918 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
course as easy to cross as any wooden one. A species of Calamus 
affords the eanes : they are as thick as the finger, and twenty or thirty 
- yards long, knotted together, and the other pieces are fastened to them 
by strips of the same. A Lepcha, carrying 140 lbs. on his back, 
erosses without hesitation, slowly but steadily, and with perfect con- 
fidence—assurance you may call it, or perhaps fool-hardiness. A deep 
broad pool below the bridge was made available for a ferry : the boat is a 
triangular raft of bamboo-stems, with a stage on the top, and it was 
secured on the opposite side of the stream, having a cane reaching 
across to this. A stout Lepcha jumped into the boiling flood, and 
boldly swam across, holding on by the cane, without which he would 
have been carried away.  Unfastening the raft, we drew it over (by 
the cane), and, seated on the stage, with our feet and legs up to the knees 
in water, we were pulled across, the raft bobbing up and down over 
the rippling stream. 
(To be continued.) 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
VICTORIA REGIA. 
This royal aquatic may now be considered established, as a stove- 
plant, in the gardens of Great Britain; that is, among those horti- 
. eulturists who will incur the expense of a tank large enough 
.. for its cultivation. Besides the noble residences of Chatsworth and 
Syon, the plant is now, thanks to the recent introduction of good 
. water by the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, 
. flowering at the Royal Gardens of Kew; and at the two former places, 
‘it is wel known, fruit and perfect seeds are abundantly produced. 
Already these seeds have been sent to, and reared in, the lakes of 
_ Trinidad and Jamaica, and our most recent letters from Dr. Falconer, 
_ of the H. E. I. C. Botanic Garden (dated 2nd May), announce the 
es arrival ofthe new head-gardener, Mr. Scott, at that establishment, bring- 
ing with him seeds of Victoria regia, which, says our valued corre- 
spondent, “ will constitute a splendid feature in our out-of-door tanks, 
surrounded with Nelumbium speciosum, which we grow almost by the 
acre, Zuryale feror, and Nymphea rubra, &c.; but we have yet to 
ascertain whether the seed will germinate.” 
From the magnificent plant of Victoria at Syon, the well-known 
botanical artist, Mr. Fitch, has been allowed by the noble owner to 
