124 THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRES WATER LILY. 
«Seeds were obtained in the autumn of 1850, and from them in the following summer 
Sir Joseph Paxton had the gratification of finding himself in the possession of a most beautiful 
hybrid, which he named Devoniensis, after the duke, his patron. In leaf and flower it has a great 
advantage in point of size and robustness of growth over either of its parents; but its most 
valuable property is its continuing to flower the whole of the season without intermission. The 
parent plant produced its first flower as early as the 12th of April, 1851, and continued to flower 
until the middle of October, when it was removed, with a fine succession of flower-buds still upon 
the plant, to its winter quarters. During this period it often had two expanded flowers and five 
buds in different stages of development. It produces its flowers quite as freely as N. dentata ; and 
its beautiful colour (which is not quite so deep as ifs parent), together with its large size which has 
often been as much as eight inches in diameter, together with its fine leaves which have been seldom 
less than thirteen to seventeen inches across, renders it one of the best Nymphæas in cultivation. 
“Let us hope that this example will not be thrown away. The season has come; the 
Nympheeas are all in flower, or nearly so; and there can be no difficulty in operating to any extent 
upon the white Nymphzea, which we should take for the mother of the brood that it is hoped 
will come.” 
The plant thus referred to in the Gardener's Chronicle is now represented from a specimen 
received from Chatsworth, and it will be admitted that it deserves all that was said of it. It has 
also been published in the Botanical Magazine by Sir W. Hooker, who states that for the 
opportunity of figuring this truly splendid plant, he is indebted “to Mrs. Spode, the lady of 
Joshua Spode, Esq., Armitage Park, Rugely, Staffordshire, whose gardens and rare exotics are 
celebrated in the neighbourhood, and are likely to be still more so from the taste and skill displayed 
by their generous proprietors, and by the zeal and energy of their intelligent head gardener.” Sir 
William adds that the living plant at Kew, from Mrs.'Spode, as well as cut specimens received from 
Armitage, and others sent by Mr. Davison from Sir W. Molesworth’s tropical aquarium at Pencarrow, 
Cornwall, amply justify all that is said in the Gardeners Chronicle. 
Mr. Davison observes, that with him Devoniensis grows and flowers most freely, planted in rough 
turf taken from a pasture and laid in a heap one year previous to its being used, with one-sixth of 
dried cow’s-dung. The water in the tank in which it grows is kept from 75° to 80°. 
We should add that Sir W. Hooker raises the question of whether JV. dentata may not have 
been one of the parents of N. Devoniensis, rather than N. Lotus. He remarks that N. Lotus and 
N. dentata are very closely allied species, if they be really and truly distinct. He thinks that the 
pale and depressed base of the calyx of W. dentata, giving that part a somewhat conical form, 
furnishes what may perhaps prove a distinguishing mark, and that character he finds in N. Devoniensis. 
Mr. Davison, at Pencarrow Gardens, also speaks of the JN. Devoniensis as “a hybrid between 
N. rubra and N. dentata? We have no means of assisting in this enquiry. 
