4 
had transmitted, were unfortunately neglected, and nothing re¬ 
mained of his specimens but a single leaf, of immense dimensions 
and somewhat injured, which had been folded for insertion in 
the Ilerbariiun. 
In 1835, the following notice of what D’Orbigny is dis¬ 
posed to consider a species of the genus distinct from our plant, 
appeared in that author’s ‘ Voyage dans I’Amerique Meridionale.’ 
“ I resumed my descent of the Parana on the 3rd of ISIarch, and 
arriving at the junction of a small river called the San Jose, 
which spreads into a wide marsh before falling into the Parana, 
I found one of the most beautiful flowers that America can 
produce. The plant seems to belong to the family Nymphaacece^ 
and is certainly much allied to the Nupliar, but its dimensions 
are gigantic. The people of Guiana call it Inipe, deriving this 
name from the shape of its leaves, which resemble the broad 
dishes used in the country, or the lids of their large round baskets. 
A space, more than a mile broad and nearly a mile long, is covered 
with the large floating leaves, each of which has a raised edge 
two inches high. The foliage is smooth above and fuiTOwed 
below with numberless regular compartments, formed by the 
projecting, thick, hollow^ nerves, the air in winch keeps the leaf 
upon the surface of the w^ater. Leaf-stalks, flow'cr-stalks, and 
ribs of the leaves, are alike cellular and covered with long 
prickles. Amid this expanse of foliage rise the broad flow^ers, 
upwards of a foot across, and either white, pink, or purple; 
always double, and difiiising a delicious odour. The fruit, wiiicli 
succeeds these flow'ers, is spherical, and half the size, wiien ripe, 
of the human head, full of roundish farinaceous seeds, w hich 
give to the plant the name of Water-Maize (Mais del Agua), for 
the Spaniards collect the seeds, roast and eat them. I was 
never w^eary of admiring this Colossus of the Vegetable Kingdom, 
and reluctantly piusued my w^ay the same evening to CoiTientes, 
after collecting specimens of the flowers, fruits, and seeds.” 
Thus much for the earlier discoverers and first notices of 
this magnificent aquatic: w^e shall have occasion to return to 
;M. D’Orbigny; but in the meanwhile it is only justice to mention 
in this place, that Sir Robert Schomburgk detected the plant in 
British Guiana, when travelling on account of the Royal Geogra¬ 
phical Society of London, aided by Her jMajesty’s Government; 
his object being to examine the natural productions of that 
portion of the British Dominions. The following account of 
this discovery was given in a letter addressed to the Geographical 
Society.* 
* Another, and similar but more brief, account, contained in a letter addressed 
