152 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
2 oval glands near its summit. Flowers 2-3 in. wide, solitary; 
peduncles 3-bracted, longer than the petioles; calyx-lobes with a 
small horn-like appendage on the back near the apex, white within. 
Petals and crown purple and white. Fruit yellow, about the size 
and shape of a hen’s egg, edible. Seeds with a pulpy aril. Com- 
mon along fence-rows and embankments S.* . 
2. P. lutea, L. YELLOW PAssion-FLOWER. Perennial. Stem 
slender, smooth, 6-10 ft. long. Leaves broadly heart-shaped, 3-lobed 
at the summit, entire, often mucronate ; stipules small; petioles 
without glands. Peduncles longer than the leaves, usually in pairs. 
Flowers greenish-yellow, 4-3? in. wide. Fruit purple, oval, } in. 
long. Woods and thickets S.* 
68. BEGONIACEZ. Beconra FAmILy. 
Chiefly perennial herbs or low shrubs, with fleshy or very 
juicy stems. Leaves alternate, generally heart-shaped at the 
base, often very unsymmetrical; stipules deciduous. Flowers 
moncecious, in cymes or other clusters, on axillary peduncles. 
Stamens many (Fig. 18). Pistillate flowers with the floral 
envelopes borne on the ovary ; ovary 3-angled or 3-winged 
(Fig. 18), very many-seeded. 
BEGONIA, L. 
Flowers with the calyx and corolla of the same color, — 
staminate and pistillate ones both occurring in the same clus- 
ter. Sepals usually 2. Petals 2 or in the fertile flowers 3 or 
4, sometimes wanting. Stamens many in acluster, with short 
filaments. Styles of the fertile flowers 3, often with long, 
twisted stigmas (Fig. 18, C). The genus contains a great num- 
ber of species and varieties, cultivated from tropical or sub- 
tropical regions, of which only a few of the commonest are 
here described. 
1. B. Rex, Putz. Herb, stemless or nearly so, from a fleshy root- 
stock. Leaves large, taper-pointed, very unequally heart-shaped, the 
margin sinuous, often bristly fringed, upper surface wholly silvery or 
mottled silvery and dark green, lower surface green or reddish or of 
both colors. Flowers few, large (14 to 13 in. in diameter), varying 
from yellow to pinkish. Cultivated from the Himalayas; many 
varieties. 
