eight years previously to my visit, a place near the little river called Riocliuelo, lie liad seeu from a distance tins 



supert plant, and had well nigh precipitated hunself off the raft into the river in liis desire to secm-e specimens ; 



and that M. Bonpland had been able to speak uf little else for a whole month. I was so fortunate as to get 



dried leaves, flowers and fruits, and also to put other specimens in spirits ; and about the end of 1S27, I had the 



dehght of sending them, with my other Botanical and Zoological collections, to the Museum of Natural History 

 at Paris. 



" Five years aftenvards, when travelling in Central America, in the country of the wild Guai'ayos, a tribe of 

 Guaranis or Caribs, I made acquaintance with Father La Cueva, a Spanish Missionaiy, a good and well-informed 

 man, beloved for his patriarchal virtues, and one who earnestly devoted himself to the conversion of the natives. 

 The traveller, after spending a year among Indians, may easily appreciate the privilege of meeting with a human 

 being who can understand and exchange sentiments with him; and I eagerly embraced the opportunity of con- 

 versing with this venerable old man, Avho had passed thirty years of his life among savages. In one of our interviews 

 he happened to mention the famous botanist Ilacnkc; who had been sent by the Spanish government to investigate 

 the vegetable productions of Peru, and the fruit of whose labours has been unfortunately lost to science. Father 

 La Cueva and liaenke were together in a Pirogue upon the Rio Mamorc, one of the f^rcat tributaries of the Amazon 

 river, when they discovered in the marshes by the side of the stream, a plant Avhich was so surpassingly beautiful 

 and extraordinaiy, that Haenke, in a transport of admiration, fell on liis knees and expressed aloud his sense of 

 the power and magnificence of the Creator in His works. They halted, and even encamped pmposely near the 

 spot, and quitted it with much reluctance. 



" It was some months after this interview vrith Father La Cueva that I was investigating the province of 

 Moxos, the only means of travelling from one part of which to another is by water, and A\hile I was o-oino- up the 

 Rio de Madeuras towards the source of the Mamore, aud often thinking over in my mind the anecdote which the 

 good old man had related to me, I beheld in an unmcnse lake of stagnant water, which had a communication "with 



r 



the river, a plant of such extraordinary aspect, that I instantly concluded it must be the same as Haenke had 

 seen. I also perceived that it was allied to the Water-Maize, already mentioned as found at Corricntes. Great 

 was my delight to observe that this gigantic vegetable, though of the same genus, 'still differed specifically from 

 that which I had seen before. The underside of the foliage and the crimson sepals Avere quite peculiar. Like 

 Haenke, I made a perfect harvest of leaves and flowers ; but subsequent illness, caused by alternate exposure to 

 the blazing sun and drenching rains of these flooded plains, brought on such langour and exhaustion that I lost 

 my specimens of this second species, and was thus deprived of the satisfaction of carrying the plant to Europe. 



"The honour of naming the original and first-found plant has been forestalled by Dr. Lindley, who calls it 

 Victoria regia ; but to the one subsequently detected at Corrientes, I propose giving the name of Victoria Cruziana 

 in testunony of my obligations to General Cruz, whose kindness mainly contributed to the successful issue of my 

 journey to Bolivia." 



At the conclusion of M. D'Orbigny's interesting narrative, he goes on to define this so-called second species 

 of Victoria ; but as the sole difference pointed out by him lies in the colour of the underside of the leaves and 

 of the flowers {V. regia, " foliis subtus purpm-eis, pctalis cxterioribus virgineis, intcrioribus roseis," contrasted with 



foliis utrinque concoloribus, petalis cunctis concoloribus roseis v. albis," of V. Cruziana) Ave may, I think, Avlthout 

 doing violence to nature, or showing any disrespect to M.D'Orbigny, consider V. Cruziana as a mere variety, 

 if it even deserve such a distinction, of V. regia. No one can have examined the aquatic plants, either of our own 

 or of foreign countries, without remarkmg that those parts which come in contact with the fluid are apt to turn 

 purple, Avithout any apparent cause for such change. 



It now only remains, before completing the historical narrative of this plant, to say that the specimens from 

 which the accompanjing analyses are made, arc exclusively derived from IMr. Bridges. On his return from his 

 jom-ney through Bolivia, of which some particulars are given at p. 571. of vol. 4. of our 'London Journal of 

 Botany', Mr. Bridges detected the Victoria regia in considerable abundance, and brought home, in 1846, seeds 

 in wet clay and wxU-di'ied foliage ; also flowers, preserved in spirits. It is to be regretted there were no ripe capsules 

 (ours is drawn from the figiu:e of Sir R. Schomburgk), and of the seeds the majority were decayed ; so that out of 

 twenty-two which we purchased, only two have germinated, the rest being in a state equally unfit for examination 

 aud description. 



We lament extremely that Mr. Bridges' severe illness puts it totally out of his power to give any information 



