en the Genus of Begonia. 157 
plant: and having an opportunity of comparing dried fpecimens of 
fevera] fpecies, and the afliftance of defcriptions of fome of them 
made on the fpot by the late Doors Solander and Konig, befides 
the knowledge to be got from printed books, I was tempted to lay 
before the Society the refult of my refcarches. Though I have feen 
fpecimens of fifteen out of the twenty-one {pecies I have determined, 
ftill many of them were not fo perfeét in all their parts, as to enable 
me to give a fatisfaétory account of them ; and the impoffibility of 
determining with certainty fuch flefhy plants from dry fpecimens, 
makes it ftill more neceffary to offer this only as a fketch of the 
imperfect knowledge we have of this genus, in hopes of inciting 
fuch botanifts, as may hereafter have an opportunity of examining 
the living plants, to fill up the chafms which {till remain. It muft 
alfo be left to a future confideration, when the different fpecies 
fhall be better known, if it would not be more convenient to di- 
vide this natural genus into feveral artificial ones; as it is almoft 
impoffible to give a general defcription of the genus, there being fo 
great a variation in the parts of fructification. 
Conícious of the impoffibility of making good figures from im- 
perfect dried fpecimens of fucculent plants, but ftill withing to give 
fome affiftance to thofe who have no opportunity of feeing the fpe- 
cimens I have ufed, I have given the outline of a leaf of moft of 
the fpecies, which were not figured before; and alfo a figure of the 
fruit, when I had a perfect one. 
There ftill remain feveral Begonias of which I have fome know- 
ledge, but not fufficient to ecu them in this arrangement of 
the genus : thofe will be found in an appendix at the end, under 
the title of Species obfcure. 
It will be neceflary to explain fome terms made ufe P in my 
fpecific differences : 
g Folium 
