VICTORIA 



VICTORIA 



3467 



slats, and on this a person can readily stand, as if in a 

 boat. Not the least remarkable feature of these leaves 

 is their rate of growth. Caspary found the maximum 

 growth in length to be about 1 inch an hour when the 

 leaf is just expanding; the surface increases 4 or 5 

 square feet in twenty-four hours, and a plant will pro- 

 duce in twenty-one to twenty-five weeks 600 or 700 

 square feet of leaf -surf ace. A great development of 

 heat has been observed in the opening flowers of vic- 

 toria. About 8 P.M., when the anthers are shedding 

 their pollen (in second-day flowers), the stamens may 

 reach and maintain a temperature 10 F. above that 

 of the surrounding air. 



Though doubtless known to Spanish traders and 

 missionaries, and certainly of use to savages as food in 



germinated and grew vigorously as small seedlings 

 until October, but died in December. In 1848 dry seeds 

 were sent to England from the Essequibo River, along 

 with rhizomes, the latter in Wardian cases; the rhizomes 

 rotted, and the seeds refused to germinate. In 1849 

 an expedition from Georgetown succeeded in bringing 

 back thirty-five living plants, but these all died. 

 Finally some seeds were sent to Kew from the Demerara 

 River in bottles of fresh water, by two English physi- 

 cians, Rodie and Luckie. The first sending arrived 

 February 28, 1849, and on November 8 a plant flowered 

 at Chatsworth; the blossom was appropriately presented 

 to Queen Victoria. From this stock Victoria regia was 

 distributed to gardens in Europe, Asia, and America. 

 Van Houtte of Ghent first flowered it on the continent, 



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3931. Victoria regia, the giant water-lily 

 of the Amazon. 



early times, victoria was first noticed botanically by 

 Haenke in Bolivia about 1801; but he died in the 

 Philippines without recording his discovery. Bon- 

 pland, the companion of Humboldt, also saw it near 

 Corrientes, Argentina, in 1819, and in 1825 sent seeds 

 and a full description to Mirbel at Paris. In 1832 

 Poeppig found it on the Amazon, and gave the first 

 published account of it in Froriep's "Notizen" in 

 November of that year, under the name of Euryale 

 amazonica. D'Orbigny saw the plant in 1827 at Cor- 

 rientes, collected specimens, and sent them with draw- 

 ings to the Museum of Natural History at Paris. In 

 1833 he saw it again in Bolivia, and several years later 



Eublished accounts of his find. Robert H. Schpmburgk, 

 nding it again in 1836 on the Berbice River in British 

 Guiana, sent home specimens and figures from which 

 Lindley in 1837 (published in 1838) established the 

 genus Victoria and described the species V. regia. 

 This name has settled on the northern species, while 

 the one found at Corrientes was named in 1840, by 

 d'Orbigny, V. Cruziana in honor of General Santa Cruz, 

 of Bolivia. 



The struggle to bring the "queen of water-lilies" into 

 captivity began with Schomburgk. He removed living 

 plants from inland lakes and bayous to Georgetown, 

 British Guiana, but they soon died. In 1846 Bridges 

 obtained seed in the Bolivia locality, province of 

 Moscos, and sent them in a jar of wet clay to England. 

 Out of twenty-five seeds obtained at Kew, three 



and Caleb Cope, of Philadelphia, was the earliest suc- 

 cessful cultivator in this country. His gardener was the 

 late Thomas Meehan. The first flower opened August 

 21, 1851. In 1852 John F. Allen, of Salem, Massa- 

 chusetts, had a plant from seed of Mr. Cope's growing. 

 This plant lived through four summers and matured 

 over 200 flowers. 



The next notable importation of seed was sent by 

 Edward S. Rand. Jr., from Para, Brazil, to Mr. 

 Sturtevant, then at Bordentown, N. J. The resulting 

 plants flowered in 1886 and, proving to be slightly dif- 

 ferent from the former type, were called V. regia var. 

 Randii. It is doubtless the same form that was 

 described by Planchon as V. amazonica, and retained 

 with grave doubts by Caspary. In 1894 Mr. Tricker 

 received from Europe seed of quite another species, 

 which was provisionally named V. regia var. Trickeri. 

 It is much more amenable to out-of-door culture than 

 the older type, and has received a well-deserved popu- 

 larity. Specimens grown at Kew from seeds sent by 

 Tricker were regarded simply as garden forms of V. 

 regia. Later investigation by Tricker and the writer 

 brought out the fact that the stock came originally 

 from Corrientes, Argentina, and that the plant is truly 



