  We establish a sharp lower bound on the first non-trivial eigenvalue of the
Laplacian on a metric graph equipped with natural (i.e., continuity and
Kirchhoff) vertex conditions in terms of the diameter and the total length of
the graph. This extends a result of, and resolves an open problem from, [J. B.
Kennedy, P. Kurasov, G. Malenov\'a and D. Mugnolo, Ann. Henri Poincar\'e 17
(2016), 2439--2473, Section 7.2], and also complements an analogous lower bound
for the corresponding eigenvalue of the combinatorial Laplacian on a discrete
graph. We also give a family of corresponding lower bounds for the higher
eigenvalues under the assumption that the total length of the graph is
sufficiently large compared with its diameter. These inequalities are sharp in
the case of trees.
