Tas. 5182. 
BEGONIA Bowrinactana. 
Bowring’s Begonia. 
Nat. Ord. BeconIacr®.—Monecra PoLyanpRia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4172.) 
Begonia (Diplochonium) Bowringianum ; caule herbaceo erecto ramoso, foliis 
late inzequaliter cordatis inequaliter irregulariter 5-7-lobis, lobis latis bre- 
vibus acutis dentatis lobatisve supra hispidulis subtus ramulisque novellis 
rufo-lanatis, pedunculis folio brevioribus paucifloris, capsule alis 2 angustis 
tertia elongata. Benth. 
Brconta Bowringiana. Champ. in Benth. Florul. Hongk. Kew Gard. Mise. v. 4. 
p- 120. 
The present species of Begonia is very deficient in brightness, 
as compared with many of the species with richly-coloured fo- 
liage, which are such favourites with cultivators of stove plants 
of the present day ; and yet it is so nearly allied to a very hand- 
some species, namely the B. /aciniata, Roxb. and of this work 
(Tab. 5021), that I was at first disposed to believe the two were 
specifically identical. The latter-mentioned Begonia is, however, 
remarkable for the variegated foliage, both on the upper and 
under side, the larger white petals, with the outer sepals rufo- 
tomentose, the peduncles longer than the leaves, bearing more 
numerous flowers, and the very hispid fruit. The present is the 
only species of the genus yet detected in Hongkong, where it 
was discovered by the late Colonel Champion; and seeds were 
sent to us by Mr. Wilford in 1858. 
Descr. Rhizome “thick fleshy ;” the stem short, nearly as 
thick as one’s finger, flexuose, jointed, tinged with red, slightly 
woolly, swollen at the joints. eaves rather large, six to ten 
inches long, four to six inches broad, very unequally cordate, 
petiolate, green, and slightly hairy above, dull rufous and some- 
what woolly beneath, the pubescence deciduous, the margin very 
regularly cut into acute or acuminated lobes, and, besides, un- 
equally serrated: pefioles longer than the leaves, terete, thick, 
woolly, especially on the anterior side below the blade. Stipules 
large, membranaceous, reddish, cordato-ovate, acuminate. Pe- 
duncles much shorter than the petioles, axillary, reddish, woolly, 
bearing three or four flowers, of which the majority are male. 
may Ist, 1860. 
