684 



V EG ETA 1 3 I. E PRODUCTIONS. 



magnificent Victoria Regia, so long unknown to the eyes of 

 civilized man, was discovered by Schombergh not forty years 

 ago. 



Here, too, grows the spotted coryanth.es, of the order of the 

 Orchide^e— Coryanthes maculata — hanging from the branches 

 of trees, and suspending in the air the singular lips of its 



THE VICTORIA KKGIA ON A RIVER OF GUIANA. 



flowers, like fairy buckets, as if for the use of the birds and 

 insects that inhabit the surrounding foliage. In the whole 

 vegetable kingdom a more singular genus than this does not 

 exist, nor one whose flowers are less like flowers to the eye 

 of the ordinary observer. The sepals are of the most delicate 

 texture. When young they spread evenly round the centre, 



