Tas. 4647. 
NYMPHHA GIGANTEA. 
Gigantic Water-Lily. 
Nat. Ord. NyMPH#ACE#.—POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tab. 4257.) 
Nympuma gigantea ; foliis peltatis cordato-rotundatis basi fere ad petioli in- 
sertionem fissis crassis remote dentatis supra (siccitate) minutissime 
elevato-punctatis subtus rugulosis grosse elevato-reticulatis ut videtur 
coloratis, floris amplissimi calyce tetraphyllo, petalis (ceruleis) numerosis- 
simis striato-venosis obtusis exterioribus obovato-oblongis interioribus 
lineari-lanceolatis, staminibus numerosissimis stigma totum tegentibus, 
filamentis brevibus omnibus filiformibus, antheris curvatis exterioribus 
apiculatis. 
_ During the early part of the present year (1852) seeds of an 
Australian Nymphzaceous plant were in the hands of several cul- 
tivators in this country as a new Victoria, Victoria Fitzroyana, with 
flowers of a “ purplish-blue,” from what source obtained I have 
not been able to ascertain. Those which were obligingly presented 
to us by Mr. Carter and Mr. Stokes under that name were, we 
think, not the seeds of a Victoria, but of a Nymphea, and were 
so crushed in a letter, and sent dry, that we have no hope of their 
germinating. Now it does happen that we received during the 
past year specimens of a magnificent new Nymphaea from our 
friend Mr. Bidwill, gathered in the Wide-Bay district, North. _ 
eastern Australia, some of whose flowers certainly vie with the 
ordinary ones of Victoria regia, being a foot in diameter, and if 
not of a purplish-blue colour, yet blue,—the blue, as it would 
appear, of the well-known Nymphea cerulea. We are much dis- 
posed to think that this is the plant producing the seeds in ques- 
tion, and that the plant having been known to other colonists m 
Australia, the seeds have been by them sent to their friends in 
this country, under the name of Victoria Fitzroyana. Mr. Bid- 
will is too good a botanist to have done so. Be that as it may, 
_ We deem it a matter of duty now to lay a figure and description 
% gs “MAY Ist, 1852, é : 
