220 SOME NOTES ON THE VICTORIA REGIA. 



be seen ; these are the Gardens at Kew and the Botanical Gardens 

 in Regent's Park, London. It is also grown in two or three 

 private establishments in this country. In the past season of 1895, 

 some exceptionally large leaves were produced, which I think may 

 fairly claim to be called record leaves. The largest was seven feet 

 three inches in diameter ; a number of others ranged about seven 

 feet, with upturned rims, varying from three to four and a-half 

 inches. The fully-grown leaves can sustain considerable weight 

 without being submerged. A chair was placed upon one of them, 

 having previously had two thin boards put to prevent the chair-legs 

 from bursting the leaf. Mr. Harrow and some of the gardeners 

 sat upon the leaf in turns, and in one of the trials a weight of 

 about eleven and a-half stones was sustained. This plant pro- 

 duced twenty-seven flowers. The first opened in the last week of 

 July and the last the first week of November. The flower lasts 

 about three days, opening in the evening and giving off a delight- 

 ful perfume, which has been perceived forty or fifty yards from the 

 house when the ventilators in the roof were open. The colour of 

 the flower when first opened is pure white, but on opening the 

 following evening is a deep rose and loses its fragrance. After the 

 third day the ovary becomes gradually submerged and the seeds 

 ripen, which takes from two to three months to accomplish, a large 

 number being produced in an ovary. 



It is on record that when Sir J. Paxton got his first bloom at 

 Chatsworth, he was so delighted with the flowers that he chartered 

 an express train to Eastbourne, where the Duke was staying at his 

 marine residence, and arrived there just before the Duke's break- 

 fast-time, and he put it on the table so as to be the first thing 

 which would greet him in the morning. " Well done, Paxton ! " 

 was the laconic commendation of the Duke, and the great gar- 

 dener went back to Chatsworth highly pleased. 



The plant, as you are now aware, is, under cultivation, treated 

 as an annual, a fresh one being raised every year. The seed is 

 black and about the size of a pea. It is sown in the early part of 

 January, when it is put into a tank heated with hot-water pipes, 

 when a temperature of about 85° to 90^ F. is maintained in order 

 to germinate the seed. The young plant is potted on until April. 

 It will then have three or four fiat leaves about twelve inches in 



