56 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
defensive navy, is the now famous gigantic water- 
lily, Victoria Regia. 
Few there are who have not heard or read glow- 
ing accounts of its colossal size and its wondrous 
beauty; fewer there are who, having once seen it 
reposing on the surface of the water in its majestic 
richness of colours and almost titanic proportions 
among the plant species, can ever forget the won- 
dering admiration they felt on first viewing it! 
The gigantic leaves of the Regia grow to pro- 
portions of five or six feet in diameter, and lie on 
the water like great circular rafts, with turned-up 
edges. These leaves themselves are of such choice 
colouring as to deserve the appellation of flowers. 
They are of soft shades of light green above and 
seem like pools of clear green water in the midst 
of the browner surrounding waters. Underneath 
they are in varying rich tints of red, a red that 
contrasts beautifully with the light green upper 
surface, and which forms a marked outer-wall for 
the rim. 
But the beauty of the broad leaves seems but to 
lead up to the delicate, radiant glory of the great 
pink and white blossoms. Pink and white is the 
impression one gets of them, but on closer observa- 
tion they are seen to vary from a deep rose red in 
the fragrant centre, through gradual reds and 
