"a fossil lotus seventy million years old was recently found in eastern asia, and in washington, d.c., at the kenilworth aquatic gardens, pink manchurian lotuses are growing which were raised from seed that was a thousand years old when it was planted."

katharine white (von's birthday present to me) tells me this.

which rather confirms the answer that professor tucker had offered when i wrote to him last fall about my japan trip and the ancient lotuses under the bell tower:

"The very oldest bristlecone pines on the planet [wrote Professor Tucker] are not much older than 2000. Of course we each carry around a much longer pedigree than that. I need to study my Erasmus Darwin and find out about lotus sexual reproduction, if that's one of the flowers he versified in The Loves of the Plants. Do you know that mischievous Revolution-era poem?"

i expect i shall be able to write something about flowers in literature.