WATER PLANTS. 
47 
tion by the beauty of their large, thick-veined, generally 
arrow-shaped, clt<,ritated, or elongated leaves, and form a 
beautiful contrast to the stiff broraelias or the hairy 
tillandsias that conjointly adorn the knotty steins and 
brandies of the ancient trees. 
In size of leaf, the Potbos famiJy is surpassed by the 
large tropical water-plants, the Nympbaeas and Nelumbias, 
among which the Victoria regia, discovered in 1S37 by 
Robert Schombargk in the river Berbice, enjoys the 
greatest celebrity. The round light-green leaves of this 
queen of water-plants measure no less than six feet in 
diameter, and are snrronnded by an elevated rim several 
inches high, and exhibiting the pale, carmine red of the 
