3GG 
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM HOWITT. 
joints by way of “national rent,” no doubt the whole story would be implicitly 
believed; and “ philosophers ” would forthwith set about investigating the cause 
of so curious and interesting a phenomenon ! 
I remain, 
Yours faithfully, 
Newcastle-on- Tyne> Carlo Condor. 
March 3, 1839. 
[A very little reflection would have satisfied Mr. “ Condor ” that a portrait 
cannot possibly confirm a written phrenological character except “ to a certain 
extent ’’ Does he imagine all the organs of the mind to be confined to the frontal 
region ? Only from such an error, we think, could his misapprehension have 
arisen.— Ed.] 
Query respecting Victoria regalis. 
To the Editor of the Naturalist. 
Dear Sir, —* * * The plant discovered by Schomburgk has in the Con¬ 
tinental periodicals been named both Victoria regalis and V. regina ? Which is 
correct ?****** 
Yours, with esteem, 
Berlin , Jan. 7, 1839. K. Y. Meyer, M.D. 
[In our Yol. II., p. 492, it is stated, by Dr. Weissenborn, of Weimar, that 
“ the plant named by Schomburgk Victoria regina is unquestionably Euryale 
Amazonica , Poppig. It is therefore probable that Mr. S. will be under the 
necessity of withdrawing his name. 5 ' —Ed.] 
THE NATURALIST’S LITERARY PORTRAIT-GALLERY.* 
(Continued from p. 269.) 
No. IY. —William Howitt. 
William Howitt was bom on the 18th of December, 1792, at Heanor, in 
Derbyshire. His ancestors, both paternal and maternal, have long resided in 
that neighbourhood. His mother was Phcebe Tantum, of Heanor Fall, which 
* This series—comprising, zoologists, botanists, geologists, and meteorologists, and including both 
scientific and popular naturalists—will be continued every alternate month, each memoir being 
accompanied by a portrait and autograph_ Ed, 
