28 ROYAL WATER-LILY. 



subject of the discovery is not only a new genus, but 

 a plant of the most extraordinary beauty fragrant, 

 and of dimensions previously unheard of in the whole 

 Vegetable Kingdom, except in the colossal family of 

 Palms an interest must then attach to it which can 

 rarely be possessed by a novelty in natural history. 

 Such a plant is the subject of the following notice 

 a Water-Lily, exhibiting a new type of structure, of 

 the most noble aspect, of the richest colours, and so 

 gigantic, that its leaves measure above eighteen feet, 

 and its flower nearly four feet in circumference." * 

 The honour of first making known this magnifi- 

 cent production to the world, in accurate scientific 

 description, having fallen to our own country, it was 

 thought that a better name could not be chosen for 

 the fair and noble plant than that of Victoria Hegina 

 a name given in honour of our illustrious Queen, 

 " who at once sways the sceptre of her happily-united 

 kingdom, and pre-eminently so that of the element 

 which this plant inhabits." Certainly, no other plant 

 has better claims to a royal name, for this is verily 

 the Queen of Flowers. Agreed as British botanists 

 universally are of the propriety of dedicating this 

 plant to our Sovereign, a good deal of discussion has 

 taken place in regard to the correct and first-pub- 

 lished name. From a careful and apparently correct 

 inquiry into the nomenclature of the Lily, by Mr 



* Botanical Register, Miscellaneous Notices 1838 p. 9. 



