THE BEGONIA FAMILY. 351 



One of this family grows wild in England, and belongs to the indi- 

 genous Manchester Flora : a plant with a large tuberous and perennial 

 root, and abundance of slender annual stems that climb by means of 

 their tendrils to the height of several yards; the rough and dark 

 green leaves more or less deeply divided into five or seven broad, 

 angular, and coarsely-toothed lobes, the middle lobe longer than the 

 others. The flowers are on separate plants, star-like, pale yellowish 

 green, and growing in loose clusters of two to five or six. The females 

 are succeeded in autumn by globular red berries, the size of a pea, 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 Common Bryony — {Bryonia clioica.) 



Hedges about Sale, Carrington, Didsbury, and Northen, but rather 

 sparingly. Beyond Ashley. Between Altrincham and Broadheath. 

 Near Kenyon and Pennington. (J. E.) Between Mobberley and 

 Knutsford. (Mr. Holland.) Fl. June, July. 



E. B. vii. 4:39 ; Baxter, ii. 83. 



The bryony is one of the most elegant of our native plants. It is very com- 

 monly confounded with the famous mandrake, or Mandragora vernalis, the root 

 being much of the same figure and dimensions. But the latter, instead of being 

 a tendrilled climber, is a low-gi-owing plant, with the aspect more of a primrose 

 than a cucimiber, and with bell-shaped flowers like those of the Atropa, or deadly- 

 nightshade. 



CIX.— THE BEGONIA FAMILY. Bcffonidcea. 



A little family of succulent undershrubby plants, natives of the East 

 and West Indies, South America, and the island of jMadagascar. They 

 are esteemed for the extreme elegance and singularity alike of their 

 foliage and their flowers, and are conspicuous ornaments of every good 

 conservatory. Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, usually undivided, 

 and for the most part remarkably oblique, or larger upon one side of 

 the midrib than \ipon the other, from which circumstance the species 

 that shew it well are by some people called " elephant's-ears." They 

 are generally toothed, rarely entire, often of a deep red colour under- 

 neath, and frequently ornamented above with beautiful light spots or 

 other markings. The flowers consist in general only of a calyx, which 

 is petaloid in texture, and usually pink or white, the buds being remark- 

 ably flat before expansion. The stamens and pistils are always in 

 separate blossoms, but not upon separate individuals. The inflorescence 



