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XVI. On the Anatomy of the Stem o/* Victoria regia. 
By Arthur Henfrey, Communicated by Professor Edward Forbes, F.R.S. 
Received February 19, — Read April 22, 1852. 
The interesting memoir on the anatomy of Nuphar lutea. published by M. Trecul 
in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles ’ (Ser. 3, vol. iv.), having shown that the 
structure of the stem of that plant is decidedly of the Monocotyledonous type, it was 
with much pleasure I availed myself of an opportunity of examining the conditions 
in the remarkable plant of the same family which has been the object of so much 
attention lately. The specimen of Victoria which flowered in the Gardens of the 
Royal Botanic Society, was found floating, dead, upon the surface of the water a few 
weeks ago, and by the kindness of the Society’s Curator, Mr. Marnock, I obtained 
one of the pieces, when it was sliced down through the middle to ascertain the cause 
of death. 
It appeared to have decayed in the terminal bud ; and as the remains of the leaves 
and roots upon the surface were in a somewhat decomposed condition, there was 
more difficulty in making out the external structure than would have been the case 
in a fresh healthy specimen, but I was enabled to ascertain the most important points 
with regard both to the external and internal anatomy. 
The stem of the Victoria, as it grows in the tanks of our stoves, is an upright 
rhizome or rootstock, with the internodes undeveloped; the leaves which succeed 
very closely in a spiral course, leave projecting processes when they fall off, so that 
the external appearance of the stem acquires a striking resemblance to that of certain 
Palms, which are covered with spiral rows of the persistent bases of their petioles 
(Plate XIX. fig. 1). As in the Palms, there appear to be two or more spiral series 
running round the stem, like several threads to a screw, or like the spiral fibres in 
some spiral vessels of plants where several fibres occur lying side by side. 
The place of the fallen leaves, however, is rendered much more evident by the cica- 
trices of the roots, or root-bundles, consisting of squarish flattened surfaces, situated 
at the underside of the leaf-scars (Plate XIX. fig. 1 a, h) upon a common process pro- 
jecting from the stem, which gives origin to both ; for in Victoria, as in Nuphar, the 
normal arrangement of the roots is in bundles springing from the lower side of the 
base of the leaf-stalks. The flat surfaces of the root-scars are divided into a number 
of tessellse by raised lines (Plate XIX. fig. 1 h), each facet, as it may be called, being 
the scar of a single root, and presenting the projecting extremity of its central vascular 
bundle like an umbilicus in the middle. The leaves, or rather the petioles, and the 
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