ciiAi". II. LETTERS FROM THE CAPITAL. 45 



five months into the iuterior, and I willingly left a plant in 

 the botanic gardens there. Since my return to England, I 

 have had much satisfaction in presenting specimens of this rare 

 plant to the Eoyal Gardens at Kew, to the gardens of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society at Chiswick, and to those at Regent's Park, 

 and to the Crystal Palace. 



The plants at these places, especially those at Kew, appear 

 to thrive remarkably well, the leaves being equal in size and 

 beauty to any which I saw in IMadagascar. Among a few 

 comparatively small plants which I grew in a glass milk- 

 pan, with but a small depth of earth, one flowered during the 

 past summer. The seed ripened quickly, and fell upon the 

 earth at the bottom of the pan, where it soon germinated, 

 and in the same pan with the parent plant seven or eight 

 young seedling plants are growing with pale green leaves 

 half an inch long. The length of the leaf-stalks seems to be 

 regulated by the depth of the water ; when this is shallow 

 these are short, as seen in the annexed engraving, but when 

 the water is deep the stalks are long, as represented by the 

 single leaf on the side. The leaves are always ju.st beneath the 

 surface, but the floAver-stem rises above the water. Sir W. J. 

 Hooker published a minute scientific description of the ouvi- 

 randra, and a figure of the plant, in the " Botanical Journal," 

 very soon after the plant had been brought to England. 



Fifteen days after our letters had been sent to the capital 

 of Madagascar, we heard that answers had been received. On 

 the following morning, having been invited to receive com- 

 munications from the officers of the government, the captain 

 of our vessel, Mr. Cameron, and myself, went to M. De Las- 

 telle's, where we met the chief judge, the harbour master, the 

 chief of the customs, and other officers, and partook of a most 

 sumptuous breakfast provided by our host. After breakfast 

 the chief judge delivered to the captain the answers of the 

 queen to the memorial of the merchants at Mauritius, for 



