8 VICTORIA REGIA; 
equally. We then placed one hundred and twelve pounds upon the leaf, which it bore for some minutes before any water flowed upon it. It would have 
floated much longer were it not for the difficulty of equally distributing the pressure. The weights were then taken off, and a man, upwards of ten stone 
weight, stood upon it; this it bore for two or three minutes: after that, a person of eleyen stone, which it bore for nearly the same time. This leaf was 
about five feet in diameter. Since that, we have had both ladies and gentlemen, from eight to eleven stone weight, trying the experiment, and the great 
buoyant power which they so evidently possess gives the individuals thus standing on them a feeling of perfect safety. 
“ About the middle of May, a leaf was cut, five fect two inches in diameter, and in J uly we had several, measuring five feet seven inches in diameter, 
their edges turning up more than three inches, perpendicularly, and of the most beautiful dark purple color. The flowers, at the same time, measured one 
foot one inch in diameter. The petioles of the large leaves measured nearly four inches in circumference, and the base of the peduncle three inches, 
“ About the beginning of August, the plant began again to decrease in size, although gradually ; and on the 9th November, which was the anniversary 
of its first expanding its lovely flowers in this country, it had produced one hundred and fifty leaves, and ene hundred and twenty-six flowers. With the 
exception of a few of the latter, which were removed in bud, with the view of strengthening the plant, it has never ceased flowering from the time of its 
commencement, and is now (Noy. 27) putting up its flowers with the same regularity as at the beginning, a property which we do not find any other culti- 
vated plant to possess. ‘The leaves are now three feet six inches in diameter, and gradually becoming smaller. The trunk, or root stalk, although it has 
been twice earthed up, is again out of the soil, and the rootlets, issuing from the base of the petioles, may be easily distinguished. I should say the trunk 
of our plant would be about five inches in diameter.” 
In a new house, constructed at a later period, a tank or artificial pond was made, of a circular form, thirty-four feet in diameter, with twenty-six cart- 
loads of prepared soil in the centre, at the bottom, for the roots to grow in. Ata yet later period, tanks of more ample dimensions haye been, or are being 
constructed, for the full development of the plant. 
The plant at Kew, which was the last to blossom of the three before mentioned, was retarded by a deficiency in the supply of pure water. This 
difficulty being removed and an ample supply furnished, the plant, in the interval between 20th June and 15th November, produced sixty-five flowers. 
Sir R. H. Schomburgk, from the first, considered the Victoria to be a perennial plant ; other botanists, from its affinity to Euryale, thought it would 
prove an annual. From careful observations of Mr. Spruce with native specimens on the Amazon, and from specimens in cultivation in Europe and this 
country, the matter is fully decided, and no one now doubts its being perennial, like Nymphwa. 
DAS CRT PTO Ne 2Osns SHGr Pal ASNane 
For the botanical description of the Victoria Regia, I am indebted to the work of Sir W. J. Hooker, in part, and to the personal inspection of the 
plant by Rey. J. L. Russutx, Professor of Botany to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and my own observation of the plant in Salem. 
ITS ROOT. 
From the crown of a large spindle-shaped tuber, and on the appearance of each new leaf, a bundle of many fibrous feeders or rootlets proceeds, which 
often protrudes above the surface of the soil. These, when young, are of a yellowish, often of a reddish hue. The crown is also surmounted by a series of 
large scales, which are very apparent as the plant increases in size. There seems to be some intimate connection between these scales and the young leaf 
and the flower buds, the relative position of which will be referred to hereafter. 
LEAVES. 
Their usual figure is nearly circular, the two ale or wings almost grafted together at the edges, allowing however a narrow groove or channel, and 
separated only at the exterior of the leaf, somewhat in the form of a notch; a similar notch is seen on the side directly opposite, which is in fact the leaf’s 
apex or summit. Some, on seeing this arrangement, have supposed that it was an intention to drain off the superfluous water which might lodge when the 
leaf was expanding, an explanation at least doubtful. When in the young stage of growth, and when unfolding, the leaf is exquisitely beautiful, equalling, 
in the estimation of many, the flowers themselves. When fully grown and mature, the texture of the leaf is thin and very tender; its color is of a pale 
green on the face or disk, but highly colored, and of a purplish crimson tint beneath. The edge or margin is turned up, to the width of from two to four 
inches, and when the sun shines upon this raised edge in the young leaves, a most beautifully varying crimson color is presented to the eye. Springing from 
the end of the petiole or leaf-stalk, where it joins the leaf, are eight main ribs, which diverge constantly into numerous lesser ones; and these diverging in 
all directions, strengthened also by arched or curved cross ribs or ties, afford the requisite firmness and support, and exhibit a truly wonderful mechanism. 
By simply placing a thin board upon the upper surface of the leaf, in such a manner as to equalize the pressure, a full grown man, of one hundred and fifty 
pounds weight, has been floated upon it; and in many instances, children of eighty pounds in weight have been thus sustained. I have been assured by 
gentlemen who haye witnessed it, that the Indians, when collecting the seeds of this plant for food, place their infant children upon the leaves, previously 
throwing a goat skin upon their surfaces, which, while equalizing the pressure, affords also a dry and safe deposit. Each leaf grows upon its own petiole or 
stalk, which is penetrated with long and numerous cells, as are likewise the larger and lesser ribs, before mentioned. By this curious arrangement, the 
perfect buoyancy is maintained. Strong and sharp spines or prickles are thickly set upon the stalk, which extend also over the whole under surface of the 
leaf itself, Notwithstanding its gigantic size and elaborate structure, the texture of the leaf is so very delicate that should a straw fall perpendicularly from 
the height of five feet, so as to strike between the ribs, it would penetrate its substance. To render such a tissue, so eminently cellular and thus exceedingly 
tender and delicate, of a requisite consistence, what better or more wonderful arrangement could have been contrived? 
