Scliomhurgh^s Description of Victoria Reyina. 441 



Nympliacese, (Nelumbium speciosum,) and not only that it is high- 

 ly valued in India and China, and cultivated in large ornamental 

 pots in the gardens and houses of the Mandarins, but it has been 

 held in such high estimation that at last it was considered sacred. 

 The description and illustrations which have been transmitted to us 

 of this noble plant have raised the desire in many a botanist to see 

 it in its native country. In my rambles through the West Indian 

 Archipelago, I had frequently met the white water lily ; but the re- 

 mark of an eminent botanist, that these floating plants were entire- 

 ly unknown on the continent of South America, did not make me 

 expect to find a representative of that tribe, which, for the superior 

 grandeur of its leaves, the beauty of its flowers, and its fragrance, 

 may be classed amongst the grandest productions of the vegetable 

 world. It was on the 1st of January this year, while contending 

 with the difliculties nature opposed in different forms to our pro- 

 gress up the river Berbice, (in British Guiana,) that we arrived at 

 a point where the river expanded and formed a currentless basin. 

 Some object on the southern extremity of this basin attracted my at- 

 tention. It was impossible to form any idea what it could be, and, 

 animating the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, shortly 

 afterwards we were opposite the object which had raised my curio- 

 sity. A vegetable wonder ! all calamities were forgotten, I felt as 

 botanist, and felt myself rewarded. A gigantic leaf, from 5 to 6 feet 

 in diameter ; salver-shaped, with a broad rim of light green above, 

 and a vivid crimson below, resting upon the water. Quite in cha- 

 racter with the wonderful leaf was the luxuriant flower, consisting 

 of many hundred petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white 

 to rose and pink. The smooth water was covered \v\t\i them, and 

 I rowed from one to the other, and observed always something new 

 to admire. The leaf on its surface is of a bright green, in form al- 

 most orbiculate, with this exception, opposite its axis, where it is 

 slightly bent up. Its diameter measured from 5 to 6 feet ; around 

 the whole margin extended a rim about 3 to 5 inches high, on the 

 inside light green, like the surface of the leaf, on the outside, like 

 the leaf's lower part, of a bright crimson. The ribs are very pro- 

 minent, almost an inch high, radiate from a common centre, and 

 consist of eight principal ones, with a great many others branching 

 off" from them. These are crossed again by a raised membrane, or 

 bands at right angles, which gives the whole the appearance of a 

 spider's web, and are beset with prickles; the veins contain air cells 

 like the petiole and flower stem. The divisions of the ribs and 

 bands are visible on the upper surface of the leaf, by which it ap- 



