VICTORIA 



the styles: carpels 30-40; stigma forming a broad, ba- 

 sin-like depression, 2-2 '.; in. wide, in the midst of the 

 flower, with a central conical continuation of the floral 

 axis, the basin filled with fluid on the first evening of 

 opening: carpellary styles broad and fleshy in the lower 

 part, produced upward to a fleshy, subulate, incurved 

 process about % in. long. In fruit all of the floral 1\ s. 

 have decayed away, leaving the basal tube of the torus 

 at the top of a great prickly berry, half the size of one's 

 head. The seeds are greenish or brownish black, about 

 the size of a pea. The genus is represented by 2 well- 

 defined species, inhabiting still waters of South Amer- 

 ica from British Guiana to Argentina. 



In its native haunts Victoria grows in 4-6 ft. of water, 



VICTORIA 



1929 



spite of the cup-like form of the leaves, water from rain 

 or other sources does not remain on the surface : it 

 doubtless runs down at once through the tiny perfora- 

 tions. This would be an indispensable protection to the 

 leaf against fungous foes and in the fuii<-timi c,f n-simi 

 lation. 



A single leaf, by its buoyancy, may sustain a weight 

 of 150 or 200 pounds. Not the least remarkable feature 

 of these leaves is their rate of growth, t'aspary found 

 the maximum growth in length to be about 1 inch per 

 hour when the leaf is just expanding; the surface in- 

 creases 4 or 5 sq. ft. in 24 hours, and a plant will pro 

 duce in 21 to 25 weeks 600 or 700 sq. ft. of leaf-surface. 

 A great development of heat has been observed in the 







2668. Victoria regia. the giant 



Water-lily of the Amazon. 



in great patches miles in extent, and is perennial. The 

 tuberous rhizome stands erect in the mud, where it is 

 anchored by innumerable spongy roots which spring 

 from the bases of the Ivs. in groups of 10-30 or 40. The 

 tuber may be as much as 6 in. in diameter and 2 ft. 

 long. It decays below as it grows above. The Ivs. 

 are arranged in 55-144 order, and the flowers arise in 

 a parallel but independent spiral of the same order 

 (Planchon). Each leaf after the first seedling leaf has 

 a broadly ovate, fused pair of stipules, these organs 

 serving to protect the apex of the stem. The petioles 

 and peduncles are terete, about 1 in. in diam., covered 

 with stout, fleshy prickles, and traversed internally by 

 4 large, and a number of smaller, air canals. The pet- 

 ioles attain to a length much greater than the depth of 

 the water, so that the Ivs. can adjust themselves to 

 changes of the water-level, though Banks states that 

 they may be completely submerged in times of flood. 

 The gigantic Ivs. are covered beneath with a close net- 

 work of prickly veins, the larger of which project an 

 inch or more from the leaf -surface; the tissues are full 

 of air-spaces and canals, thus buoying, up the mass of 

 cellular matter. Besides many stomata on the upper 

 surface of the leaf, which open into the air-chambers of 

 the mesopbyll, there are innumerable tiny depressions, 

 in each of which one can see with a hand-lens that the 

 leaf is perforated with a fine hole; these holes were 

 termed by Planchon "stomatodes" (F.S. 6:249). He 

 considered them to be useful as air - holes to let out 

 gases which, rising from the water or mud, might be 

 caught in the deep meshes of the netted veins on the 

 Under side of the leaf. It is also to be noted that, in 



opening flowers of Victoria. About 8 P.M., when the 

 anthers are shedding their pollen (in second-day flow- 

 ers), the stamens may reach and maintain a tempera- 

 ture 10 F. above that of the surrounding air. 



Though doubtless known to Spanish traders and mis- 

 sionaries, and certainly of use to savages as food in 

 quite early times, Victoria was first noticed botanically 

 by Haenke in Bolivia about 1801; but he died in the 

 Philippines without recording his discover}-. Bonpland, 

 the companion of Humboldt, also saw it, near Corrientes, 

 Argentina, in 1819, but still it was neglected. In 1832 

 Poeppig found it on the Amazon, and described it as 

 Euryale Amazonica. D'Orbigny saw the plant in 1827 

 at Corrientes, and in 1833 in Bolivia, and several years 

 later published accounts of his find. Robert H. Schom- 

 burgk, finding it again in 1836 on the Berbice river in 

 British Guiana, sent home specimens and figures from 

 which Lindley in 1837 (published in 1838) established 

 the genus Victoria and described the species V. rtgia. 

 This name has settled upon the northern species, while 

 the one found at Corrientes was named In 1840, by 

 d'Orbigny, V. Criuiana in honor of General Santa 

 Cm/, of Bolivia. 



The struggle to bring the "Queen of Water-lilies" 

 into captivity beg:m with Schomburgk. He removed 

 living plants from inland lakes and bayous to Demerara, 



