist; the Pansy is called Love-inidleness and Love-and-idle; and Amaranthus caudatus has been named Love-lies-bleeding, from the resemblance of its crimson flowers to a stream of blood.

LUCK-FLOWER.-There is in Germany a favourite legend of a certain mystical Luck-flower which possesses the extraordinary power of gaining admittance for its owner into the recesses of a mountain, or hidden cave, or castle, wherein vast treasures lie concealed. The legend generally runs that the fortunate discoverer of the receptacle for wealth is a man who has by chance found a beautiful flower, usually a blue one, which he sticks in his hat. Suddenly the mountain he is ascending opens to admit him; astounded at the sight, he enters the chasm, and a white lady or fairy bids him help himself freely from the heaps of gold coin he sees lying all around. Dazzled at the sight of so much wealth, he eagerly fills his pockets, and is hastening away when she calls after him, "Forget not the best!" He thinks, as he feels his stuffed pockets, that he cannot find room for any more, but as he imagines the white lady wishes to imply that he has not helped himself to enough, he takes his hat and fills that also with the glittering gold. The white lady, however, alluded to the little blue flower which had dropped from his hat whilst he stooped to gather up the gold coins. As he hurries out through the doorway the iron door shuts suddenly behind him with a crash of thunder, and cuts off his right heel. The mountain side instantly resumes its old impenetrable appearance, and the entrance to the treasure hall can never be found again. As for the wonderful flower, that has vanished, but is to this day sought for by the dwellers on the Kyffhäuser, on the Quästenburg, and even on the north side of the Harz. It was from this legend that, according to Grimm, the little blue flower "Forget-me-not" originally received its name, which at first was indicative of its magic virtue, but afterwards acquired a sentimental meaning from the tale of the drowning lover of the Danube and his despairing death cry.

LUNARY.-See Moonwort and Honesty.

LUPINE. The Romans cultivated the Lupine (Lupinus) as as an article of food, and Pliny declared that nothing could be more wholesome than white Lupines eaten dry, and that this diet imparted a fresh colour and cheerful countenance. The eating

of Lupines was also thought to brighten the mind and quicken the imagination. It is related of Protogenes, a celebrated painter of Rhodes, that during the seven years he was employed in painting the hunting piece of Ialysus, who was the accredited founder of the State of Rhodes, he lived entirely upon Lupines and water, with an idea that this aliment would give him greater flights of fancy. Virgil called the Lupine, Tristis Lupinus, the Sad Lupine, and this expression has given rise to much discussion-the only tangible explanation being that when the Lupine pulse was eaten without preparation to destroy the bitter, it was apt to contract the muscles and give a sorrowful appearance to the countenance.The seeds are said to have been used by the ancients, in their plays and comedies, instead of pieces of money: hence the proverb, Nummus Lupinus, a piece of money of no value.- The Bolognese have a tradition that during the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, the Lupine received the maledictions of the Virgin Mary, because, by the clatter and noise they made, certain plants of this species drew the attention of Herod's minions to the spot where the tired and exhausted travellers had made a brief halt.

LYCHNIS. The scarlet Lychnis Coronaria is, in the Catholic Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and the text in which he is described as "a light to them which sit in darkness," being taken in a literal sense, the flame-coloured flower was said to be lighted up for his day, and was called Candelabrum ingens. This flower is also called Rose-Campion, and, on the Continent, Cross of Jeru salem and Cross of Malta. By old writers it was known as Flower or Campion of Constantinople, Flower of Bristow, and Nonsuch.

MAGNOLIA.-The Magnolia grandiflora is one of those shrubs the baneful emanations from which have procured for them an ill name. It is a native of Carolina, and has large white blossoms of powerful fragrance. When wafted to a distance upon the air, the scent is delicious, but when inhaled in the immediate neighbourhood of a group of Magnolias in flower, it becomes overpowering. The Indians carefully avoid sleeping under a Magnolia in blossom, and it is stated that so powerful is the perfume of the flower, that a single blossom placed in a bedroom suffices to cause death in one night.

MAGHET.-See Mayweed.

MAHWAH.-The Bassia latifolia, or Mahwah, is esteemed a sacred tree in India, and is, besides, interesting as being one of the few plants whose flowers are used as food by the human race. They are eaten raw by the poor of India, and are also employed largely in the distillation of a spirit somewhat resembling Scotch whiskey. A kind of flour is produced from them when dried, and so valuable are they to the Indians, that the prosperity of some parts of the country depends largely on their abundance. The

Almond-like fruit is eaten, and an oil is obtained from it: the wood is hard, and is used by the Indians in constructing their huts. Among certain uncivilised hill tribes, the Mahwah is regarded as equal to a deity, so great is their affection for this tree, under whose branches they hold their assemblies and celebrate their anniversaries; on whose boughs they suspend, when not in use, their spears and their ploughshares, and beneath whose shadow they exhibit those mysterious circles of flint which take the place of idols with them. So, when attacked by the Hindus, the wild tribes fight with desperation for the defence of their Mahwahs, which their enemies, when at war with them, make a point of seizing and destroying.

MAIDENHAIR FERN.-Adiantum, or Capillus Veneris, derived its name from the Greek adiantos, unmoistened, in relation, doubtless, to its property of repelling water-a peculiarity noticed by Theophrastus, and also by Pliny, who says it is in vain to plunge the Adiantum in water, for it always remains dry. This property of remaining unmoistened by water was attributed to the hair of Venus, when she rose from the sea; and hence the Adiantum obtained the name of Capillus Veneris. Nevertheless, Adiantum was specially dedicated to Pluto and to Proserpine. Maidenhair is called polytrichon, because it brings forth a multitude of hairs; callitrichon, because it produces black and fair hair; Capillus Veneris, because it produces grace and love. According to Egyptian symbolism, Adiantum indicated recovery from illness.In the Catholic Church, the Maidenhair Fern is known as the Virgin's Hair.

MAITHES or MAIDS.-The Pyrethrum Parthenium was formerly known by the name of Maithes (Maids), because by the old herbalists it was considered efficacious in hysterical and other irregularities of the system to which maidens are subject. In the same category are the plants formerly known as Maghet, Mather, or Maydweed (Anthemis Cotula), the Maydweed (Matricaria Chamomilla), Maudlein, or Costmary (Balsamita), Maudlin-wort or Moon Daisy (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum), the Maudlin, or Herba diva Maria (Achillea Ageratum), the Marguerite (Bellis perennis), and some others. These plants, bearing flowers with white ray florets, were thought to resemble the Moon, which, as it regulated the monthly periods of the year, was supposed, says Dr. Prior, to have an influence over female complaints. By the ancients these plants were consecrated to Isis, Juno Lucina, and Artemis, or Diana, the virgin goddess of the night; but were transferred by the Catholics to St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret of Cortona.

MAIZE. The American aborigines worshipped Maize as a divinity. Children were kept to watch the precious grain as it grew, and guard it from the ravages of birds; but some of the tribes protected the thievish crow because of the legend that a crow had brought them the first seed of the sacred plant.--At