ROYAL WATER-LILY. 57 



their growth, are recorded to have increased in dia- 

 meter at the remarkable rate of sixteen or eighteen 

 inches in one day. On the evening of Thursday, 

 the 8th of the same month, between five and eight 

 o'clock, the petals of this flower partially opened; 

 but they again closed during sunlight on Friday 

 the 9th, and fully expanded the same evening 

 thus rewarding the care, skill, and industry, which 

 Mr Paxton had expended in its culture, by accord- 

 ing to him the honour of flowering, for the first 

 time in Europe, the most extraordinary and the 

 most beautiful vegetable production of the tropics, 

 the successful cultivation of which had baffled the 

 skill of the celebrated horticulturists who had pre- 

 viously attempted it. On the morning of Satur- 

 day, the flower began to wither, evincing that rapi- 

 dity of development and decay which scientific tra- 

 vellers had observed of the Lily in its native lakes, 

 and which has been subsequently observed in all the 

 other instances of the production of its flowers in 

 England. The splendid blossom is thus described by 

 Professor Lindley, whose truthful pen is not easily 

 decoyed into the paths of eulogy, even in the de- 

 scription of the most extraordinary productions of 

 tropical climes: "The flower itself, when it first 

 opens, resembles the white Water-Lily, of a dazzling 

 white, with its fine leathery petals, forming a goblet 

 of the most elegant proportions ; but, as the day ad- 

 vances, it gradually expands, till it becomes nearly 



