Tas. 5160. 
BEGONIA FriGipDa. 
Frigid Begonia. 
Nat. Ord. BEGoNIACE®.—Mone@cia POLYANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4172.) 
Beconta frigida ; suffruticosa erecta glabra, foliis longe petiolatis ineequaliter 
oblique cordatis brevi-acuminatis brevissime sinuato-lobatis serratisque, 
lobis acutis supra intense viridibus subtus rubro-roseis, stipulis ovatis acu- 
minatis roseis integerrimis, pedunculis axillaribus folia excedentibus bis di- 
chotomis, floribus parvis albis, masculis 4-sepalis quorum 2 ovatis 2 multo 
minoribus linearibus, staminibus 9 erectis, foemineis sepalis 4—5 eequalibus 
lineari-oblongis, capsula membranacea 3-alata, alis 2 majoribus. 
Beeonta frigida. Hortul. Alf. De Cand. in Ann. des Sc. Nat. 4th Ser. v. 11. p. 51. 
The foliage of this small species of Begonia, which we re- 
ceived from Continental gardens under the name here adopted, 
is more attractive than the flowers, which are unusually small 
and insignificant, and quite colourless ; but our artist, Mr. Fitch, 
while making the drawing, detected a curious morphological - 
structure, in the fact of one of the flowers having an zz/ferior 
perianth of four very unequal sepals (such as are indicative of a 
male flower) ; and above their point of insertion are four stamens 
(apparently perfect), alternating with four superior, free, ovate 
ovaries, each with a short style, and two, downy, linear stigmas. 
It is to be regretted that no section was made of these ovaries, 
which from situation and in form so little resemble the three- 
celled, inferior fruit of Begonia. Indeed, all the flowers had an 
imperfect appearance, a weak and starving aspect, as if likely to 
prove abortive; for they are not only small, but the stamens 
were few in each flower, never more than nine: in the female 
flower the petals vary from four to five, and the fruit was in one 
instance four-sided and four-winged. 
De Candolle, in his admirable “ Mémoire sur la Famille. des - 
Bégoniacées” in the Annales, |.c., makes brief mention of this 
species as cultivated in the garden of M. Boissier at Geneva, and 
refers it to a section, “ Dasysteles,’ whose character is “ Flores 
JANUARY Ist, 1860. * 
