“The Work of Kew Gardens in Wartime”, 1943, via Wikimedia Commons
From Wikimedia Commons:
“A young member of staff tends the ‘Victoria Regia’, a giant water lily from Guiana, in the tropical house at Kew Gardens. According to the original caption, the lily is very popular with visitors: ‘Grown from a seed the size of a pea in February, it develops leaves up to seven foot six in diameter by July. Underside of leaf is ribbed to help it float, and covered with prickles to keep off fish. Flowers appear in July and August, changing from white to pink on their second day’.”
(My first thought is, What an incredible vascular system on this lily pad! Then I imagine what it must have been like to live in England during that terrible war. –SK)
