I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 10, 1857. 83 
Berbice, a tributary of tbe Amazon, in latitude 4° 30' north, 
longitude 58° west. 
Eighteen years have now elapsed since this discovery, 
j and during the interval many individuals have visited it in 
its native waters, among whom we must not omit mention¬ 
ing Mr. Spruce in 1849, part of whose animated and glow¬ 
ing description of its appearance, as seen by himself in the 
tributaries of tbe Amazon, is well worthy a place in our 
outlines of its history, and we therefore consider ourselves 
pardonable for producing it. “ The aspect,” writes this 
gentleman, “ of the Victoria in its native waters is so new 
and extraordinary that I am at a loss to what to compare it. 
The image is not a very poetical one, but assuredly the im¬ 
pression the plant gave me when viewed from the bank 
above was that of a number of teatrays floating, with here 
and there a bouquet protruding between them; but when 
more closely viewed the leaves excited the greatest admira¬ 
tion from their immensity and perfect symmetry. A leaf 
| turned up suggests some strange fabric of cast iron just 
taken out of the furnace, its colour and the enormous ribs 
with which it is strengthened increasing the similarity.’’ 
The diameter of the largest leaf measured by Mr. Spruce 
at the time was but little over four feet. This is to be 
accounted for, however, by his having visited it in a season 
of the year when it had not yet attained its full develop¬ 
ment. Sir R. Schomburgk was more fortunate in this 
respect, for the largest leaf, it appears, that he observed at 
the time of its discovery was “ six feet five inches in diameter, 
its rim five inches and a half high, and the flower fifteen 
inches across.” Mr. Spruce, however, states that he was 
informed upon credible authority, by those who had seen 
it during the winter, when it attains its greatest dimensions, 
that many of the leaves measured twelve feet in diameter! 
We have now traced out so far its history, and regret to 
say that, owing to a delay in the arrival of some promised 
information from a gentleman who ‘is in the habit of 
visiting the plant frequently during his trading expeditions 
up the Amazon, we are not in a position to offer anything 
more minute respecting its growth in a wild state. Enough 
has been said, however, to give a pretty clear idea of its 
general appearance in a natural condition. And now for its 
introduction. 
This, after many failures, was at last successfully ac¬ 
complished by raising plants at Kew from seeds brought 
over by Mr. Bridges from Bolivia, and the secret of his 
success is to be accounted for by his having conveyed them 
to this country not in a dry state, but “ mixed up in a bolter 
of damp earth.” From the date of this, some eight or nine 
! years since, up to the present time various attempts, more or 
| less successful, have been made to import the seed into this 
kingdom; and, in fact, we know of a botanical establishment 
that has been almost annually supplied with seed sent 
home by a gentleman from the waters of the Amazon. 
Its importation, too, has not been confined to this country, 
for most of the chief cities of the Continent—Paris, St. 
Petersburgh, Berlin, Hamburgh, and others—can now boast 
j of the Victoria in their principal public and private botanical 
collections. Nor has its introduction been restricted to 
Europe alone, for the Old World has witnessed, in more 
quarters than one, this great botanical treasure of the New, 
and this, be it remarked, chiefly from plants raised from 
seed grown in, and imported from, England. Even so far 
back as 1853 we find Sir W. Hooker, in his Report on Kew, 
stating, “We despatched seeds of the Victoria to various 
colonies.” This plant is now flourishing at Calcutta, in 
i Ceylon, and Trinidad. Nowhere, however, has this splendid 
! aquatic succeeded so well (under glass be it observed) as in 
the United States, and nowhere has its introduction been so | 
highly prized. The flowers have attained a diameter of 
seventeen inches, and the leaves of five feet and a half. “ The 
excitement,” says our Philadelphia correspondent, “ caused 
by the successful culture of the Victoria Water Lily on our 
side the Atlantic has been extreme, and every one has 
declared that the glowing accounts of its beauty have not 
been at all exaggerated.” And, since the date of this, seed 
has been forwarded, to our knowledge, from various other 
i sources to a number of remote and distant quarters that we 
i could enumerate. 
Passing on to the cultivation, we may be allowed, perhaps, 
to revive on the way the somewhat incongruous, but almost 
proverbial remark on the other side the Atlantic, that 
Englishmen as a body are the possessors of an unlimited 
stock of “ national arrogance but we may, we think, assert, 
without being charged with any undue tincture of national 
egotism, that botany as a science and horticulture as a 
profession have in no other country or kingdom met with 
so much encouragement from the great, or received such 
an amount of adornment from the learned and eloquent, as 
in our own happy island. No other country has given birth 
to men equally devoted to the advancement of horticultural 
knowledge, or who have elucidated so clearly, and practically 
applied so successfully, the lessons of experience taught by a 
patient and ingenious investigation into the once mysterious 
laws of nature; and hence, as in the present instance, to 
England, and to English enterprise alone, are both eastern 
and western hemispheres indebted, in the first instance, for 
the possession, in its present cultivated state, of one of the 
most beautiful of natural productions. The bare mention 
in a book of travels of the existence of a plant like the 
present would have been but a poor gratification compared 
with the pleasure of being able personally to admire and 
inspect it; and therefore the successful cultivator has a 
right to almost equal honour with the enterprising and 
adventurous discoverer. 
Kew and its learned directors claim the honour of having 
raised the first plants of the Royal Lily that saw the light in 
this country; but to Chatsworth and its distinguished con¬ 
ductor is attached the merit of first bringing it into full 
perfection, and, although the cultivation of the plant has 
extended its ramification far and wide, still we have a 
right to assume that Chatsworth is remaining, as yet, the 
head quarters of the plant (at least, so far as its cultivation 
is concerned) in this country, and this is the subject which 
must now engage our attention. 
By the liberal and very kind permission of Sir Joseph 
Paxton we are enabled to illustrate our observations by a plan 
and view of the new Victoria house at Chatsworth, drawn 
expressly for this purpose by Mr. D. Bryers, of that place; 
and this “ house ” is unquestionably an object of deep 
interest apart from anything connected with the growth of 
the noble plant; but of this in conclusion. We should 
not, however, omit to mention here the circumstances 
under which the plant first flowered in the “old house ” at 
Chatsworth some eight years since. As we before remarked, 
the credit of first bringing the Victoria into full flower in 
this country rests with the manager of the Duke of Devon¬ 
shire’s gardens at Chatsworth, and a lengthened account of 
this interesting occurrence may be found in the principal 
botanical papers of the day; but it is sufficient for our pur¬ 
pose here briefly to describe, from personal acquaintance, the 
house and tank in which this great success was accomplished. 
This house, or aquarium, is a curvilinear ridge-and-furrow 
structure of ordinary dimensions, with a tank about three 
feet deep in the centre and twelve feet square, warmed by a 
circulation of hot water below. In addition to this a ridge 
runs round the tank three feet and a half in width, heated 
by small leaden pipes, and therefore the size of the tank 
with this ledge may be said to be about nineteen feet square. 
In one corner a small water-wheel is introduced immediately 
below the pipe for supplying the tank with fresh water, 
which keeps it constantly revolving, producing at the same 
time a gentle rippling motion on the water, which, with the 
action of the “waste water” pipes, precludes all possibility 
of its becoming stagnant. The heat, we are informed, at 
which the tank was usually maintained in the first successful 
essay at flowering it was from 84° to 85°. At this heat 
and in this house expanded on the 8th of November, 1849, 
the first flower of the finest aquatic that has ever graced 
an European aquarium, and to the energy of the con¬ 
ductor and the liberality of the proprietor of that princely 
establishment is due the merit of having first brought to its 
meridian height the cultivation of the plant in this country. 
During the year succeeding that of its first flowering the 
new Victoria house was constructed, to afford it more ample 
accommodation; and this house a distinguished horticultural 
authority some time since affirmed to be “ one of the most 
extensive and splendid tropical aquarium's yet erected,” and 
we might ourselves add that it is not only one of the most 
“splendid,” but one of the most successful houses ever 
designed for the purpose for which it was intended. 
