ch at present produce no esculent vegetables;
and might thence become an article of useful cultivation. Herodotus
affirms, that the Egyptian Lotus grows in the Nile, and resembles a Lily.
That the natives dry it in the sun, and take the pulp out of it, which
grows like the head of a poppy, and bake it for bread. Enterpe. Many
grit-stones and coals, which I have seen, seem to bear an impression of
the roots of the Nymphaea, which are often three or four inches thick,
especially the white-flowered one.]

Her quivering fins and panting gills she hides
But spreads her silver arms upon the tides;
205 Slow as she sails, her ivory neck she laves,
And shakes her golden tresses o'er the waves.
Charm'd round the Nymph, in circling gambols glide
_Four_ Nereid-forms, or shoot along the tide;
Now all as one they rise with frolic spring,
210 And beat the wondering air on humid wing;
Now all descending plunge beneath the main,
And lash the foam with undulating train;
Above, below, they wheel, retreat, advance,
In air and ocean weave the mazy dance;
215 Bow their quick heads, and point their diamond eyes,
And twinkle to the sun with ever-changing dyes.

Where Andes, crested with volcanic beams,
Sheds a long line of light on Plata's streams;
Opes all his springs, unlocks his golden caves,
220 And feeds and freights the immeasurable waves;
Delighted OCYMA at twilight hours
Calls her light car, and leaves the sultry bowers;--
Love's rising ray, and Youth's seductive dye,
Bloom'd on her cheek, and brighten'd in her eye;
225 Chaste, pure, and white, a zone of silver graced
Her tender breast, as white, as pure, as chaste;---

[_Ocymum salinun_. l. 221. Saline Basil. Class Two Powers. The Abbe
Molina, in his History of Chili, translated from the Italian by the Abbe
Grewvel, mentions a species of Basil, which he calls Ocymum salinum: he
says it resembles the common basil, except that the stalk is round and
jointed; and that though it grows 60 miles from the sea, yet every
morning it is covered with saline globules, which are hard and splendid,
appearing at a distance like dew; and that each plant furnishes about
half an ounce of fine salt every day, which the peasants collect, and use
as common salt, but esteem it superior in flavour.

As an article of diet, salt seems to act s