194 BEGONIA FAMILY. 



* * Stem evident, but often short ; mostly taller. 



B. Veitchii, Hook. Stem very short ; leaves roundish, scallop-lobed, 

 with ciliate margins, and a red spot near the center ; scape 12' high, 

 bearing twin brick-red flowers, 2' or more across, with 5 rounded, spread- 

 ing petals. This and the last are types of many garden forms. 



B. Pearcei, Hook. A foot high, with lance-cordate leaves, reddish- 

 tomentose beneath ; flowers yellow, several, on rather slender pedi- 

 cels. 



B. Boliviensis, A. DC. About 2, branching ; leaves nearly lanceolate, 

 very sharply serrate; flowers large (2' long), bright red, in drooping 

 panicles ; the petals lanceolate-acute, not spreading. 



II. NON-TUBEROUS (except B. Evansiana), comprising a great variety of 

 species, some of them from short subterranean rhizomes and stemless. 



* Stemless ; leaves, or especially the petioles, and the peduncles or scapes, 



bristly-hairy, these all from ajleshy tuberous or creeping rootslock. 



H- Leaves large, obliquely heart-shaped, toothed or merely wavy-margined, 

 variously silvered or variegated above, reddish or purple beneath; 

 flowers rather large, but not showy ; cult, for their foliage, now much 

 crossed and mixed. 



B. Rex, Putz. The most prized and now the commonest species of the 

 group, with the leaf silver-banded or silvery all over the upper face; and 

 smooth, pale, rose-colored flowers. Himalaya. 



B. Griffith//', Hook. Like the preceding, but leaves and stalks more 

 downy-hairy, and the almost white flowers hairy outside. Himalaya. 



B. xanthlna, Hook. With leaves, etc., much as in the two preceding, 

 but the flowers yellow. Himalaya. 



*- -*- Leaves deeply about 1 -cleft ; flowers with only the 2 sepals, no petals. 



B. heracleifblia, Cham. & Schlecht. With rather large and rounded, 

 hardly oblique leaves, smooth above and sometimes variegated, the lobes 

 broad lanceolate and cut-toothed, and small, pale rose or whitish flowers. 

 Mexico. 



B. RiciNiF6LiA is a hybrid of the last and B. peponifolia. 



* * Stems elongated, naked, bearing tubers or bulblets in the axils; leaves 



slightly bristly-hairy above and more so on the sharp teeth. 



B. Ei/ansiana, Andr. (or B. DISCOLOR), an old-fashioned species from 

 China, now rare, almost hardy even N., producing all summer showy, 

 rose- colored flowers in the open ground ; the ovate and heart-shaped, 

 pointed leaves not very oblique, red beneath. 



* * * Stems fleshy, erect or ascending ; leaves smooth and naked above, 

 bristle-bearing on the toothed or cut margins and long petioles ; flowers 

 with the 2 colored sepals, but seldom any petals. 



B. manicata, Gels. A handsome species of the conservatory, remark- 

 able for the purple, bristle-bearing scales or fringes on the apex or upper 

 part of the petiole, and similar smaller tufts on the ribs of the lower face 

 of the large and broadly ovate-heart-shaped leaves ; flowers small, but 

 numerous "and elegant, in an open panicle on a very long, naked peduncle, 

 flesh-colored. Mexico. 



B. phyllomanlaca, Mart. Stem thickly beset with leaf-like scales or 

 little adventitious leaves, from which the plant may be propagated, both 

 leafstalks and peduncles bristly, the large leaves ovate-heart-shaped and 

 tapering to a narrow point, their margins cut-toothed, and rather large 

 but not showy flowers. Brazil. 



