of our magnificent plant before the public, and even a coloured 
figure ; for so beautifully are the specimens dried by our valued 
friend and correspondent, that. we think we cannot err much on 
that point. And sure we are that, even should all the seeds 
above alluded to fail to germinate, or prove to be those of 
another plant, our Wymphea gigantea will ere long find its way 
into our tropical tanks, and adorn them with a Water-Lily little 
inferior to the royal Victoria in the size or beauty of its flowers, 
and with leaves equally remarkable in size, for a true Vymphea, 
being eighteen inches to two feet across. 
Dzscr. A tuber which we have lately received from Mr. Bid- 
‘will for cultivation, but unfortunately dry and dead, is about the 
size of an ordinary apricot, and nearly as globose, having nu- 
merous depressions or eyes, like the ‘‘ eyes” of the potato, with 
a scale at each depression. ‘The leaves of our dried specimens 
are eighteen inches across, nearly orbicular, but longer than 
broad, with a deep fissure at the base, the margin remotely 
toothed, the substance very thick, and when dry coriaceous ; the _ 
upper surface green, rather obscurely reticulated, the whole ~ 
surface appearing minutely dotted with raised points: beneath 
purplish ; the principal veins, very thick and prominent, radiate 
from the insertion of the petiole, and form elevated irregular 
hexagonal reticulations all over the under surface, which surface 
is everywhere minutely wrinkled. Pefio/e nearly an inch across, 
terete, full of air-cells (as shown at fig. 1) ; its attachment to the 
leaf is within, or at a distance from, the base of the fissure, and 
thus constitutes a peltate leaf. FY/ower twelve inches in diameter 
(in a dried state). Calyx of four leaves, or sepals, as long as the 
petals, broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, green or purplish-green ; one 
has the two margins and another one margin petaloid. Petals 
blue, very numerous, spreading, the outermost the largest (a few of 
them herbaceous at the back down the centre), obovate-oblong, that 
is, broadest above the middle, striated with veins, the inner ones 
rather shorter than the outer, linear-lanceolate, all of them ob- 
_ tuse. Stamens exceedingly numerous, more so than I have seen 
_ in any Nymphzaceous plant, forming a dense mass around and 
over the stigma; filaments filiform, short, incurved (none of 
them petaloid); anthers all perfect, linear, yellow, singularly 
curved, falcate; those in the centre obtuse ; outer ones apiculate 
by a slight prolongation of the connectivum. Stigma so covered 
by the copious stamens that the structure cannot be seen with- 
out destroying the specimen.—Enough is here shown in proof 
that the species is very distinct from any of the hitherto known 
blue Water-Lilies, or of the genus. _ 
Fig. 1. Transverse section of the petiole. 2. Portion of the underside of the 
leaf at the insertion of the petiole :—natural size. 
