478 j Assembly 



[RcvUB Hortioola, Boptembcr, 1S51, Paris.] 



Wo are muoh pleased with the fui-ther information relative to 

 the immense water Lily, the Victoria Regia, and the gigantic trees 

 of Tasmania. 



Flowering of the JVelumbium Speciosum in the Museum at Paris. 



Of all the precious vegetables with which horticulture has 

 been enriched of late years, none is more remarkable than the 

 Nelumbium by the celebrity attached to it traditionally, which 

 has attracted in a lively manner the attention of the savans. 

 This magnificent plant, which has now flowered in Paris for the 

 first time, has, however, given its flowers and sometimes ripened 

 its fruit in the open air, at Montpelier. 



The Nelumbium Speciosum was originally from India. This 

 was known about the beginning of the seventeenth century; be- 

 fore that time, however, it was considered as peculiar to Lower 

 Egypt, where no person had ever met with it. Anciently it bore 

 the name of Bean of Egypt^ Lily of the JVile^ or Lotus. The an- 

 cients ate it, roots and seeds. It is to Charles de I'Ecluse (Clusiua) 

 we are indebted for the first indications of this celebrated plant. 

 He sought out all the old texts in reference to the Nympheacea 

 of the Nile. Theophrastus and Herodotus describe it with pre- 

 cision under the name of Bean of Egypt, or lAly of the .ffUe. 



N, B. Lindley, in his vegetable kingdom, says, that the seeds 

 are eagerly sought for by the wild people where they grow, in 

 times of scarcity; that the taste resembles that of poppy seeds 

 and are, like millet, eaten either boiled or raw. The Victoria 

 Regia is the most gigantic, and the natives of South America call 

 its seed water maize. 



[Anfiatea De La Boeiote Oenfawe, Paria, 3alj, 18J>1.] 



Translation by H. Meigs, November, 1 851 , on the Victoria Regia 

 by Mr. Neumann. 



We read in the number of May Slat, of the London Illustrated 

 Journal, that an attempt made by Messrs. Meeks & Co., Garden- 



