“In this forlorn and almost helpless condition,” he says, “when the robbers had left me, I sat for some time looking around me with amazement and terror.  Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty.  I found myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season—­naked and alone,—­surrounded by savages.  I was five hundred miles from any European settlement.  All these circumstances crowded at once upon my recollection; and I confess that my spirits began to fail me.  I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative, but to lie down and perish.  The influence of religion, however aided and supported me.  I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could possibly have averted my present sufferings.  I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the eye of that Providence who has condescended to call himself the stranger’s friend.  At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small Moss irresistibly caught my eye; and though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and fruit, without admiration.  Can that Being (thought I) who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after his own image?  Surely not.—­Reflections like these would not allow me to despair.  I started up; and disregarding both, hunger and fatigue, traveled forward, assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disappointed.”

VICTORIA REGIA.

On this Queen of Aquatic Plants the language of admiration has been exhausted.  It was discovered in the first year of the present century by the botanist Haenke who was sent by the Spanish Government to investigate the vegetable productions of Peru.  When in a canoe on the Rio Mamore, one of the great tributaries of the river Amazon, he came suddenly upon the noblest and largest flower that he had ever seen.  He fell on his knees in a transport of admiration.  It was the plant now known as the Victoria Regia, or American Water-lily.

It was not till February 1849, that Dr. Hugh Rodie and Mr. Lachie of Demerara forwarded seeds of the plant to Sir W.T.  Hooker in vials of pure water.  They were sown in earth, in pots immersed in water, and enclosed in a glass case.  They vegetated rapidly.  The plants first came to perfection at Chatsworth the seat of the Duke of Devonshire,[093] and subsequently at the Royal gardens at Kew.

Early in November of the same year, (1849,) the leaves of the plant at Chatsworth were 4 feet 8 inches in diameter.  A child weighing forty two pounds was placed upon one of the leaves which bore the weight well.  The largest leaf of the plant by the middle of the next month was five feet in diameter with a turned up edge of from two to four inches.  It then bore up a person of 11 stone weight.  The flat leaf of the Victoria Regia as it floats on the surface of the water, resembles in point of form the brass high edged platter in which Hindus eat their rice.