Victoria regia; botanical garden in Sukhumi, [in Abkhazia/Georgia], c1915. Victoria amazonica (Victoria regia Lindl.) is the second largest in the water lily family Nymphaeaceae. Its native region is tropical South America. These examples were planted in June 1912, and were the first successfully grown outdoors in Europe. Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944) was a pioneer in colour photography which he used to document early 20th-century Russia and her empire, including the vanishing way of life of tribal peoples along the Silk Route in Central Asia. In a railway-carriage darkroom provided by Czar Nicholas II, Prokudin-Gorsky used the three-colour photography process to record traditional costumes and occupations, churches and mosques - many now Unesco World Heritage sites - as well as modernisation in agriculture, industry and transport.