ROYAL WATER-LILY. 27 



fruit, in the spongy substance of which the seeds are 

 imbedded. 



The Royal Water-Lily forms a highly conspicuous 

 object on the lagoons and still shallow bays which 

 so frequently occur on many of those inimense rivers 

 tributary to the Amazon. It has been observed to 

 occur in equal profusion in similar localities on the 

 comparatively still waters of the La Plata and Esse- 

 quibo; and, from the scanty knowledge which bota- 

 nists have obtained of the productions of the inte- 

 rior of South America, it is exceedingly likely that 

 future research may be instrumental in showing 

 this Queen of all the Lilies to be very generally 

 distributed over considerable tracts of the eastern 

 portion of the Continent. No traces of it have 

 hitherto been observed towards the western parts of 

 South America, and its discovery there is not antici- 

 pated by botanists the accuracy of Hooker's sug- 

 gestion being very generally acknowledged, that the 

 rapidity of the rivers which flow into the Pacific may 

 be the means of preventing its occurrence there, its 

 massive and tender foliage and flowers requiring 

 peaceful waters for their development. In speaking 

 of this Royal Water-Lily, Professor Lindley says 

 " An undoubted addition to a tribe of plants, at once 

 so beautiful and so circumscribed as that of the 

 Nymphs, or Water-Lilies, would be an event of inte- 

 rest, even if it only related to a distinctly-marked 

 species of some well-known genus. But when the 



