native to eastern Asia; widely cultivated for its large pink or white flowers
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annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs
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white Egyptian lotus: water lily of Egypt to southeastern Africa; held sacred by the Egyptians
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Lotus \Lo"tus\ (l[=o]"t[u^]s), n. [L. lotus, Gr. lwto`s. Cf. {Lote}.] 1. (Bot.) (a) A name of several kinds of water lilies; as {Nelumbium speciosum}, used in religious ceremonies, anciently in Egypt, and to this day in Asia; {Nelumbium luteum}, the American lotus; and {Nymph[ae]a Lotus} and {Nymph[ae]a c[ae]rulea}, the respectively white-flowered and blue-flowered lotus of modern Egypt, which, with {Nelumbium speciosum}, are figured on its ancient monuments. (b) The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain ({Zizyphus Lotus}), the fruit of which is mildly sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all desire to return to it. (c) The lote, or nettle tree. See {Lote}. (d) A genus ({Lotus}) of leguminous plants much resembling clover. [Written also {lotos}.]
{European lotus}, a small tree ({Diospyros Lotus}) of Southern Europe and Asia; also, its rather large bluish black berry, which is called also the {date plum}.
2. (Arch.) An ornament much used in Egyptian architecture, generally asserted to have been suggested by the Egyptian water lily.
Inside I could hear deafening drumming, wailing pipe music and crowds shuffling by the altars, leaving vast stacks of lotus leaves.
Then they gave him garlands of red berries and lotus flowers and put him in an anthropoid (body-shaped) double coffin and buried him.
After 15 minutes, a master monk and 12 mostly middle-aged students, including a woman, came into the room and assumed the lotus position on other pillows.