INFERTILE HYBRIDS. 197 
growing up to the present time. It was found that the plants made 
splendid growth the first season from the seed and gave great promise 
for the future. Trouble came when the problem of perennation was 
faced. The plants were never so vigorous again, and none of them bore 
any flowers. The specimen kept has made but little growth for some 
years. Its rootstock is a compromise between a tuberous and a fibrous 
condition. In winter a number of rather weak-looking stems persist. 
They are not erect, but more or less twisted, in one case drooping over 
the edge of the pot. In spring a few new stems arise from the rootstock 
in a manner resembling the young shoots from a tuber, but the stems of 
the hybrid are much more woody. The plant does not now grow more 
than 7 or 8 inches high. Although so old, clear indication of the 
influence of B. coccinea in its parentage can still be seen, the younger 
leaves being dotted with the silvery spots characteristic of the young 
leaves of that species. Young seedlings of B. coccinea are very con- 
spicuously spotted. 
B. hydrocotylifolia x B. coccinea. 
Reference was also made at the first Conference to seedlings of B. 
hydrocotylifolia x B. coccinea. These showed the influence of B. coccinea 
in having the leaves thickly dotted with silvery spots. 
Two series of crosses between B. hydrocotylifolia and B. coccinea have 
been grown, and are represented now by a few plants of each. In the 
one series the spots seem to disappear almost entirely in the adult leaves ; 
in the other they persist with considerable distinctness. The habit of the 
respective plants is not quite the same. In the one the main shoots are 
strong and upright, but all the branches assume a drooping position ; in 
the other the pendent condition is but slightly developed. The strongest 
plant is eight feet in height. In all the plants the influence of B. coc- 
cinea in habit, foliage, and flower is very marked. One sees the slight 
influence of B. hydrocotylifolia in the broader, blunter form of leaf. The 
leaves are often larger than those of B. coccinea. The flowers can 
scarcely be distinguished from those of that species. The staminate ones 
are not quite normal. These hybrids are sterile, so far as I have 
observed. 
Begoma heracleifolia x B. coccinea. 
The seedlings of this hybrid were spotted as in the above. A few 
plants have been preserved. They are much alike in general characters. 
B. heracleifolia possesses a very stout horizontal rhizome, partly sunk in 
the soil. Its internodes are very short. The scars of the fallen leaves 
-are large and surrounded by coarse hairs. The leaves rise erect in a 
group from the apex of the rhizome and its branches. The leaf-stalks 
are very long, and very thickly beset with long and strong white hairs 
arising in irregular groups from purple spots. The base of the hairs is 
purple. Close under the leaf-blade, the stalk bears a thick fringe of 
similarly coloured hairs, of much greater length and strength than 
those lower down. The leaf-blade is very large, and is very deeply 
cut into eight or more lobes. The lobes are irregularly serrate, the teeth 
