8 BERTIIA.'S VISIT TO HER 



stance, from a quarter of an inch in thickness at 

 their outer lip to almost an inch at their base ; 

 and he understood that when the flower was first 

 cut, it weighed fifteen pounds. The nectarium 

 is so large anfl deep that he thinks it would hold 

 eight pints of water ; and the whole diameter 

 of this giant flower he found three feet and two 

 inches." 



I interrupted her to ask the name of this 

 wonderful plant. 



" It has been justly called, after its lamented 

 discoverer, the Raffles ia. A model was an ex- 

 cellent method of making us acquainted with its 

 appearance ; for the northern nations can have 

 but a faint idea of the majestic forms of tropical 

 vegetation from mere drawings and descrip- 

 tions ; and still less can they judge of them from 

 the sickly plants in our stoves and green- 

 houses." 



This is just what I have myself thought a 

 hundred times, mamma. I then asked her 

 about the Cactus tribe, of which we have so 

 many singular-looking species in Brazil. 



" It is, indeed," she replied, " a most gro- 

 tesque family ; some with their round backs 

 and spines resembling a hedgehog, while others 

 appear like the pipes of an organ rising into 

 long channelled columns. They are almost 

 entirely confined to the New World, one species 

 only being u native, of the south of Europe. 



