54 



THE VICTORIA. 



smooth water was covered with the blossoms, and which possess the additional 

 charm of extensively diffusing a sweet fragrance." Its introduction to gardens 

 is probably owing to Mr. Bridges, who, in his journey through Bolivia, found 

 tlie \'ictoria regia in considerable abundance, and he brought home in 1846 

 seeds in wet clay, well-dried foliage, and flowers in spirits. 



The first flower was produced in England in November of 1849, and 

 was presented to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, in whose honor the plant 

 was named. Its gigantic leaves are five to six feet in diameter, turned up 

 at the edges five to seven inches additional. The upper surface is of a deep 

 brilliant green, the iinderside a vivid crimson, and furnished with strong veins 

 which are cellular, filled with air, and form a regular and elegant network. 

 The underside of the leaf, as well as the foot stalks of the leaves and flowers, 

 are covered with very prominent and elastic spines. The peculiar formation 

 of the under surface of the leaf imparts to it great buoyancy, rendering the 

 mature leaf capable of bearing a considerable weight, not infrequently 150 

 to 200 pounds, and a plant grown at Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, in 1896, 

 had a leaf that bore the unprecedented weight of 250 pounds. The illus- 

 tration on page 51 represents a Victoria as grown at Clifton, N. J., which 

 had at one time twenty perfect leaves in different stages of development, 

 and which produced a large number of its magnificent flowers from July to 

 October. These flowers are not less marvelous than the leaves ; when 

 expanded a bloom measures from fifteen to eighteen inches iia diameter, the 

 petals are very numerous, the color, when the bud first opens, is white, passing 

 by successive shades, the second day, into a rosy hue, a lively red to crimson. 

 The flowers exhale a pleasant odor, not unlike that of a rich pineapple, during 

 the first evening on opening ; this is distinctly perceptible as soon as the sepals 

 show signs of bursting, and hours before the flower is open. The bloom lasts 

 but two days, or more correctly speaking, two nights, diiring the hot weather, 

 but occasionally at the end of the season the flowers endure three days. 



For many years there was but one type of Victoria in cultivation, but in 

 1886 a plant was grown at Bordentown, N. J., by Mr. Sturtevant, which pro- 

 duced a deep crimson flower, and also possessed darker foliage than the 

 original ; the turned-up rim of the leaf was also deeper. It was altogether a 

 distinct variety, and is now known as V. r., var. Randii. This variety has 

 proved a most useful and very desirable one for open air cultivation in the 

 United States, and is generally grown in preference to the type. 



Later it became a diflSciilt matter to obtain seed of the true V. regia, and 



