ROYAL WATER-LILY. 43 



colour spreads as the bloom increases in age ; and, 

 at a day old, the whole is rose-coloured. As if to 

 add to the charm of this noble Water-Lily, it diffuses 

 a sweet scent. As in the case of others in the same 

 tribe, the petals and stamens pass gradually into each 

 other, and many petaloid leaves may be observed 

 bearing vestiges of an anther. The seeds are nume- 

 rous, and imbedded in a spongy substance. Ascend- 

 ing the river, we found this plant frequently, and the 

 higher we advanced, the more gigantic did the speci- 

 mens become ; one leaf we measured was six feet five 

 inches in diameter, the rim five inches and a half 

 high, and the flowers a foot and a quarter across. A 

 beetle (Trichius sp.?) infests the flowers to their great 

 injury, often completely destroying the inner part of 

 the disk; we counted sometimes from twenty to 

 thirty of these insects in one flower." 



A paragraph which recently went the rounds of 

 the newspaper press, forms a not inapt commentary 

 on the circumstance last noted, and we here repro- 

 duce it : " Insects generally must lead a truly jovial 

 life. Think what it must be to lodge in a Lily. 

 Imagine a palace of ivory or pearls, with pillars of 

 silver and capitals of gold, all exhaling such a per- 

 fume as never rose from human censer. Fancy, again, 

 the fun of tucking yourself up in the folds of a rose, 

 rocked to sleep in the gentle sighs of summer air, no- 

 thing to do when you awake but to wash yourself 

 in a dewdrop, and fall to and eat your bedclothes." 



