these leaf-buds. ‘The only mention I can find of it is in Hook. 
Kew Garden Misc. vol. iv. p. 206, in a communication from Dr. 
Wallich, to the following effect :— At one of the last.meetings 
of the Royal Bavarian Academy at Munich, a very remarkable 
species of Begonia was exhibited by Professor Von Martius, 
having this extraordinary peculiarity, that it produces from the 
stem, branches and petioles, innumerable leaflets, which on being 
detached and placed on-moist ground, produce roots and plants. 
{n order to mark this singular property, the Professor calls the 
species B. phyllomaniaca—being possessed by phyllomania. On 
the margin and apex of these leaflets (which sometimes cover 
the plant to the extent of a thousand, and which at first are 
hair-shaped), cells are produced, single or united into groups 
(three to six), and filled with a yellow juice. One common cell 
often envelopes one of these little groups, and afterwards peels 
off,” ready to constitute a new plant.* This is phyllomania in 
earnest. ‘The account is accompanied by a brief but very accu- 
rate description, which leaves no doubt of the identity of our 
plant with it. The native country of the plant is not given. 
Fig. 1. Capsule. 2. Transverse section of capsule,—slightly magnified. 3. 
Portion of the proliferous stem,—natural size. 
* Since the above was written, I find in the latest Fasciculus (xxvii.) of Von 
Martius’s ‘ Flora Brasiliensis,’ which has just reached my hands, a very full ac- 
count of this plant, at p. 386, where it is referred to the group of Gereondia of 
Begonia (genus Gereondia of Klotzsch), and admirable representations at t. 99 
and 100 of the plant itself, and the very remarkable physiological structure of 
the minute leaves and leaf-buds, in a numerous series of figures. The species 
is said to inhabit Guatemala, and, probably, Brazil. ; 
