178 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
B. coccinea, is greater in the new series than in that above 
described. . 
Seeing that no spots occur in the adult leayes of the parents, it was 
at first puzzling to account for their presence in the hybrids. The 
solution of the problem was, of course, to be looked for by studying the 
young leaves of the parents, arising either from the seed or the bud, or 
both. I am nof aware that the seedlings of Tuberous Begonias ever 
exhibit the peculiarity in question, and I have not yet had opportunity of 
observing seedlings of B. coccinea. In the latter, as grown from cuttings, 
one seldom sees any spots, but now and then a young shoot is found 
bearing quite distinctly spotted leaves. In the meantime, therefore, one 
aA 
Fic. 90.—Rep Tusrrous Breconta x B. coccinna; a, b,c FauuEN Jornrs (nat. size). 
can only surmise that a character usually latent in one of the parents finds 
scope for fuller expression in the hybrid offspring. _ 
In the second series, the general habit of the plants and the form of 
the leaves clearly point to B. coccinea being rather more potent than 
before; and the partial disappearance of the spots at an early stage 
suggests that, while in the hybrids of the previous year an early phase of 
vegetative life of the male parent was impressed on the offspring, in the ° 
newer hybrids a more mature condition is represented. 
On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the female parents 
come of a very variable stock. Those used in the second set of experi- 
ments were a newer and somewhat finer class of Tuberous Begonias. 
A singular corroboration of the view that it is to the action of the 
pollen parent, B. coccinea, that the spots are due, has been afforded by 
seedlings of B. hydrocotylifolia x B. coccinea, raised during the present 
