DOWN THE AMAZONS. 355 
sun, and disappeared again among the trees, seeking deeper 
and more undisturbed retreats. From the reedy grasses 
came also the deep note of the unicorn, so greatly prized 
in Brazil, a large bird, half wader, half fowl, belong- 
ing to the genus Palamedea ; but as we were only pre- 
pared for a botanizing expedition, we could not avail 
ourselves of any of the opportunities thus offered ; and 
the birds, however near and tempting the shots, had 
little to fear from us. At the upper end of the lake we 
came upon the bed of water-lilies from which the trophies 
of yesterday had been gathered. The leaves were very 
large, many of them from four to five feet in diameter ; 
but, perhaps from having lost their first freshness and 
something therefore of their natural texture, the edge 
of the leaf was scarcely perceptibly raised, and in most 
instances lay perfectly flat upon the water. We found 
buds, but no perfect flower. In the afternoon, however, 
one of the daughters of our fisherman Maia, hearing that 
we wished to see one of the flowers, brought us a very 
perfect specimen from another more distant locality, which 
we had not time to visit. The Indians, by the way, have 
a characteristic name for the leaf. They call it " forno," 
on account of its resemblance to the immense shallow 
pans in which they bake their farinha over the mandioca 
ovens. The Victoria regia, with its formidable armor 
of spines, its gigantic leaves, and beautiful flowers, deep- 
ening in color from the velvety white outer leaves through 
every shade of rose to deepest crimson, and fading again 
to a creamy, yellowish tint in the heart of the flower, 
has been described so often that I hardly dare dwell 
upon it, for fear of wearying the reader. And yet we 
could not see it growing in its native waters a type. 
