THE MEMORABLE. 



world! Besides the colour, it differs much in 

 markings from all the Priamvs group. Soon after 

 I first took it, I set one of my men to search for 

 it daily, giving him a premium on every specimen, 

 good or bad, he takes; he consequently works 

 hard from early morn to dewy eve, and occasion- 

 ally brings home one; unfortunately, several of 

 them are in bad condition. I also occasionally 

 take the lovely Papilio Telemachus."* 



The sight of so noble an aquatic plant as the 

 gigantic Victoria regia, the rosy-white water-lily 

 of South America, reposing on one of the glassy 

 igaripes of the mightiest river in the world, must 

 be an incident calculated to excite enthusiasm in 

 any lover of the grand or the beautiful in nature. 

 Thus speaks Schomburgk, to whom we owe our 

 knowledge of this magnificent plant, and its intro- 

 duction to the aquaria of Europe. "It was on the 

 1st of January, 1837, while contending with the 

 difficulties which, in various forms, nature inter- 

 posed 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 

 expedition in Bolivia, speaks of the delighted sur- 

 prise with which he first gazed on the lovely 

 queen of water-lilies. "During my stay in the 

 Indian town of Santa Anna," observes this trav- 

 eller, "in June and July, 1845, I made daily shoot- 

 * Zoologist, p. 6621 . + Bot. Mag., 1847. 



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