82 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 10, 1857. 
Gesnera zebrina in several varieties, some grown with 
from three to five tubers in a pot, and some very pretty 
plants with only one stem to a small pot, and the 
healthy foliage hanging over the sides of the pot. In 
smaller quantities were other Gesneras; Impatiens 
\ Jerdonite; plants of Imp aliens Hookeriana, resting so as 
to be ready to start for the winter; Coleus Blumei; Cissus 
discolor and various Ipomeas; Stephanotis and such 
plants as Dioscorea picta on trellises; Solarium pseudo- 
capsicum, Clerodendrums, Ixoras, Aphelandras, with a 
whole house of Begonias, with great diversity of flowers 
and foliage, among the latter of which must be enrolled 
j the rex, king of them all, exhibited at the Crystal 
Palace. 
In addition to these we found a house appropriated to 
Camellias, another to Azaleas, and thought what an 
advantage it was to be able to give them the protection 
| of glass thus early. The plants had fine green foliage, 
perfectly free of thrips and other evils, which Mr. Foggo 
secures against by frequent examinations, and smokings, 
and washings with lime. The buds were already pro¬ 
minent, ready to be forced soon if necessary, and the 
plants were of all sizes and shapes—squat, tall, pyramidal, 
and standard. 
A large span-roofed house was devoted one half to a 
plant stove, and the other to a New Holland department. 
In the first was a good collection of Orchids, stove 
plants, and Ferns, but as yet the specimens, with 
striking exceptions, were chiefly small. In the other half 
Heaths, Epacrises, and other hard-wooded plants were 
chiefly congregated, and most of the specimens were 
more distinguished for health than size, but that will 
come ere long. In other places we found rare Ferns, 
Lycopods, &c., without number, and whole masses of 
Gloxinias, &c., drying and ripening for next year. Most 
of the low houses in which these things are grown are 
furnished with pipes for bottom heat as well as top 
heat, and thus most of these plants for decoration are 
plunged in tan or sand when growing. 
Before I conclude this department I would just notice 
a huge barn of a house for wintering large specimens, 
such as the Myrtles, Geraniums, Fuchsias, &c., we met 
with in the flower garden. As keeping is here more an 
object than growing, and to prevent extra expense for 
fuel, light is admitted only from the south side of a 
hipped or span roof. All the rest of the building is 
opaque, with the exception of large windows in the 
north wall. Standing here already we found a splendid 
Azalea plant in a tub, growing something in the pointed 
obelisk style, some nine feet in height, and the square 
of any of the four sides at the tub being fully four feet. 
R. Fish. 
(To be continued.) 
FINENESS OF THE AUTUMN.—SECOND 
CROP OF FIGS RIPENING. 
Tew things more denote the fineness of a season than 
the lipening oi such fruits out of doors as only occa¬ 
sionally do so. Outdoor Grapes, where they could be 
protected fiom the wasps, have been particularly fine 
this season, and certain plants have ripened their seeds 
which do not do so at all times. Some notice has been 
taken in another place of the Jerusalem Artichoke 
f oweiing, but this is not remarkable, as it has done so 
leie at least three or four times in the last ten years; but 
this season I have gathered a few ripe Figs of the second 
crop from a tree against a south wall, which I never 
knew during that time to ripen before; that is, its second 
crop never ripened before. This I attribute entirely to 
the fineness of the autumn and previous heat of the 
summer. Outdoor Grapes have generally been fine 
where they could be saved from the wasps, but these 
destructive pests haVe been very numerous this season. 
The mildew, which in some other seasons has been 
fatal to them, has only affected them in certain places, 
and but very little just around here (Mid Kent). 
J. Robson. 
HISTORY AND CULTIVATION OF THE 
VICTORIA REGIA. 
“ Expanding ’neath a torrid sun, 
Where mighty streams through vast savannahs run, 
’Mid woods coeval with the land they shade, 
And bright-wing’d birds in'every sunny glade.”— Hervey. 
We trust a brief essay on the history, introduction, and 
cultivation of this interesting aquatic will not be altogether 
unacceptable to some of the numerous readers of your 
instructive journal. The full and undivided honour of its 
discovery in 1839 is to be attributed to Mr. Robert 
Schomburgk, a German naturalist, engaged under the 
auspices of the Royal Geographical Society in inquiring into 
and examining the natural productions of British Guiana, 
and we cannot do better than give this gentleman’s account 
of the discovery in his own words :— 
“It was on the 1st of January this year, while contending 
with the difficulties nature opposed to our passage up the 
river Berbice, that we arrived at a point where the river 
expanded and found a currentless basin. Some object on 
the southern extremity of this basin attracted my attention. 
It was impossible to form any idea of what it could be, and, j 
animating the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, j 
shortly afterwards we were opposite the object which bad I 
raised my curiosity. A vegetable wonder! All calamities i 
were forgotten. I felt as a botanist, and felt myself re- j 
warded. A gigantic leaf from five to six feet in diameter, j 
salver-shaped, with a broad rim of light green above and a j 
vivid crimson below, resting upon the water. Quite in eha- j 
racter with the wonderful leaf were the alternate tints from j 
pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was ; 
covered with them, and I rowed from one to the other, and 
observed always something new to admire. The leaf on its 
surface is a bright green, in form almost orbiculate, with 
this exception—opposite its axis, when it i$ slightly bent up, 
its diameter measured from five to six feet. Around the 
whole margin extended a rim about three to five inches 
high; on the inside light green, like the surface of the leaf; 
on the outside, like the leaf’s lower part, of a bright 
crimson.” 
This important announcement produced quite a sensation 
in the botanical world, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) 
t Schomburgk found himself, on his return to Europe, a 
courted and distinguished man. 
Long previous fo this, however, which we term its principal , 
discovery, the plant had been met with and mentioned by j 
several other botanists, but their accounts had remained so ! 
much involved in obscurity that even so learned a botanist 
as Sir R. Schomburgk does not appear to have been 
cognisant of its having been previously observed. It is 
said, however, to have been originally discovered by the 
botanist Hasncke in the Rio Mamore, a tributary of the 
Amazon, in the year 1801; and we have accounts again of 
its having been met with by Bonpland in the year 1820 
under the name of Mayz de VAyua, and the seeds are 
mentioned by him as yielding a flour which is formed into 
cakes that are accounted a delicacy. After Bonpland’s 
notice we have that of D’Orbigny, who observed it about 
182? in a tributary of the Rio de la Plata within the pro- I 
vince of Corrientes; and next by l)r. Poeppig in 1832, who I 
mentions having met with it near the confluence of the 
river Teflle with the Amazon, and this botanist had con- 
ferred on it, we believe, the name of Euryale Amazonica. 
A shroud of obscurity, however, appears to have enveloped 
these discoverers, and it was for Sir R. Schomburgk in 1839 
to re-discover and give to the world the first popular descrip¬ 
tion of it ever published; and to him, therefore, alone we 
consider ourselves indebted for this princely addition to the 
aquarium. His crowning discovery was made in the river 
