^'M 
VICTORIA EEGIA. 
VICTORIA REGIA. 
Nat. Order, Nymph^acEjE, I Euryaleje. 
Generic CiiARAcrEU. — Victoi'ia, Lindley. Tube of the calyx 
sub-globose, adherent to the ovary, expanded into a torus at the 
throat ; Umh 4-parted, deciduous, coloured. Petals numerous, 
inserted on the throat and torus of the calyx ; outer ones at 
length completely re&exed, longer than the calyx, the interior 
by degrees narrower, aciuninate, rigid, approacliing the form of 
the stamens. Stamens numerous, inserted mth the petals on 
the torus in about three rows, fertile ; the filaments subulate, 
petaloid, but rigid and firm, at length erect; fl?i]t/i£!/-5 introrse, 
the cells situated below the apex, linear-elongate adnate. "Within 
the stamens the torus is prolonged upwards and inwards for 
about an inch, arching over inwards ; on its margin is borne a 
circle of conical, fleshy, somewhat recurved, horn-like processes. 
Ovary globose below, concave-campanulate at the top, marked 
with rays setting out from a central beak, many-celled, the cells 
at first arranged regularly in one cii'cle, afterwards becoming irre- 
gular* by mutual pressure, with many ovrdes ; ovules anatropous, 
parietal, affixed to a spongy, reticulated placenta by short funi- 
culi; styles -wanting (connate into a furrowed bell clothing the 
tube of the calyx, Lindley) ; stigmas forming radiating lines 
on the top of the ovary [R. Broum). There exist also about 
thirty large, fleshy, incurved, somewhat scroll-shaped bodies, 
forming projecting ridges at the outer ends of the rays of the 
top of the ovary, their outer faces being blended with the con- 
cavity of the vaulted portion of the torus. These have been 
described as stigmas. 
Fruit baccate, globular-campanulate or cup-shaped, truncate, 
campanulate above, beaked in the centre, many-celled, cells 
many-seeded. Seeds oval-globular, with a horny testa, and 
copious albumen. 
A vast aquatic herb, inhabiting still rivers in the north of 
South America, east of the Andes; rhizome perennial? Leaves 
gigantic, floating, orbiculate, peltate, flat, the margin elevated 
all round, radiatcly and reticularly ribbed, the ribs very promi- 
nent below, on very long foot stalks, the vernation of the 
lamina corrugated-involute ; flowers large and handsome, at 
first whitish, becoming rose, especially within, peduncles elon- 
gated ; roots adventitious, breaking out below the insertion of 
the leaves on the rhizome ; petioles, peduncles, calyx-tube, and 
the ribs of the leaves below, with abundant large and acute 
spines. 
Victoria regia, Lindley, Victoria Water Lily.— The only 
species. 
Stnontmy. — Victoria regia, Lindley ; Monograph on Victoria 
(with plates), privately printed in 1837 ; Botanical Eegister 
Misc., 1838, p. 9 ; D'Orbigny, Ann. des Sc. naturelles, 2nd ser. 
Botanique, vol. xiii,, p. 57 ; Walpers, Repei'torlum, vol. i. p. 106 ; 
Schomburgk, Views in the Interior of Guiana, p. 2, frontispiece ; 
Botajiical Magazine, 3rd ser., vol. iii., 18J:7, p. 1, tab. 4275-4278. 
Victoria regina. Gray, Mag. of Zool. and Bota?iy, vol. ii., 
1838, p. 440. 
Nymphcea Victoria, Schomburgk, MS. 
Euryale Amazonica, Poppig, Froriep's Notizen, vol. xxxv., 
p. 9 ; Eeise, vol. ii., p. 432. 
Victoria Cruziana, D'Orbigny, 1. c, p. 57, (leaves of the same 
colour on both sides, petals all rose coloiu'ed. 
BESCRIPTION. — A large aquatic herb, with a perennial rhizome large and tuberous, with 
internodes scarcely developed, furnished with numerous cylindi-ical adventitious roots abounding 
in ail' cavities ; the rhizome thick, of a brown colour externally, white within, changing to j)urple 
when cut (Schomburgk), decaying at the base as it developes leaves, flowers, and roots above, growing 
in 4-6 feet water. Petioles long, terete, clothed with copious prickles. Leaves floating, very large, 
4 to 6 1 feet in diameter; when first expanded, oval with a deep narrow cleft at one end, almost 
exactly orbicular when full-grown, peltate, with the margin turned up all round, forming a rim like 
that of a tea-tray ; the upper side of the blade full green, with numerous reticulations forming some- 
w^hat quadrangular areolae ; the under side deep pm'ple, or, according to D'Orbigny, sometimes green, 
(brownish red in the specimen from which our drawings were made), clothed with short spongy 
pubescence, with very prominent flattened ribs set edgeways on the lamina, radiating from the petiole 
to the circumference, and pi-ogressively diminishing in dejith ; these are united by cross ribs, also 
vertical plates, and the latter again by less elevated ones crossing them, so that the under surface is 
completely divided into quadrangular chambers, of which the ribs form the sides, and the general 
surface of the lamina the top, and as these detain air within them, they act as floats ; all the ribs 
are more or less beset with spines, varying in length, sharp and horny, enlarged at the base. Verna- 
tion of the lamina corrugated-involute, that is, the greater part wrinkled up like the petals of the 
poppy, with the margin rolled in on all sides. Peduncles all axillary, from the rhizome, longer 
than the petiole (?), and rising above the surface of the water when the flower expands, terete, 
prickly, very copiously furnished with air-cavities, one-flowered. Flower 10 to 15 inches in diameter, 
somewhat pear-shaped in bud, fragrant. Calyx deeply 4-parted; the tube turbinate, green, very 
prickly, adherent to the ovary ; the lobes of the limb large, oval, reddish pui'ple, concave, deciduous, a 
little prickly on the outside towards the base, rather shorter than the petals. Within, at the throat, 
the calyx enlarges into an annular torus beai'ing the petals and stamens. Petals very numerous, the 
outer ones larger than the calyx, oblong, concave, obtuse, the inner ones gradually becoming narrower, 
much acuminated, and insensibly passing into petaloid filaments. When the flowers expand, which 
they do for the first time about five P.M., they rise five or six inches above the sm'face of the water, 
and become about half unclosed ; at this time all the outer petals are white ; this condition persists 
until about ten A.M. the next day, when the flower closes; about two p.m. of the same day it re-opens, 
assumes an upright position in the water, and the outer envelopes, which by degrees acquire a con- 
tinually deepening pinkish colom*, become completely reflexed, so that thefr summits touch the water 
all around ; more and more of the erect petals are reflexed until only the strongly incurved filament- 
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