CHAPTER IX. 



THE VICTORIA. 



THE VICTORIA regia is now well known throughout the civilized world, 

 although its introduction into England and the United States dates back 

 to a period less than fifty years ago. It is grown most successfully in the open 

 air, and is a very great attraction whenever seen, it is the grandest and most 

 wonderful of all aquatic plants. It is a native of South America, where it in- 

 habits the tranquil bays of the great streams. The earliest traveller who dis- 

 covered it was Hoenke, in iSoi. Dr. Lindley tells us that " Bompland 

 subsequently met with it, but M. D'Orbigny was the first to send home 

 specimens to Paris in 182S; they were, however, neglected or overlooked. In 

 a work published some few years after this time, M. D'Orbigny mentions hav- 

 ing discovered the plant in the river Parana in Guiana. It was known, he says, 

 to the natives by the name of Irupe, in allusion to the shape of the leaves, 

 which resemble that of the broad dishes used in the country. The Spaniards 

 call the plant water-maize, as they collect the seeds and eat them roasted." 



It was a great day, horticulturally speaking, when on the first day of 

 lanuarv, 1837, Sir R. Schomburgh came upon this noble plant in British 

 Guiana. A German traveller had found it in some tributaries of the Amazon 

 in 1832, but it was when Sir R. Schomburgh, in a letter to the Royal 

 Geographical Society of England, described the largest specimen he had met 

 with, that public attention was drawn to this magnificent plant. Sir R. 

 Schomburgh rightly described it as a vegetable wonder. It was while pro- 

 ceeding up the river Berbice that he came upon it. " It had gigantic leaves 

 five to six feet across, with a flat broad rim, lighter green above and vivid 

 crimson underneath, floating upon the water, and in character with such 

 wonderful foliage I saw luxuriant flowers, each consisting of numerous 

 petals passing in alternate tints, from pure white to rose and pink. The 



