CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AUUAIUUM. 
are sharp edged, thin, and ribbed at the aides. The leaves sword-shaped, and shorter than the raceme, which is 
long and narrow ; the flowers have dull brown sepals and petals tipped with yellow, and a clear yellow lip 
stained with cinnamon-brown at the base ; the former are rhomboid -lanceolate wavy and stalked, the latter threc- 
lobcd, the centre lobe nearly hemispherical, emarginate, and perfectly flat. From Brazil. Introduced about 
1849. Flowers in August. Horticultural Society of London. 
Coelogyne trisaccata, Griffith. Trisaecate Ccelogyne [Paxt. Fl. Garcl., i. 183). — Nat. Ord., Orchidaceae § 
Epidendrefe-Ccelogynida?. A stove epiphyte, with obovate club-shaped pseudo-bulbs, obovate lanceolate five- 
ribbed leaves, and having six or eight large flowers, arranged distichously in a nodding raceme ; they scarcely 
expand except at the point, and are white except the tip of the lip, which is sulphur yellow. From India : woods 
at Mamloo, in the Khasijah hills. Introduced about 1850. Flowered in winter with M. Pescatore. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AQUARIUM. 
By Mr. George Lawson, F.R.P.S., F.B.S.E., Assistant Secretary and Curator to the 
Botanical Society or Edinburgh. 
^N the 9th of November 1849, and in the ducal gardens at Chatsworth, the Royal Water Lily of 
South America expanded the first gorgeous blossom which it had produced in Europe. The 
opening of that flower was a great event in floral history, a high achievement in the art of gardening ; 
and the tidings were soon heralded to remotest parts by those winged messengers of progress — the 
Horticultural Journals. Important, however, as the event was universally allowed to be : the flowering 
for the first time in Europe of the most extraordinary vegetable production which has hitherto come 
within the ken of science, no one could have dreamt, even in a daydream, far less could he have 
conjectured in an hour of sober thought, that that event would have risen to the great importance, as a 
fact of our nation's history, which it now holds. The appearance of that Lily blossom has, through the 
genius of Paxton — the prince of modern gardeners — been instrumental in raising in our land a structure 
of extraordinary character, whose influences on architecture will be world-wide. But it is not architecture 
alone that has benefited by the Lily blossom ; nor is it that with which I have to do. If we turn over a 
few pages of horticultural history, we shall find that those peculiar tastes which have arisen among 
cultivators for particular' tribes or families of plants, and which have, consequently, caused the extensive, 
and in some cases, almost exclusive cultivation of these, have in most, if not in all, instances, arisen from 
the discovery or introduction to our gardens of some member of the family whose superior qualities as 
an ornamental plant, have drawn considerable attention towards it. " Every dog has his day," to quote 
a vulgar phrase of most extensive application ; but the taste for a certain family often remains long after 
the once admired beauty which gave rise to it has sunk into oblivion, eclipsed by a bright galaxy of her 
sisterhood, who have acquired under the gardener's care even a greater degree of loveliness than herself 
It is therefore not to be wondered at that the introduction and successful cultivation in our country 
of so extraordinary and so beautiful a plant as the Royal Water Lily, " one of the most elegant objects 
in nature, " should draw the attention of cultivators to the entire family of Water Lilies, and create a 
taste for their general cultivation, more especially when we consider that the different habits of the 
many lovely species which exist render them peculiarly suitable for universal culture, whenever a supply 
of water is to be had. While the Royal Water Lily requires accommodation, such as can alone be had 
in princely gardens, there are Water Lilies, of humbler growth indeed, but proportionally not less lovely, 
which can be conveniently grown in the ordinary stove or greenhouse ; and even where no such 
conveniences exist for the growth of exotics, the hardy Naiads of our British lakes — scarcely less classical 
in modern song than the Lotus of Egypt is in ancient history — may be cultivated with little care or 
attention in the open air ponds, and in the streams and ditches that give birth to luxuriant and 
unprofitable growths of reeds and rushes. 
That a very general taste for the cultivation of Water Lilies has been acquired in Britain since the 
flowering of the Victoria, has been sufficiently evinced by the frequent notices which have from time to 
time appeared on the subject. If I am to judge from these notices and other circuinstances, there 
likewise exists at the present time a paucity of popular information concerning these plants, nearly 
coextensive with the general desire evinced to cultivate them. I, therefore, purpose to lay before the 
readers of The Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, from time to time, as leisure may occur, the history of 
some of those species of which I have not already given a full account in my work on Water Lilies.* It 
will not be objectionable or out of place, if I occasionally step aside from the Water Lilies proper, and 
say a thing or two (as a Yankee would say) concerning the other families likely to prove agreeable and 
seemly companions to the Nymphreas in the Aquarium. Even a few observations maybe offered on the 
c - The Royal Water Lily of South America, and the Water Lilies of our land. Edinburgh : Hogg. 
