BEGONIA FAMILY. 161 



53. BEGONIACE^, BEGONIA FAMILY. 



Somewhat succulent herbaceous or more or less woody-stemmed 

 house-plants, of peculiar aspect, with alternate and unequal-sided 

 leaves, deciduous stipules, and monoecious flowers, in cymes or clus- 

 ters on axillary peduncles, numerous stamens, inferior triangular 

 ovary, becoming a many-seeded pod, — represented in choice culti- 

 vation by the genus 



1. BEGONIA, ELEPHANT'S-EAR. (Named for M. Began, Gover- 

 nor of St. Domingo 200 years ago.) Flowers with the calyx and corolla 

 colored alike, sometimes dull but usually handsome, both kinds commonly in 

 the same cyme, and flat in the bud ; the outer pieces answering to sepals 

 mostly 2, valvate in the bud ; the inner, or true petals, 2, or in the fertile 

 flowers usually 3 or 4, or not rarely wanting ; in the sterile flowers surround- 

 ing a cluster of numerous stamens with short filaments ; in the fertile are 3 

 styles with thick or lobed stigmas. Ovary and pod triangular, often 3-winged. 

 — These curious plants are remai'kable for the readiness with which they may 

 be projiagated by leaves used as cuttings. The following are the commonest 

 pure species. There are several rarer ones and many hybrids. 



* Leaves and whole plant smooth and naked : rather tall-growing, leafy-stemmed. 

 -(- Leaves ovate-oblong, serrate with bristle-tipped teeth, not at all heart-shaped. 



B. fuchsioides, so-called because the bright scarlet flowers, hanging on 

 a slender droojjing stalk, may be likened to those of Fuchsia ; the crowded and 

 small green and glossy leaves only a little unequal-sided at base. 



■I- ••- Leaves very obliquely heart-shaped or half heart-shaped at base, almof<t entire. 



B. nitida, with obliquely heart-shaped glossy leaves green both sides, and 

 with large light rose-colored flowers. 



B. saugulnea, with large and fleshy obliquely ovate-heart-shaped leaves, 

 having a narrow rcvolute margin, pale green above, red beneath, as are the 

 stalks ; the flowers white, not showy. 



B. macul^ta, cult, under the name of B. ARGYROSxfGMA, both names 

 referring to the silvery-white spots scattered over the upper face of the 

 leaves, which are narrower and more oblong than in the preceding, purpli&h 

 or crimson beneath, the margin cartilaginous but not revolute, the flowers white 

 or flesh-colored. 



B. coecinea, with scarlet flowers, as the name denotes, and oblong half 

 heart-shaped leaves glossy above, and green both sides or purple at the margin, 

 which is a little wavy-toothed. 



* * Leaves slightly bristly-hairy above and more so on the sharp teeth : sterns^ 



elongated, naked, bearing tubers or bulblets in the axils. 

 B. Evansi^na (or B. ofscoLOR), an old-fashioned species from China^ 

 now rare, almost hardy even N., producing all summer showy rose-colored, 

 flowers in the open ground ; the ovate and heart-shaped pointed leaves not very 

 oblique, red beneath. 



* * * Leaves smooth and naked above, bristle-bearing on the toothed or cut margins 



and long petioles : stems fleshy, erect or ascending ; flowers with the 2 colored 

 sepals, but seldom any petals. 

 B. manic^ta, a handsome species of the conservatory, remarkable for the 

 purple bristle-bearing scales or fringes on the apex or upper part of the petiole, 

 and similar smaller tufts on the ribs of the lower face of the large and broadlj 

 ovatc-heart-sha])ed leaves ; flowers small, but numerous and elegant, in an open 

 panicle on a very long naked peduncle, flesh-colored. 



B. phyllomaniaca, has the stem thickly beset with leaf-like scales or 

 little adventitious leaves, from which the plant may be propagated, both 

 leafstalks and peduncles bristly, the large leaves ovate-heai t-shaped and tapering 

 to a narrow point, their margins cut-toothed, and rather large but not showy 

 flowers. 



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