BOTANICAL. INDEX 
15 
eighteen inches in diameter. Their mode of flowering is as novel and interesting as 
the plant itself. It first opens in the evening a little, when it is pure white and ex- 
quisitely fragrant. In the morning it again folds up, and remains so until towards 
evening, when it again unfolds, but this time it has exchanged its pure white for a 
deep pink or, sometimes, a rich crimson, or is feathered with crimson or white. At 
noon the flower again closes, but this time only loosely, and at evening the flower 
again expands; but now for the last time, and gradually the frail and almost gause- 
like petals are converted into a flimsy mass, and the flower commences to decay, at the 
same time withdrawing under the water to rise no more, but to ripen its seed. 
It would be difficult to give a satisfactory description of the structure or coloring 
of this wonderful flower in this short article, but we will try to condense from Mr. 
Allen’s work a description of it. Here the flower in the lower left hand corner is 
represented as being in bloom on its second day. The outer petals are widely ex- 
panded, and show the center and erect ones tinged or spotted with crimson, which 
remain unchanged until the following noon. The open flower in the upper right 
hand corner is represented as on the third day, with the petals and stamens all ex- 
panded, while the pollen masses has changed the color of the flower to a golden yel- 
low. In the center of the flower is also seen the seed pod, (ovary or torus,) which 
has now reached its full size. It is globular or top-shaped, depressed at the top or 
hollowed like a cup, surface granulated, and presenting in the center a little rounded 
or conical knob from which a great number of lines or furrows radiate to the mar- 
gin. Along the upper margin of the cup are placed the stigmas, fleshy pointed 
bodies, somewhat flattened at the sides and bent in the middle so that their points 
project over the cup towards the center. Each stigma has a prominent line along its 
upper surface running down to the central knob, which is thus the focus of a series 
of ridges radiating towards the stigma. The interior of the ovary contains numer- 
ous cavities corresponding to the stigma, and each contains several ovules (seed). 
The stamens are numerous, tne outer ones somewhat lance-shaped, gracefully 
curved, of a flue rose color, and having two linear anther cells on the inner face, 
near but not quite extending to the top. Within these fertile stamens are other ster- 
ile ones, smaller in size, less highly colored, arching over the stigmas, to which they 
approximate also in color and form. 
Among the many other points of value and interest in the Victoria, which is also 
shared in by a small portion of other choice plants, is the power of the unexpanded 
flower bud to mature and develop perfect flowers after being removed from the stem. 
Thomas Meehan tells of an amusing instance of a friend being promised a flower for 
a wedding festival, but upon the arrival of the appointed time the flower was not 
: there, but to compensate for the disapointment a bud was cut from the stock, packed 
in a box of damp moss, with a hot brick to keep up the desired heat, and upon arriv- 
’ j ing at its destination and opening the box, as if by magic a perfect flower was ex- 
posed to view. Mr. Thomas Bridges, in his description of the flower, says : — “Those 
I had collected for preserving were unexpanded, and on arriving at the Governmen 
House 1 deposited them in my room, and afterwards, on returning after dark, I 
found, to my surprise, that all had blown and were exhaling a most delightful odor 
l i which at first I compared to a rich Fine Apple, afterwards to a melon and then to a 
%\ Cherimoya; but, indeed, it resembled none of these fruits, and I at length came to the 
|: decision that it was a most delicious scent, unlike any other, and peculiar to the no- 
I ble flower that produced it.” Thomas Meehan says : — “A whole house crowded with 
I 1 blooming Olea Fragrans would not excel one bursting Lily flower.” 
The fruit attains, when ripe, the size of a large depressed apple, of an olive 
% j brown color, and is covered with prickles. The numerous roundish black seed are 
A imbedded in a spongy substance, (fruit,) and escape by the rotting of the outer por- 
il tions of the fruit, which always sinks down into the water to ripen its seed. The 
I seed are greenish black, about the size of a pea, oval, and with a slight projection at 
the upper end. They are farinaceous, milky, and they furnish a very superior flour, 
which is considered one of the greatest luxuries of equatorial America. They are 
also eaten by the natives, who consider them a great delicacy after being roasted. 
These noble plants inhabit the lagoons formed by the overflow of the large rivers, 
and also the shallow rivers where there is very little current, in South America; but 
they are not known to pass beyond a distance of about fourteen degrees of latitude 
on either side of the equator, or are confined to a strip of country about sixteen 
hundred and eighty miles wide from north to south, and from east to west a distance 
of about thirty-five degrees of longitude, i. e., from the Atlantic ocean to the Andes 
mountains. Their peculiar natural home being directly under the equator, requires 
a great heat to be maintained where they are grown in cultivation ; and also an addi- 
tional provision for keeping the water in the tank in which they grow agitated, 
; which is usually accomplished by a small wheel moved slowly in the water by me- 
chanical power. 
