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.
The flowers in the middle of May 1850 measured one foot one inch in
diameter. The rapidity of the growth of this plant is one of its most
remarkable characteristics, its leaves often expanding eight inches in
diameter daily, and Mr. John Fisk Allen, who has published in America an
admirably illustrated work upon the subject, tells us that instances
under his own observation have occurred of the leaves increasing at the
rate of half an inch hourly.
Not only is there an extraordinary variety in the colours of the several
specimens of this flower, but a singularly rapid succession of changes
of hue in the same individual flower as it progresses from bud to
blossom.
This vegetable wonder was introduced into North America in 1851. It
grows to a larger size there than in England. Some of the leaves of the
plant cultivated in North America measure seventy-two inches in
diameter.
This plant has been proved to be perennial. It grows best in from 4 to 6
feet of water. Each plant generally sends but four or five leaves to the
surface.
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