Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/32

 The pink lotus also (nelumbium speciosum), whose flower symbolised the fertilising stream, the sun, and the sun-god, no longer flourishes on the Egyptian waters. On the mummies of the tombs in Upper Egypt are found floral wreaths containing

numerous species, such as the centaurea depressa, which have since disappeared from the local flora, or at least no longer grow spontaneously.

The zones of the African fauna are less clearly defined than those ‘of the vegetable kingdom. Migrating more easily than the plants, the animals have crossed many frontiers within which the plants have been confined by the climatic conditions. Hence the same animal types prevail throughout Nigretia and the