3 
foreign countries are very different now from wliat they were in 
the days of Linnaeus and of the first importation of the Tea-Shrub! 
Of the Victoria we have the good fortune to possess flowering 
specimens, gathered by Sir Robert Schomburgk; and blossoms, 
both preser\^ed in spirits and dried, collected by ]\Ir. Bridges. 
These, with coloured drawings executed on the spot by Sir 
Robert, enable us to present, in the accompanying figures, all the 
more important analyses necessary to illustrate the genus and 
species of the plant. 
Although to our own country belongs the honour of first fully 
detailing, in 1837, the particulars relative to this extraordinary 
Water-Lily, and clearly defining its generic distinctions, yet the 
earliest mention of it in print, so far as we can find, was in 1832,* 
in a work to which we have not at this moment access, ‘ Froriep’s 
Notizen ’, vol. xxxv. p. 9. It is there described as a new species of 
Euryale^\mA^Y the name of E.Amazonica-, so called by Dr.Poeppig, 
from the cucumstance of that distinguished botanist and traveller 
having found it in the Amazon River of South America. After¬ 
wards (in 183G) he alludes to it, in the 2nd vol. of his ‘Reise in 
Chile, Peru, &c.’ p. 432; but only says, “ In the Igaripes, which 
arc branches of the Amazon River, bearing no peculiar appellation, 
yet worthy to rank, from their size, with rivers of the second 
magnitude in Europe, grow some aquatic plants, whose almost 
fabulous dimensions may vie with the celebrated BaJ/lesia of 
India; while they excel that wonderful production in beauty of 
inflorescence.” Then, in a note, he specifies the Eiiryale Amazo- 
nica, as belonging to the family of NymplKBucea, “ whose wonder¬ 
fully large leaves are deeply channelled below and traversed wdth 
veins beset with prickles, their width equalling six feet, while the 
flower is lovely snow-white externally, and crimson within, and 
measures from ten to eleven English inches across.” “ This,” 
he says, “ is the most magnificent plant of its tribe, though far from 
common; I only saw it in one Igaripe, near the confluence of the 
Teffle river with the Amazons. The flowers appear in December 
and January. It is called Miirura.” 
Previously, however, to this period,t M. D’Orbigny, in 1828, 
sent specimens of this gigantic Water-Lily to the Museum of 
Natural History in Paris. He had gathered them in the Province 
of Corrientes, in a river tributary to the Rio de la Plata. The 
evident analogy between the foliage of this plant and that of 
Euryale, induced the French botanists also to rank it as a species 
of that genus. The dried flowers and fruit, which M. D’Orbigny 
* 
Guillemin, in ‘Ann. des Sciences Naturelles,’ v.xiii. p. 51. 
t Guillemin, 1. c. 
B 2 
