175 BRIEF KEMABKS. 



roofed liouse, it commenced blooming. The tank is twenty-two feet 

 long, twelve wide, and two and a-lialf deep, becoming shallower to the 

 sides. Prior to its being placed in the tank, the plant had been kept 

 in a tub, but Avas removed to the former a little after Christmas. A 

 hillock of well-decayed turfy loam, mixed with a little river sand, and 

 having brickbats below to keep it open, was placed in the middle of 

 the tank. The water is warmed by a two-inch pipe at the top, and a 

 four-inch pipe at bottom, and it is fed from a small slate cistern at one 

 end, which keeps continually pouring warm water on a broad wheel 

 about a foot in diameter, the revolving of which produces motion in 

 the water in the tank. The water is supplied from a rain-water cistern 

 in the open garden. Mr. Ivison considers it of the highest importance 

 to success, that the water be in constant circulation. The water is kept 

 at ejc-hty-five degrees of temperature, and the air of the house at from 

 eighty to ninety degrees. 



The plant has eleven leaves, and some of them are five feet across. 

 They are almost circular, and at the under sides of a pink colour, 

 deeply ribbed, and have a turned rim of near two inches high, the out- 

 side of whicii is of a rich rosy-purple. The first {lower opened on 

 April 10th, since which more than a dozen others have bloomed, and 

 now four more flower buds appear. Some of the flowers measured thir- 

 teen inches across. A blossom continues about two days, and about 

 five o'clock of the first day it opens, continues expanded till ten the 

 following morning (the second day), then closes, but re-opens about 

 t-wo in the afternoon. The petals which at first were white, now have 

 changed to pink, and they gradually fall down on the water, and then 

 an inner row of large petals striped and mottled with purple and red, 

 unfold about three o'clock, which reflex and by four fall back upon the 

 first expanded petals, and now the flower assumes a flattened appearance, 

 and discloses to sight a quantity of smaller petals, overlapping each 

 other, and gradually tapering to a central rose-coloured point. About 

 six o'clock "it exhibits to view its numerous yellow coloured stamens, 

 surrounded by a ring of small petals of a rosy-red colour, which, con- 

 trasting with the first reflexed petals, now of a lighter colour, present 

 a most beautiful display, and the blossom of this queen of aquatic 

 flowers, appears in its meridian grandeur. 



Some Account of the Victoria Eegia in its Native Waters. — 

 " We at length reached the Igarape, and were at once gratified by 

 seeing the Victoria growing by the opposite shore of the Igarape itself. 

 We were warned by the people not to go amongst tiie plants, as their 

 prickles were venomous : but I got botli hands and feet considerably 

 pricked without experiencing any ill effects. We were fortunate in 

 finding the plant in good flower, but, according to the testimony of all 

 at Santarem who have seen it, the leaves attain their greatest dimen- 

 sions in the winter. Captain Ilislop assures me he lias seen many 

 leaves 12 feet in diameter, whereas the largest we saw measured a 

 very little above 4 feet across, and they were packed as close as they 

 could lie. But I can easily conceive how, in the wet season, their 

 dimensions should be consifierably augmented, for whereas at present 

 the plant is growing in less than 2 feet of Ayater, in winter the Igarape 



