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THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[August, 



oroion (|ap(tenk< 



THE VICTORIA REGIA. 



Historical Reminiscences by Professor 

 Samuel Lockwood, Ph. D. 



It was our privilege to see this queen of 

 the Water Lilies in bloom at Kew Gardens, 

 England, October, 1878. There was a dis- 

 play of Water Lilies from all parts of the 

 world, in every witchery of form, color, and 

 odor — pure white, soft rose-tinted, and deep 

 pink, and the loveliest blue. But the most 

 entrancing for form, color, size, and fra- 

 grance was the Victoria. She shone, indeed, 

 as the empress of the entire floral dominion. 



The present generation cannot realize the 

 interest taken in this superb plant nearly 

 forty years ago — the intense desire to get 

 specimens to Europe, the great efforts, and 

 the provoking failures. Even the seed would 

 refuse to germinate. At last, it was taken 

 over the sea in its native water, and painful 

 cara was had as to 

 temperature — even 

 periodical agitations 

 of the fluid, as if to 

 deceive the coy em- 

 bryo into the idea of 

 the flowing of its 

 natal stream. When 

 success was attain- 

 ed, it was accounted 

 among the florists of 

 the world as ' ' the 

 big thing of the 

 age." But the con- 

 ditions of success 

 were so costly: a 

 glass house, a tank 

 of thirty feet diam- 

 eter, and the water 

 steadily kept up to 

 eighty degrees of 

 temperature ; pri- 

 vate means, unless 

 munificent, could not 



ers. He was led to experiment as to the 

 limit of this resistance — loading the surface 

 of one of the largest leaves with bricks. It 

 was found to bear a weight of 760 pounds 

 avoirdupois — that is to say, nearly equal to 

 five men of average weight. 



The first successful effort to bring the Vic- 

 toria regia into bloom in England was in the 

 world-famous botanical gardens of the Duke 

 of Devonshire, at Chatsworth House. Joseph 

 Paxton, the Duke's head gardener, con- 

 structed the great glass house for its ac- 

 commodation, which took the name of its 

 gorgeous occupant. The hint for the con- 

 struction of this fairy-like building was de- 

 rived from a study of the structure of the 

 Victoria's leaf. 



We may, in passing, say that Mr. Paxton 

 designed the Crystal Palace for the World's 

 Fair in England, 1851, built chiefly of glass 

 and iron, all being primarily due to his study 

 of the leaf mentioned. For this achievement 

 he was knighted, and thus became Sir Joseph 

 Paxton. 



The first flower of Victoria regia in Eng- 



The leaves of the 

 plant are six feel in . -- ~- ~-~ 

 diameter; they are 

 green above and red 



underneath, suggestive of the color habit of 

 the foliage of the Begonias, especially B. 

 sanguinea, though it should be said that, as 

 a rule, the Water Lilies have the under side 

 of their leaves of a liver-red, or purplish. 

 These gigantic Lily-leaves, speaking popu- 

 larly, are, when fully grown, round, and with 

 the edge turned up two inches or more, look 

 like immense floating tea-trays. Large 

 aquatic birds stand on them by the hour, 

 watching for fish to pass by. But those great 

 leaves are ribbed in a most ingenious way, 

 imparting immense strength ; so that with a 

 board properly arranged to distribute the 

 pressure, a prodigious weight can be borne. I 

 have some notes which I think were made 

 some thirty years ago, from which we will ex- 

 tract, though the figures seem incredible. It 

 was stated in Science pour Tons, that in the 

 aquarium of the Botanical Garden at Ghent, 

 the head gardener, M. van Houtte, was inter- 

 ested to learn the force required to immerse 

 one of the floating leaves in the water. One 

 leaf supported a child; another was not sub- 

 merged by the weight of one of the garden- 



VICTORIA REGIA. 



land, as above, was in November, 1849. 

 The event brought together a distinguished 

 concourse of visitors of the nobility and lit- 

 erati. A novel event was the appearance, on 

 the occasion, of little Miss Annie Paxton, 

 who, dressed in costume of a fairy, took her 

 place in one of the tray-like leaves, and, like 

 a Naiad of the waters, presided as the fairy 

 guardian of this beautiful floral queen. Such 

 an event could not be less than inspiring ; 

 accordingly, the muse of the famous Douglas 

 W. Jerrold produced the following: 



On unbent leaf, in fairy guise 



Reflected in the water, 

 Beloved, admired by hearts and eyes, 



Stands Annie, Paxton's daughter. 



Accept a wish, my little maid, 



Begotten at the minute, 

 That scenes so bright may never fade, 



You still the fairy in it. 



That all your life, nor care, nor grief, 

 May load the winged hours 



With weight to bend a Lily's leaf, 

 But all around be flowers. 



It will astonish some to be told that the 

 Victoria regia was made to flower in a tank 

 in the open air by Mr. E. D. Sturtevant, at 

 Bordentown, N. J., last August, the water 

 being kept at its right temperature by pipes. 

 I was one of a small party invited to witness 

 the event, but was far away at the time. An 

 enthusiastic friend wrote me about it, and 

 what follows is mainly from his letter : At 

 the first visit, the leaves were six feet across, 

 with a rim about two inches high, and a bud 

 just visible in the depths. It was expected 

 to bloom in two weeks, and we intended 

 to go again with yourself, Mrs. Treat, and 

 others. Alas! the bud shot up with almost 

 visible rapidity, and bloomed on Sunday even- 

 ing. I saw it at its second opening, when it 

 was somewhat the worse. At its first opening, 

 the flower rested on the water, a pure white 

 blossom a foot in diameter, and filled the air 

 with a delicious pine-apple perfume ; at its 

 second, it was raised above the surface, the 

 petals had become a pale rose, and were 

 strongly reflexed, while the perfume was 

 entirely gone. The stamens were a deep rose 

 color, and folded 

 .; . down, so as to eom- 

 "■ pletcly cover the 



r '•, r >1 i^nia, etc. On this 



, second evening, a 



- — " ^ I strange event took 



place, which we un- 

 fortunately did not 

 see, as we had to 

 go to the train, but 

 which was commu- 

 nicated by those who 

 did see it. About 

 half-past seven p. M. 

 the stamens sudden- 

 ly lifted themselves, 

 and with quite a per- 

 ceptible jerk shook 

 a mass of pollen 

 down on the stigma. 

 It seems hardly cred- 

 ible, but it is true : 

 this Victoria had 

 produced four great 

 leaves, with another 

 partly unrolled, and 

 had bloomed, all 

 from a plant six 

 inches high, with one 

 small leaf, in just four months. One would 

 think that the forming of its cells ought to 

 be visible with a hand lens. 



To give completeness to this little sketch, 

 let me quote from the American Cyclopaedia : 

 " The flower is of two days' duration. The 

 first day it opens about six P. M., and remains 

 open until about the same hour next morn- 

 ing ; in this stage it is cup-shaped, twelve to 

 sixteen inches across, with numerous pure 

 white petals, and emits a delightful fra- 

 grance. The second evening, the flower 

 opens again, but it presents an entirely dif- 

 ferent appearance ; the petals are now of a 

 rosy-pink color, and reflexed, or bent down- 

 ward from the center, to form a handsome 

 coronet, but now without odor; the flower 

 closes toward morning, and during the day it 

 sinks beneath the surface to ripen the seeds." 

 In South America, the seeds are called water- 

 maize. They are very farinaceous, and are 

 roasted and eaten. [The above beautiful illus- 

 tration, forming a most appropriate accom- 

 paniment to this interesting article, is reprint- 

 ed from one of our earlier numbers. — Ed.] . 



