166 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
"Wonderful 
Leaves. 
Cultivation. 
Except in regard to the flowers, these dimensions have been ex- 
ceeded by cultivated plants. Leaves have been produced under 
glass 7 feet across, with rims 6 inches deep. The 
under surface of the leaf is more remarkable than the 
upper one. It is purplish red, and is covered with a 
network of spiny ribs and veins, several inches deep, and with the 
apparent strength of so many iron girders. The hollow spaces be- 
tween the ribs are ordinarily filled with air, which imparts great 
buoyancy to the leaf. With the pressure properly distributed, a 
leaf will quite easily support a child of twelve or fifteen years. During 
the summer, a leaf of the plant at Kew is usually inverted, so that 
visitors may see its marvellous construction. 
As one might infer from its enormous dimensions and extra- 
ordinarily quick growth, the Victoria regia is a gross feeder. Every 
fresh plant has to be supplied with several cartloads 
of good loam, enriched by rotted manure. The water 
is kept at first at a temperature of about 8o° F., reduced to 75 0 as 
the plant becomes strong and established. Perhaps the most import- 
ant desideratum is abundant and unrestricted light. With these 
needs supplied, the cultivation of this noblest of aquatics presents 
no difficulty, except that in late years a troublesome fungus has 
often disfigured the leaves. 
Although the Victoria regia fills the largest place in the public 
mind of all the aquatic plants at Kew, this group includes several 
beautiful plants belonging to other genera, most notable 
of which are the Nelumbiums and the Nymphaeas. The 
former is the “ sacred bean ” of the Hindus, and one 
of the plants known as the lotus of the Egyptians. 
It was introduced to Kew by Sir Joseph Banks in 1787, and since 
that date has been uninterruptedly grown there. Ever since the 
present No. 15 House was built, the Nelumbiums have been culti- 
vated in the small beds at the comers. These beds, nearly filled 
with rich soil and connected with the central tank by two pipes, 
are kept in a permanently boggy state. They thus afford an 
excellent position for the Nelumbium. Dying back to the sub- 
merged stems every winter, the Nelumbium sends up during the 
summer its wonderful leaves, the stalks of which are 6 to 8 feet high, 
bearing a large circular, plate-like blade. The flowers are borne on 
a stalk still higher than the leaves ; they are aromatically fragrant, 
Nelumbium 
and 
Nymphcea. 
