THE ROYAL WATEK-LILY. 1 91 



the beautiful in nature. Thus speaks Schomburgk, to 

 whom we owe our knowledge of this magnificent plant, 

 and its introduction to the aquaria of Europe. " It was 

 on the 1st of January 1837, while contending with the 

 difficulties which, in various forms, nature interposed to 

 bar our progress up the Berbice River, that we reached a 

 spot where the river expanded, and formed a currentless 

 basin. Something on the other side of this basin 

 attracted my attention ; I could not form an idea what 

 it might be ; but, urging the crew to increase the speed 

 of their paddling, we presently neared the object which 

 had roused my curiosity, and lo ! a vegetable wonder ! 

 All disasters were forgotten ; I was a botanist, and I felt 

 myself rewarded/' * 



Mr Bridges, too, in the course of a botanical expedi- 

 tion in Bolivia, speaks of the delighted surprise with 

 which he first gazed on the lovely queen of water-lilies. 

 " During my stay in the Indian town of Santa Anna," 

 observes this traveller, "in June and July 1845, I made 

 daily shooting excursions in the vicinity, and on one 

 occasion I had the good fortune, while riding along the 

 wooded banks of the Yacuma, a tributary of the Mamore', 

 to arrive suddenly at a beautiful pond, or rather small lake, 

 embosomed in the forest, where, to my delight and sur- 

 prise, I descried for the first time the queen of aquatics, 

 Victoria regia ! There were at least fifty flowers in 

 view ; and Belzoni could not have been more enraptured 

 with his Egyptian discoveries, than was I, on beholding 



* Bot. Mag., 1847. 



