494 Miscellaneous. 



Schomburgk, which was spontaneous and unsohcited, not being aware 

 of what had been done, and beheving that the Water Lily was a new 

 genus, also communicated with Sir H. Wheatley, and obtained Her 

 Majesty's permission that Mr. Schomburgk might call it Victoria 

 regina, and under this name his description of the plant was first 

 published in the Athenaeum, the Morning Herald and the Morning 

 Post of the 9th of September 1837. Dr. Lindley's privately printed 

 edition of Mr, Schomburgk' s description and plate was presented to 

 the Geographical Society with a letter dated the 3rd of November 



1837. 



Had the Botanical Society known that the Geographical Society 

 considered the communication as their property, and had deputed 

 Dr. Lindley to publish it, and that Her Majesty had already given 

 Mr. Schomburgk permission to affix the name of Victoria regia to 

 the flower, they would certainly have used that name, and, indeed, I 

 believe, that under those circumstances they would not have published 

 it at all ; but such having proved to be the case, I should be inclined, 

 now that I am for the first time aware of these circumstances, to 

 forgo the priority of publication and in future use the name of 

 Victoria regia for the plant. — J. E. Gray, 26 Nov. 1850. 



JOURNEY TO EXPLORE THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE AMAZON 



RIVER. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



24 Bloomsbury Street, London, 

 Gentlemen, Nov. 20, 1850. 



In the February Number of your valuable Magazine, you kindly 

 inserted a few lines extracted from a letter that I had received from 

 my friend Mr. Wallace, who is investigating the natural history of 

 the Amazon River ; I therefore make bold to send you a few more, 

 taken from letters received since. 



I remain, Gentlemen, yours very truly, 



Samuel Stevens. 



Santarem, Nov. 15, 1849 (500 miles above Para). 

 " I spent about three weeks at Montealegre and have now been 

 back here nearly a month, so before I leave for the Rio Negro I send 

 you a small lot of insects ; they consist almost entirely of Lepido})tera, 

 the Beetles not yet having made their appearance ; in the wet season 

 I hear there are plenty both at Montealegre and here, so I shall pro- 

 bably return here, unless I meet with something much better to keep 

 me up above. Of the boxes sent, Nos. 1 and 2 only are for you to dis- 

 pose of. Your lot, though a small one, I trust will be found a good 

 one ; there are a very considerable number of fresh species, one of 

 which (No. 605 *) is, I think, the most beautiful thing I have yet 

 taken ; it is very difficult to capture, settling almost invariably high up 



* This beautiful species I find to be the rare Callithea Sapphira, Hub., 

 of which hitherto only one example appeai-s to have existed in the collec- 

 tions in this countrv. 



