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development of Fern fronds being most conducive to 
their luxuriant growth, and have seen them so used and 
forming groups of the greatest beauty. There are an 
immense number of varieties in this class, some kinds 
resembling others so nearly that it is a matter of diffi- 
culty to distinguish them. It is useless for an amateur 
to grow two kinds so nearly alike. We will not enu- 
merate any in this class, as the particular varieties are 
known to florists and plantsmen by different names called 
after some notable of rank, in whose garden it may have 
chanced to originate. With most of the ladies in the 
South the term Rex Begonia covers the entire group. 
A most peculiar new one has been catalogued for the 
past few seasons that differ much from any variety of 
this class hitherto cultivated by a peculiar whorl in the 
leaf. It comes to us bearing the euphonious cognomen 
of Countess Louise Erdody, and is at present the Begonia 
par excellence, and a plant of unusual beauty and growth. 
It originated with the gardener of Count Erdody, a Hun- 
garian nobleman. The leaf, which has a metallic luster, 
appears dark silvery in the centre, shading into coppery 
rose toward the margin, which is broadly and evenly 
edged with the same hue, but darker and more brilliant. 
The veins are yellowish-green on both sides, accompanied 
by a dark green ribbon, while owing to an elegant undu- 
lation of the leaf they run in a sort of grove close to the 
margin of the leaf. The striking peculiarity, however, 
which distinguishes it from all other Begonias, consists 
in the fact that the two lobes at the base of the leaf do 
not grow side by side, but one of them winds in a spiral- 
like way until in a full-grown leaf. There are four of 
these twists lying on the top of the leaf nearly two inches 
high. It is truly a curiosity, and one but little known. 
This variety retains the general character of the Rex 
