FOREIGN NOTICES, 



477 



when all the regular produce on the plants not thus 

 treated, is consumed. 



Splendid new Aqttatic Plant. — Curtis' Bota- 

 nical Magazine for the present month is wholly oc- 

 cupied by a history of Victoria regia, the mo^^t no- 

 ble of all aquatics, and of which living plants exist 

 in the Royal Botanical Garden, at Kew. We need 

 not say that Sir William Hooker has done justice to 

 his subject. In addition to a sketch of the royal 

 plant reposing on the surface of the quiet waters in 

 which it loves to dwell, we are presented M'ith many 

 details of its structure, never before published. 

 The living plants to which we have alluded, were 

 raised from Bolivian seeds brought home by Mr. 

 Bridges, one of the most indefatigable and success- 

 ful investigators of the Natural History of South 

 America. Wc must refer to this interesting mono- 

 graph for full information respecting the plant, our 

 limited space not permitting us to extract more 

 than the lollowing memorandum, supplied by Mr. 

 Bridges : 



"During my stay at the Indian town of Santa 

 Anna, in the province of Moxos, Republic of Boli- 

 via, during the months of June and July, 1S45, I 

 made daily shooting excursions in the vicinity. In 

 one of these, I had the good fortune (whilst riding 

 along the woody banks of the river Yacuma, one of 

 the tributary streams of the Mamore) to come sud- 

 denly on a beautiful pond, or rather small lake, em- 

 bosomed in the forest, M'here, to my delight and as- 

 tonishment, I discovered, for the first time, ' the 

 Queen of Aquatics,' the Victoria regia ! There 

 were at least fifty flowers in view, and Bclzoni could 

 not have felt more rapture at his JEgyptian discove- 

 ries than I did in beholding the beautiful and novel 

 sight before me, such as it has fallen to the lot of 

 few Englishmen to witness. Fain would I have 

 plunged into the lake to procure specimens of the 

 magnificent flowers and leaves ; but knowing that 

 these waters abounded in alligators, I was deterred 

 from doing so by the advice of my guide, and my 

 own experience of similar places. 



'■ The Victoria grows in 4 to 6 feet of water, pro- 

 ducing leaves and flowers, which rapidly decay, and 

 give place to others. From each plant there are 

 seldom more than four or five leaves on the surface, 

 but even these, in parts of the lake where the plants 

 were numerous, almost covered the surface of the 

 water, one leaf touching the other. I observed a 

 beautiful aquatic bird, {Parra sp.?) walk with much 

 ease from leaf to leaf, and many of the Mmcicapi- 

 d<e find food and a resting-place on them. The 

 plant occupies almost exclusively the water, with 

 the exception of a few floating aquatics of small di- 

 mensions, amongst which I saw a beautiful Utricu- 

 laria. 



" The blossoms rise six and eight inches above 

 the surface, expanding first in the evening, when 

 they are pure white ; changing finally (and by ex- 

 posure to the sun) to a most beautiful pink or rose 

 color ; flowers may be seen, at the same time, par- 

 taking of every tinge between the two hues, the re- 

 cently expanded being pure white and the adult ro- 

 sy, almost sinking under the water to ripen its seed 

 and produce a new race of plants when required. 



The largest flowers I saw, measured from ten inch- 

 es to one foot in diameter. 



" I had an opportunity of experiencing the fra- 

 grance of the flowers. Those I collected for pre- 

 serving in spirits were unexpanded, but on the point 

 of opening ; on arriving at the Government House, 

 in the town. I deposited them in my room, and re- 

 turning after dark, I found to my surprise that all 

 had blown and were exhaling a most delightful 

 odor, which at first I compared to a rich Pine-apple, 

 afterwards to a Melon, and then to the Cherimoya ; 

 but indeed it resembled none of these fruits, and I at 

 length came to the decision that it was a most deli- 

 cious scent, unlike cverj^ other, and peculiar to the 

 noble flower that produced it. 



Josling's St. Albans Grape — It is but seldom 

 that a seedling Grape is obtained which can be re- 

 commended in preference to those varieties that 

 have been long in cultivation ; and still more rarely 

 do seedlings possess any of that peculiarly rich 

 flavor which characterises the Muscats of Alexan- 

 dria and Frontignans. A Grape having the high 

 qualities of those just mentioned, and not liable to 

 shank and shrivel as every gardener is aware the 

 Frontignans aie too apt to do, must be a great ac- 

 quisition ; and such the seedling which forms the 

 subject of this notice will undoubtedly prove. It 

 was raised by Mr. Robert Josling, Seedsman, &c. 

 St. Albans, from seed sown about six years a^o ; 

 and a notice of its fruit appeared in the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, 1845, page 660, as being excellent, rich 

 and sugary, with a Frontignan flavor ; and that the 

 variety was deserving of extensive circulation. This 

 year fruit of it was exhibited at the meeting of the 

 Society in Regent-street, September 1st. for v.-hich 

 a certificate of merit was awarded. The bunch, 

 supported by a strong footstalk, is very long and ta- 

 pering, with strong diverging shoulders. The ber- 

 ries are about the size of those of the White Fron- 

 tignan, round, greenish-white, acquiring a tin<re of 

 golden-yellow when well ripened. Flesh rather 

 firmer than that of the Frontignan grapes, but not 

 so firm as that of the Muscat of Alexandria, very 

 rich and sugary, with a Frontignan flavor. The 

 leaves, in their general outline, are tolerably round, 

 their lobes not deep, but the serratures are tolera- 

 bly sharp ; both the upper and under surfaces are 

 remarkably glabrous, and slighly tinged with red. 

 On the whole, the leaves bear considerable resem- 

 blance to those of the White Muscat of Alexandria ; 

 the berries, however, differ in being decidedly round, 

 like those of the Frontignans ; but the leaves of 

 the latter are not glabrous, being furnished with 

 bristly hairs at and near the axils of the veins be- 

 neath. It is perfectly distinct from any other va- 

 riety known. The following has been received from 

 Mr. Josling in reply to inquiries resjiecting this ex- 

 cellent Grape : — '" About six years ago I sowed 

 some seeds of Grapes disfigured b}' wasps, of the 

 White Muscat, White Hamburgh, or Large White 

 Nice, White Muscadine, and White Sweet-water ; 

 the Frontignan I did not grow at the time. These 

 were gathered and sown promiscuously, so that I 

 can not say positively from which of these sorts the 

 variety in question has originated. My opinion is, 



