134 THE FLORIST AND 
of iron, being more durable, and giving off its heat more freely, but where 
that cannot be used, wood is a very good substitute. 
Edgar Sanders, 
Gardener to Jno. J. Rathbone, Albany/, JV. Y. 
NYMPH^A GIGANTEA. 
The Grardener s Ghronicle has the following : 
In the year 1852, the following statement appeared in the " Botanical 
Magazine :" — 
"During the early part of the present year, seeds of an Australian 
Nymphseaceous plant were in the hands of several cultivators in this country, 
as a new Victoria, Victoria Fitzroyana, with flowers of a 'purplish blue:' 
from what source obtained I have not been able to ascertain. Those which 
were obligingly presented to us by Mr. Carter and Mr. Stokes under that 
name were, we think, not the seeds of a Victoria, but of a Nymphsea; and 
were so crushed in a letter, and sent dry, that we have no hope of their 
germinating. Now, it does happen that we received during the past year 
specimens of a magnificent new Nymphsea, from our friend Mr. Bidwill, 
gathered in the Wide-Bay district, Notheastern Australia, some of whose 
flowers certainly vie with the ordinary ones of Victoria regia, being a foot 
in diameter, and if not of a purplish blue color, yet blue — the blue as it 
would appear, of the well-known Nymphcea ccBrulea. We are much dis- 
posed to think that this is the plant producing the seeds in question, and 
that the plant having been known to other colonists in Australia, the seeds 
have been by them sent to their friends in this country, under the name of 
Victoria Fitzroyana. Mr. Bidwill is too good a botanist to have done so. 
Be that as it may, we deem it a matter of duty now to lay a figure and 
description of our magnificent plant before the public, and even a colored 
figure ; for so beautiful are the specimens dried by our valued friend and 
correspondent, that we think we cannot err much on that point. And sure 
we are that, even should all the seeds above alluded to fail to germinate, or 
prove to be those of another plant, our Nymphsea gigantea will, ere long, 
find its way into our tropical tanks, and adorn them with a Water Lily, 
little inferior to the Royal Victoria in the size or beauty of its flowers, and 
with leaves equally remarkable in size, for a true Nymphsea, being 18 inches 
to 2 feet across. A tuber which we have lately received from Mr. Bidwill 
for cultivsption, but unfortunately dry and dead, is about the size of an ordi- 
