The giant waterlily (Victoria amazonica) is the largest of the waterlilies and the national flower of Guyana. On its classification by John Lindley in 1837, the plant was originally named Victoria regia in honour of Queen Victoria, who had recently ascended to the throne (see RCIN 1122366). The name was amended to its present form following the Queen's death in 1901.
The first attempts to cultivate the plant by the German-born explorer Robert Schomburgck in Guyana failed, and in 1846, seeds were sent to Sir William Jackson Hooker at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where attempts to grow them were also unsuccessful. Further seeds and rhizomes (rootstalks) were sent to Kew in 1848, followed by a group of live plants in 1849, but none of these were able to survive. This book is Hooker's first description of the plant, published in 1847 and originally published in the first issue of Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
The prestige in being the first to successfully grow and cause the waterlily to bloom in Britain soon developed into a competition between botanically-minded members of the landed gentry – primarily the Dukes of Devonshire and Northumberland – and their gardeners, and much money was invested in developing new technologies that could better replicate the climate of the Amazon rainforest.
In February 1849, further seeds were sent to Kew and some of these were passed on to Joseph Paxton to propagate in his new greenhouse at Chatsworth, the residence of the Duke of Devonshire.
In November 1849, Paxton managed to get the plant to bloom successfully and cuttings were sent to Queen Victoria. Using Paxon’s technology, lilies were soon able to be grown in hothouses around the country. The first lilies flowered at Kew in 1850 and the following year Hooker published a comprehensive account of the plant (RCIN 1122365). The magnificent folio volume was illustrated with spectacular lithographs of specimens in bloom at Kew and at neighbouring Syon House by the Scottish artist Walter Hood Fitch.