40 ROYAL WATER-LILY. 



toria Regia ; but to tlie one subsequently detected at 

 Corrientes, I propose giving the name of Victoria 

 Cruziana, in testimony of my obligations to General 

 Cruz, whose kindness mainly contributed to the suc- 

 cessful issue of my journey to Bolivia." 



The following are M. D'Orbigny's previously pub- 

 lished observations, which are quoted in the " Bota- 

 nical Magazine," from " Voyage dans V Amerique 

 Mendionale : " I resumed my descent of the Pa- 

 rana on the 3d of March, and, arriving at the junc- 

 tion of a small river, called the San Jose, which 

 spreads into a wide marsh before falling into the 

 Parana, I found one of the most beautiful flowers 

 that America can produce. The plant seems to be- 

 long to the family Nymphceacece, and is certainly much ' 

 allied to the Nuphar, but its dimensions are gigantic. 

 The people of Guiana call it Irupe, deriving this 

 name from the shape of its leaves, which resemble 

 the broad dishes used in the country, or the lids of 

 their large round baskets. A space, more than a 

 mile broad, and nearly a mile long, is covered with 

 the large floating leaves, each of which has a raised 

 edge two inches high. The foliage is smooth above 

 and furrowed below, with numberless regular com- 

 partments, formed by the projecting, thick, hollow 

 nerves, the air in which keeps the leaf upon the sur- 

 face of the water. Leaf stalks, flower stalks, and ribs 

 of the leaves, are alike cellular, and covered with long 

 prickles. Amid this expanse of foliage rise the 



