LOTUS  , a popular name applied to several

plants . The lotus fruits of the Greeks belonged to Zizyphus Lotus, a bush native in south Europe with fruits as large as sloes, containing a mealy substance which can be used for making bread and also a fermented drink . In ancient times the fruits were an important article of food among the poor; whence " lotophagi " or lotus-eaters . Zizyphus is a member of the natural order Rhamnaceae to which belongs the British buckthorn . The Egyptian lotus was a water-lily, Nymphaea Lotus; as also is the sacred lotus of the Hindus, Nelumbium speciosum . The lotus tree, known to the Romans as the Libyan lotus, and planted by them for shade, was probably Celtis australis, the nettle-tree (q.v.), a southern European tree, a native of the elm family, with fruits like small cherries, which are first red and then black . Lotus of botanists is a genus of the pea-family (Leguminosae), containing a large number of species of herbs and undershrubs widely distributed in the temperate regions of the old world . It is represented in Britain by L. corniculatus, bird's foot trefoil, a low-growing herb, common in pastures and waste places, with clusters of small bright yellow pea-like flowers, which are often streaked with crimson; the popular name is derived from the pods which when ripe spread like the toes of a bird's foot . LOTUS-EATERS (Gr . Atoros/6.yol), a Libyan tribe known to the Greeks as early as the time of Homer . Herodotus (iv . 177) describes their country as in the Libyan district bordering on the Syrtes, and says that a caravan route led from it to Egypt .

Victor Berard identifies it with the modern Jerba . When Odysseus reached the country of the Lotophagi, many of his sailors after eating the lotus lost all wish to return home . Both Greeks and Romans used the expression " to eat the lotus " to denote forgetfulness (cf . Tennyson's poem " The Lotus-Eaters ") . There has been considerable discussion as to the identification of the Homeric lotus . Some have held that it is a prickly shrub, Zizyphus Lotus, which bears a sweet-tasting fruit, and still grows in the old home of the Lotophagi . It is eaten by the natives, who also make a kind of wine from the juice . P . Charupault (Pheniciens et Grecs en Italie d'apres l'Odyssee, p . 400, note 2), however, maintains that the lotus was a date; Victor Berard (Les Pheniciens et l'Odyssee, 1902–1903, ii . 102) is doubtful, but contends that it was certainly a tree-fruit . If either of these be correct, then the lotus of Od. iv .

603–604 is quite a different plant, a kind of

clover . Now Strabo (xvii . 829a) calls the lotus a6av lava icai Xi-ay . Putting these two references together with Sulpicius Severus, Dialogi i . 4 . 4, R . M . Henry suggests that the Homeric lotus was really the ,r6a of Strabo, i.e. a kind of clover (Classical Review, December 1906, p . 435) .