, 1889-07-27

in different plants, and the conclusion I
early cam etO, which experience since has
confirmed, is that they are not marks of
character at all, but the mere result Of local
circumstances Plants of Victoria TegiG
growing alone, with full room for each
leaf to spread to its widest diameter, dc,
invariably, SO far rs l have seen, spread
to their widest diameter, the whole ex-
panSe of each leaf lying nearly Or quite
fatty on the surface of the water. And
though the young leaf in the course of its
development first appears partly closed,
the outer part being folded entirely over
the inner, 1t very early acquires, to the
Outerm0St edge of the rim, the distinguish
ing character of an entirely fiat surface.
Those plants en- the other hand, with deep
upright rims to the leaves, acquire and
preserve this feature from growing in
very crowded communities, where the
space available for each leaf is too con-
tracted to allow of it's spreading out fatty.
Recognising this fact, and at the same
time the rights and necessities of each
other, each member of the community
turns it's rims up, 10 avoid, so far as it is
possible in their crowded state, interior
ing with each other. 1t is merely another
of those innumera6le instances of marvel
lOuS adaptation to circumstances in nature,
provided TO meet the necessities of a case,
which, when exhibited among the animals
lower in the scale of intelligence than man
WI call, in our inability 20 explain it, i'll.
stlnCt, but which are rs perfect and etfec-
tive for the end served rs the most care
fully arranged provisions of human intel
llgenCp. The most conspicuous Instances,
though human eyes rarely see them, Of
the depth 10 which the Victoria turns up
The margins ot It's leave are on two or
three islands of the ESSequih0 River in
the interior. The lake ON Gluck island,
one of the TWO or three, which | examined
closely some years ago, is closely grit
with Il dense belt of most f~earfully prickly
palmns (AStrOcaryum), the leaves of which
have dropped among the stems, forming
Il barrier breast higi TO any approach to
the lake. Tht. consequence is that the
lake can only he seen after one has cut
through the thicket, and is close to or ac-
tually in it, when the sudden view of the
Victoria, which entirely hides the water
everywhere, the leaves crowdIng and
pressing against each other, the red of the
underside being the general, and most
remarkable, colour of the lake, is exceed
ingly striking. Here the leaves only ex-
pand to about half their diameter, for
which extent even there is barely room,
their upturned sides pressing hard against
each other, and more or less lifting each
other up out of the water SO that in numer-
Gus instances fully half the diameter of
the undersile of HE leaf is exposed as one
leaf holds another up. This lake is one Of
the original habitats Of the Victoria lily i'll
Guiana here t was seen half a century
ago by ~Schomburgk, and probably from
this source WAS introduced to the coast
region, where it is plentifuIly established
in The trenches of Georgetown and Of
sugar estates everywhere; so that the
crowded state waich | have described is
a purely natural condition Of its growth i'll
it's original habitats. This lily does so
we'll in the town and estates trenches, and
seems so perfectly adapted to the condi-
tons, that it would seem to be Il fair in
feience that it was a true denizen of the
coast region and at one time or other in
habited It's waters. Yet, unless in the
long past ages before the present littoral
belt was formed, there is no evidence that
| have come acoss that it ever did inhabit
this region, and it is not now found wild
anywhere within this belt.-ArgOSy.