Let us watch a blossom open. About half-past eight in the evening the bud has slowly lifted itself above the pond, where it had grown submerged. Once free from the water it shakes and quivers, as if endowed with conscious life, and presently from the folded flower one petal flies open; then for a little it rests; then is again agitated, and a second petal expands. Then the agitation continues, the bud flutters and trembles, and petal after petal spreads out; then a dozen at a time are released from their close clasping, and at last behold the great flower, two feet wide across its snow and gold centre, a hundred snow-white petals composing the perfected bloom. From the whole blossom exhales a delicate, rich, delicious perfume, harmless as the breath of violets. The sun rises; the white petals bend together, and, rocked on the parent pool, the _Victoria regia_ sleeps. But as night draws on again the royal lily awakes. Now it is in its perfection; the perfume is more subtle; the petals take a flush of the palest pink; it rocks on the water and queens it through the night. And so with a few waking and sleeping nights and days, the royal lily’s life is done.[62] When the splendid blossoms and the vast green leaves have perished the seed boxes or pods of the plant rise above the water and ripen, and the Indians call them water maize, and eat them. Next to the lovely Regia let us place the century plant. The old notion was that this “American aloe” bloomed only after one hundred years of growth. _Agave Americana_ is its true name, and when growing in a cool climate it is very slow in attaining maturity. At any time between ten and seventy years of age, it may send up a very tall flower stalk, covered with large greenish yellow blossoms, which continue open for several months. As soon as it has finished flowering it dies. There are many members of the cactus and orchid families which might appropriately be planted in our grove of wonders, to light it up with their beauty, and amaze us with the marvels of their structure. But for that matter not a plant that grows lacks mysteries and marvels. Of all strange, abnormal plants the carnivorous, or flesh-eating, are the most singular. Several members of this family were described in Nature Reader, No. 3. Those were all small and pretty plants, green with dull red or yellow marks or tinges, and fatal only to little insects which were lured by the glittering bait of honey drops spread out for them.