294 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



smocks, or Cuckoo-flowers ; nor is there anything to take 

 their place, except that in the wet season elegant little Mi- 

 mosas grow in vast numbers together on the savannahs of 

 the Orinoco, as well as some other plants, which are a kind 

 of Sedge, with the less familiar name of KylUngia. 



How beautiful a contrast to these pampas and savannahs 

 is the vegetation near the great river Amazon, and through- 

 out that great tract of country watered by the numberless 

 small rivers which flow into it, where excessive moisture 

 and excessive heat combine to produce the perfection of 

 luxuriance ! A leading feature in the forest vegetation is 

 formed by the Brazil-nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa) . The 

 water-plants are also very magnificent, if we may judge by 

 the Victoria regia, specimens of which have of late been so 

 successfully cultivated in some few choice hothouses of 

 tropical water-plants, where it has been brought to flower 

 beautifully in great tanks of tepid water. Though its ap- 

 pearance is now familiar to many, it is still too great a 

 stranger to most to make a description unnecessary.* 



The flower of the Victoria regia, which opens its petals 

 at the close of day, plainly bespeaks it to be one of the 



* This flower " was first discovered A.D. 1837, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, 

 in the river Berbice, in British Guiana." Humboldfs 'Aspects of Nature? 



