9 ') 
VIC'TOHIA REC;lA ” — THE EMBLEM OF THE SOCIETY 
already mentioned. Schombnrgk’s account of the circumstances in which 
he found tlie “vegetable wonder” and his descriptions of its various 
parts were read in full. The drawings prepared in South America were 
exhibited and the President (J. E. Gray) then proposed: — 
“that Mr. Schomburgk’s intention of naming it after her present 
Majesty Victoria should be carried into execution, her Majesty 
having previously granted her permission. It was therefore named 
‘Victoria Regina’, and the Society has adopted this plant as its 
emblem . . 
The name was printed as “Victoria Regina. — Schomhurgk” . It seems 
that specimens followed later, and a leaf was exhibited at the Society’s 
meeting of April 6, 1838. This leaf the Council “deemed advisable to 
deposit in the Herbarium of the British Museum” and it may still be 
seen in the collections at the Natural History Museum. It is mounted 
on two folded double sheets — -one opening out to show the upper, and 
the other the lower, surfaces of part of the huge leaf. There is also 
material of the gathering at Kew and Cambridge (see below). 
The first printed account of the meeting of the Botanical Society of 
London of September 7, 1837, appeared in the issue of the Athenaeum 
Journal for two days later. Schomburgk’s description was quoted at 
length and the name given as Victoria regina — it was the earliest pub- 
lication of the name (Schomburgk, 1837a). On September 11th, J. E. 
Gray read Schomburgk’s letter again and exhibited the drawings at a 
meeting of the British Association, and this was reported the following 
month (Gray, 1837a). In November, Gray published the letter in the 
^Magazine of Zoology and Botany (Gray, 1837b). This was accompanied 
by a plate on which the name is given as Victoria Begalia (Schomburgk, 
1837b). The first (and only) part of the Proceedings of the Botanical 
Society of London, containing an account of the meeting of September 7, 
1837, with reproductions of Schomburgk’s drawings, did not appear until 
1839 (Schomburgk, 1839). Our present emblem, reproduced below, is 
reduced from Plate 6, etched by Miss (?ray, which formed the frontispiece 
to this publication. It shows a leaf and (from left to right) “a fruit, a 
perfect flower, drooping flower and flower bud”. 
Victoria regia 
Floreat Flora 
Meanwhile the Royal Geographical Society had not been idle with 
their own copy of the letter and set of drawings. Following Schom- 
burgk’s suggestion they liad obtained Queen Victoria’s permission for 
