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Unidentified photographer
[The pond in front of the Linnean House, Shaw's Missouri Botanical Garden]
[Views of Shaw's Missouri Botanical Garden]
1910 (ca)
Stereocard, right half
Private collection of Dan Weinstock
LL/53957
The girl and woman are standing on top of the Victoria regia lilies (now known as Victoria amazonica). This species is the largest water lily in the world. It was a common “touristy” thrill to have one’s weight supported by the huge aquatic plant. A contemporary account gave a description of this leaf:
The leaf of the great water lily of the Amazon river (Victoria regia) has been known to grow to the diameter of 6 feet, and yet the pulpy tissue which makes up its surface is so delicate and tender, that a straw held 6 inches above and dropped perpendicularly upon it would readily pass through it. This vast area of a substance as tender as that of a blanched lettuce is borne between and over a series of singularly contrived nerves and veins, some of which resemble arched ribs, and in order that the leaf may float they are rendered porous by large interstices; they are armed with fierce prickles to ward off aquatic animals which might injure the foliage by approaching from beneath. Such an expanded surface has been found capable of sustaining a weight of more than 70 pounds if by some mechanical contrivance the pressure is equally distributed. (George Ripley, 1863, The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, (New York: D. Appleton & Co.), vol. 10. "Leaf", p. 392)
Notice that the ladies’ weight is distributed by wooden boards on the leaf.
The marker in the mid foreground identifies the smaller Nymphaea marliacea 'Chromatella' garden hybrid.
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