ROYAL WATER-LILY. 61 



itself no inconsiderable cause of the success of his 

 experiment; in addition to which, it preserved the 

 water perfectly "translucent." 



Although the Victoria produced its first blossoms 

 at Chatsworth, that princely establishment was not 

 doomed to be long the only garden that could boast 

 of this splendid flower. The success which had at- 

 tended the Chatsworth plant, under judicious cul- 

 tivation, gave a renewed impulse to the interest 

 which the Victoria had previously excited, and espe- 

 cially increased the anxiety of cultivators into whose 

 hands seedlings of the Lily had fallen, while Mr Pax- 

 ton's experience furnished them with a clue to its suc- 

 cessful culture. In April, 1850, blossoms appeared 

 on a thriving plant of the Royal Lily in the noble 

 gardens of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, 

 at Syon House, rewarding the zealous exertions of 

 Mr Ivison, head-gardener of the establishment; and 

 it continues in vigorous health, producing abun- 

 dance of flowers. Mr Ivison gives an excellent ac- 

 count of the progress of the Victoria, and of the man- 

 ner in which it was managed, from the time it was 

 first received at Syon, in that elegant work, the "Gar- 

 deners' Magazine of Botany" (vol. i., p. 229), in which 

 is also published a concise and illustrated detail of 

 the Lily's general history. Mr Ivison says : " The 

 plant at Syon was received from Kew in the second 

 week of September, 1849, being one of the num- 

 ber which was distributed about that time. It had 



