Order 57. Begoniacece. 131 



Out of 65 Indian species of Begonia given by H., only o^e is at 

 all common in this Presidency. 



The Begonias hare in a very high degree the power of reproduction 

 by their leaves ; as it is stated that a leaf placed on damp soil and 

 cut across the nerves, will produce roots and buds at every incision. 

 Le Naout. 



BEGONIA : as the order. 



B. crenata. A very pretty and delicate little plant, leaves 

 ovate, unequally crenated, with a few stiff hairs, flowers pink, 

 stamens 8 to 16, monadelphous, capsule 2-celled with irregular 

 wings. Mutia. 



Abundant in S. Konkan, growing in crevices of rocks, walls, and 

 wells, also in the Ghauts. Grows also on trees (D.). 



* B. intcgrifolia, leaves ovate, oblong, dark red below, flowers small, 

 white, stamens about 50, monadelphous, capsule with one broad and 

 two very narrow winga. * B. trichocarpa, leaves ovate, cordate, 

 flowers large, white, few together, stamens about 40 free, capsule with 

 3 nearly equal wings. These two on rocks on the Ghauts (-D.)- * B. 

 concanensis, leaves ovate, acute, sometimes lobed, flowers rose colour, 

 stamens as in the last, capsule with the larger wing triangular. 

 Konkan and Ghauts (D.). 



The order Cacteae must here be mentioned, though there are 

 no plants native to W". India belonging to it. But Opuntia 

 Dillenii, commonly called the broad-leaved prickly pear, ndg- 

 plianna, chappal, is quite naturalized, and is generally looked 

 on in the Deccan as a nuisance. It is nearly if not quite the 

 same species as that on which the cochineal insect is reared in 

 Teneriffe (H.) In Mexico, where apparently cochineal was 

 first produced, the plant is called nopal, and the plantations 

 nopalries. The species so common in 8. Italy, O. vulgaris, 

 is to all appearance the same, and there, as in America, the 

 fruit is called the Indian fig. Hehn eulogizes the plant in a 

 manner which reads strangely to those who know it only in 

 India. 



Note. " In India there are no indigenous cactuses : what people take 

 fur thickets of cactus are really cactus-like spurges. In the dry soil of 

 India many spurges grow thick and succulent, learn to suppress their 

 leaves, and assume the bizarre appearance of the true cactuses. In 

 flower and fruit, however, they are euphorbic to the end ; it is only 

 in the thick and fleshy stem that they resemble their noble and more 

 beautiful Western rivals." Grant Allen. 



Many species of cactus have large and splendid flowers : 

 "And cactuses a Queen might don, 

 If weary of a golden crown, 



And still appear as royal." E. B. Browning. 

 K 2 



