22 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
that now presented to our subscribers ; worthy, as we have no doubt they will agree with us in 
thinking, to occupy the entire number. Seldom has any plant excited such attention in the 
botanical world ; the interest being specially enhanced by the name it is privileged to bear. 
“ It is true that the Victoria has not yet produced its blossoms in England ; but we have 
growing plants in the Royal Gardens of Kew, which germinated from seeds brought from Bolivia 
by Mr. Bridges. These have hitherto made satisfactory progress ; although we have our fears 
that, the plant being possibly annual, and the season late (December), they may not survive the 
winter ; or, at any rate, may not produce perfect flowers. We have, however no reason to despair 
of being able to raise the Victoria regia, and of seeing it bloom in this country. 
“Although to our own country belongs the honour of first fully detailing, in 1837, the 
particulars relative to this extraordinary Water Lily, and clearly defining its generic distinctions, 
yet the earliest mention of it in print, so far as we can find, was in 1832, in a work to which we 
have not at this moment access, ‘ Feoriess’s Notizen,’ vol. xxv., p. 9. It is there described as a 
new species of Euryale , under the name E. Amazonica ; so called by Dr. Poessig, from the circum- 
stance of that distinguished botanist and traveller having found it in the Amazon River of South 
America. 
“Previously, however, to this period, M. D’Orbigny, in 1828, sent specimens of this gigantic 
Water Lily to the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He had gathered them in the province 
of Corrientes, in a river tributary to the Rio de la Plata. The evident analogy between the foliage 
of this plant and that of Euryale induced the French botanists to rank it as a species of that 
genus. The dried flowers and fruit, which M. D’Orbigny had transmitted, were unfortunately 
neglected, and nothing remained of his specimens but a single leaf, of immense dimensions, and 
somew'hat injured, which had been folded for insertion in the ‘ herbarium. ’ In 1835, M. D’Orbigny 
gave a notice of what he considered a species distinct from F. regia in his ‘ Voyage dans VAm'e- 
rique Meridional e.’ 
“ Thus much for the earlier discoverers and first notices of this magnificent aquatic ; we shall 
have occasion to return to M. D’Orbigny ; but, in the meanwhile, it is only justice to mention in 
this place that Sir Robert Schomburgk detected the plant in British Guiana, when travelling on 
account of the Royal Geographical Society of London, aided by Her Majesty’s Government ; 
his object being to examine the natural productions of that portion of the British dominions. 
The following account of this discovery was given in a letter addressed to the Geographical 
Society : — 
“‘It was on the 1st of January, 1837, while contending with the difficulties that Nature inter- 
posed in different forms to stem our progress up the River Berbice (lat. 4° 30' N., long. 52° W.), 
that we arrived at a part where the river expanded and formed a currentless basin. Some object 
on the southern extremity of this basin attracted my attention, and I was unable to form an idea 
of what it could be ; but, animating the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, we soon came 
opposite the object which had raised my curiosity, and behold, a vegetable wonder ! All 
calamities were forgotten ; I was a botanist and felt myself rewarded ! There were gigantic 
leaves, five to six feet across, flat, with a broad rim, lighter green above and vivid crimson below, 
floating upon the water ; while, in character with the wonderful foliage, I saw luxuriant flowers, 
each consisting of numerous petals, passing, in alternate tints, from pure white to rose and pink. 
The smooth water was covered with the blossoms, and, as I rowed from one to the other, I always 
found something new to admire. The flower-stalk is an inch thick near the calyx, and studded 
with elastic prickles, about three-quarters of an inch long. When expanded, the four-leaved calyx 
measures a foot in diameter, but is concealed by the expansion of the hundred-petalled corolla. 
“‘This beautiful flower, when it first unfolds, is white with a pink centre ; the colour spreads 
as the bloom increases in age, and at a day old the whole is rose-coloured. As if to add to the 
charm of this noble Water Lily, it diffuses a sweet scent. As in the case of others of the same 
tribe, the petals and stamens pass gradually into each other, and many petaloid leaves may be 
observed bearing vestiges of an anther. The seeds are numerous, and imbedded in a spongy 
substance. 
“ ‘ Ascending the river, we found this plant frequently, and the higher we advanced the more 
gigantic did the specimens become ; one leaf we measured was 6 feet 5 inches in diameter, the 
rim 5 inches and a half high, and flowers a foot and a quarter across.’ ” 
