430 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



as I rowed from one to the other I always ob- 

 served something new to admire. The leaf, on 

 its upper surface, is of a bright green ; in form 

 almost orbicular, except that on one side it is 

 slightly bent in ; its diameter measured from five 

 to six feet; around the whole margin extended a 

 rim, from three to five inches high, on the inside 

 light green, like the surface of the leaf, on the 

 outside like the leaf's lower surface, of a bright 

 crimson. The ribs are very prominent, almost an 

 inch high, radiating from a common centre; 

 there are eight principal ones, with a good many 

 others, branching off from them ; these are crossed 

 again by a membrane or bands at right angles, 

 which gives the whole the appearance of a spi- 

 der's web, and are beset with prickles; the veins 

 contain air-cells like the petiole and flower-stem. 

 The divisions of the ribs and bands are visible on 

 the upper surface of the leaf, by which it appears 

 areolated. The young leaf is convolute, and ex- 

 pands but slowly. The prickly stem ascends with 

 the young leaf till it has reached the surface; by 

 the time it is developed, its own weight depresses 

 the stem, and it floats on the water. The stalk 

 of the flower is an inch thick near the calyx, and 

 is studded with sharp elastic prickles, about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length. The calyx is four- 

 leaved, each sepal upwards of seven inches in 

 length, and three inches in breadth; at the base 

 they are thick, white inside, reddish brown and 

 prickly outside ; the diameter is from twelve to 

 thirteen inches; on it rests the magnificent corol- 

 la, which, when fully developed, completely covers 

 the calyx with its hundred petals. When it first 

 opens it is white, with pink in the middle, which 

 spreads over the whole flower the more it advan- 

 ces in age, and it is generally found the next day 

 altogether of a pink colour ; as if to enhance its 

 beauty, it is sweet-scented. Like others of its 

 tribe, the petals and stamens pass gradually into 

 each other, and many petaloid leaves may be ob- 

 served which have vestiges of an anther. The 

 petals next to the leaves of the calyx are fleshy, 

 and possess air-cells, which certainly must con- 

 tribute to the buoyancy of the flower. The seeds 

 of the many-celled fruit are numerous, and im- 

 bedded in a spongy substance. We met the plants 

 frequently afterwards, and the higher we advanced 

 the more gigantic they became : we measured a 

 leaf which was six feet five inches in diameter, 

 its rim five and a half inches high, and the flower 

 across fifteen inches." 



Such was the manner in which the zealous 

 traveller spoke of the wonders which this Water 

 Lily presented to his delighted eyes; nor was 

 there exaggeration in his description, as the event 

 has shown. 



Supposing it to be a species of Nymphsea, Sir 

 R. Schombcrgk proposed that Her present Ma- 

 jesty should be asked to permit its second name 

 to be that of Victoria; a request with which the 

 queen was graciously pleased to comply. It 

 however proved, upon examination in Europe, not 



to be a Nymphaea; and it was reserved for the 

 writer of the present memorandum to have the 

 honor of finally establishing it as a new genus, of 

 which Victoria became the denomination. 



The dispersion, by Professor Lindley, of a 

 privately printed memoir upon the subject, elicited 

 some further information, from which it appeared 

 that the same, or a similar plant, had been previ- 

 ously seen in 1828, in a tributary of the River 

 Plate, by M. D'Orbigny, a French traveller, and 

 in a branch of the Amazons, in 1832, by Dr. 

 Poeppig; that its seeds are roasted and eaten by 

 the natives, who call them Water Maize; and 

 that it occupies large districts in all the lakes and 

 tranquil tropical rivers of South America. M. 

 D'Orbigny was not unnaturally annoyed at the 

 honor of naming the Victoria having been taken 

 from him by English naturalists, although unin- 

 tentionally on their part. He had sent flowers 

 and fruit to the Museum of Natural History in 

 Paris as early as 1828 ; and there they had lain 

 unnoticed and forgotten. We should be curious 

 to know how long they would have been buried in 

 the rubbish of our own British Museum. 



We cannot pursue the botanical history further 

 than by stating that Sir Wm. Hooker, having re- 

 ceived seeds and important additional memoranda 

 from Mr. Thomas Bridges, collected the infor- 

 mation here alluded to into a memoir, published in 

 1847, and illustrated by four coloured folio plates. 



As an English botanist enjoyed the good fortune 

 first to make this plant known in a scientific man- 

 ner, so has an English gardener had the honor of 

 first causing it to produce its glorious blossoms in 

 a hot-house. So long since as 1847 two plants 

 were raised in the Royal Botanical Garden at 

 Kew ; and subsequently many others have vege- 

 tated there. Of these, one was obtained by Mr. 

 Paxton in the beginning of August last, and im- 

 mediately transferred to Chatsworth. Such means 

 of cultivating it as skill and experience suggested 

 were provided, and in three months a flower ap- 

 peared above water. On the 10th of August the 

 plant was consigned to its tank; on the 14th of 

 November a flower and leaf were produced before 

 Her Majesty and Prince Albert, at Windsor; and 

 on the 17th another flower expanded, as if to wel- 

 come to Chatsworth the noble Duke on his return 

 from Ireland on that day. 



This must be regarded as a very striking ex- 

 ample of horticultural skill, and shows the impor- 

 tance of attending carefully to first principles in 

 all experimental cultivation. How Mr. Paxton 

 acted, we now proceed to show. 



In a hot-house of sufficient dimensions, a tank 

 was constructed three feet deep and twelve feet 

 square, warmed by hot water circulating beneath. 

 To this was added a ledge all round, nine inches 

 deep, three and a half feet wide, and heated by a 

 triple row of small lead pipes, through which hot 

 water circulated. By these means the tank was 

 rendered nineteen feet square, with a deep centre 

 and shallow sides. 



