26 ROYAL WATER-LILY. 



Mr Spruce's comparison of them to tea-trays is 

 as apt as any with which we have met. They are 

 gigantic tea-trays, however, often attaining the size 

 of six or seven feet in diameter, and our astonish- 

 ment at their dimensions is not lessened when we 

 recollect that they are the leaves of a Water-Lily. 

 Mr Henfrey,in the "Gardener's Magazine of Botany," 

 describes the leaves as clothed with short spongy 

 pubescence, with very prominent flattened ribs 

 radiating from the centre to the circumference, 

 and progressively diminishing in depth ; " these 

 are united by cross ribs, also vertical plates, and the 

 latter again by less elevated ones crossing them, 

 so that the under surface is completely divided 

 into quadrangular chambers, of which the ribs 

 form the sides, and the general surface of the lamina 

 the top; and as these detain air within them, they 

 act as floats. All the ribs are more or less beset 

 with spines, varying in length, sharp and horny, en- 

 larged at the base." The magnificent blossoms of 

 the plant are not less wonderful than the leaves, and 

 measure about sixteen inches in diameter. The 

 flower expands its array of pure white petals in the 

 afternoon, exhaling a delicious odour; closes them 

 on the forenoon of the following day, on which day 

 they are again fully expanded, w r hen they present a 

 most gorgeous appearance. The flower eventually 

 closes about ten o'clock the same evening, and with- 

 draws beneath the surface of the water to ripen the 



