7 
ley’s excellent description was the means of directing theii- atten¬ 
tion to those specimens especially wliich had been sent to Paris 
by M. D’Orbigny from Corrientes. In the 13th volume of the 
Annales des Sciences Naturelles (1840), M. Guillemin has 
published his ‘Obsen^ations sur les Genres Euryale et Victoria’ 
but he throws no new light whatever upon the subject; nor could 
it be expected, from the condition of the specimens in the 
Museum of Paris. Nor would he probably have criticised the 
view taken of the genus by Dr. Lindley as he has done, had he 
been acquainted with the article on Victoria regia, above quoted, 
in the miscellaneous matter of the Botanical Register, vol.24. p.9. 
This notice by M. Guillemin is, however, followed in the same 
volume by a more interesting but popular account of Victoria, by 
M. A. D’Orbigny, who claims to himself the priority of disco¬ 
very; while, strangely enough, he alludes at the same time to 
Haenke (who travelled about 1801), and then to Bonpland, as the 
first persons to meet with this splendid aquatic. Our readers 
will be glad to peruse his own words, which we here give, trans¬ 
lated from the ‘ Annales ’, only omitting a little expression of 
vexation that a botanist belonging to another country should have 
the privilege of first laying a scientific description of this gorgeous 
plant before the world. 
“ If there exist in the Animal Kingdom creatures, whose size, 
compared with our own, commands admiration by their enor¬ 
mous stature; if we also gaze with wonder on the giants of 
the Vegetable Kingdom, we may well take especial pleasure in 
surveying any peculiarly wonderfid species of those genera of 
plants which are already known to us only in more moderate 
dimensions. I shall endeavour to express not only my own 
feelings, but those of M.M. Bonpland and Haenke, for we were all 
alike struck with profound emotion, on beholding the two species 
of Victoria which form the subject of this note. 
“ For eight months 1 had been investigating, in all directions, 
the province of Corrientes, when, early in 1827, descending the 
river Parana, in a frail Pirogue, I arrived at a part of this 
majestic stream, where, though more than 900 miles distant from 
its junction with the Rio Plata, its breadth yet nearly attained a 
league. The surrounding scenery was in keeping with this splen¬ 
did river; aU was on a grand and imposing scale, and being my¬ 
self only accompanied by two Guarani Indians, I silently con¬ 
templated the wild and lovely view around me; and I must 
confess that, amid all this watery waste, I longed for some vege¬ 
tation on which my eye might rest; and longed in vain! 
“ Ere long, reaching a place called the Arroyo de San Jose, I 
