32 THE TUBEROUS BEGONIA. 



THE INTRODUCER OF THE TUBEROUS-ROOTED BEGONIAS. 



BEFORE concluding this section, we may be pardoned a slight digression, in 

 order to do honour to the memory of a man, whose name will be held in 

 esteem so long as the Tuberous Begonia exists as a garden plant we allude 

 to Richard Pearce, to whose energy and daring as a traveller we are indebted 

 for the earliest species, introduced from Bolivia and Peru, and of whom we 

 have the pleasure to give a characteristic portrait as a frontispiece to this 

 book, prepared from a photograph kindly lent us for the purpose by Mr. 

 Harry J. Veitch. Richard Pearce was a native of Plymouth, and was first 

 employed in the nursery of Mr. Pontey, in that town. Leaving Plymouth 

 he entered the service of Messrs. James Veitch and Son, at Mount Radford, 

 Exeter, about the year 1858. Early in 1859 he went out to Chili and 

 Ecuador, and the first consignment of seeds and plants which he sent home 

 was recmved at Mount Radford on October 15th of the same year. In this 

 and other consignments from Chili, Pearce sent home Libocedrus tetragona, 

 Aganisia microphylla, Prumnopitys (Podocarpus) elegans, Podocarpus nubigena, 

 Eucryphia pinnata, Lapageria alba, several Bomarias, Gynmogramma Fearcei, 

 and other Ferns, Fuchsia triphylla, and Thibaudia acuminata. 



Early in 1862 he sent from Cuenca a great number of seeds, Bejaria 

 ledifolia (an evergreen shrub), Lisiantlms magnificus (afterwards sent out by 

 Mr. B. S. Williams), Calceolaria ericoides, and several good Tacsonias. In 

 March of the same year, and again in August, he sent home from Guaya- 

 quil some six consignments, and among these was the handsome Maranta 

 Veitchii. He next went to Muna, a province in Peru, when he found and 

 sent home, among other good things, Aphelandra nitens, Gymnostachys 

 Pearcei, and Sanchezia nobilis variegata. From Muna he went to Teukaman, 

 where he collected Nierembergia rivularis and N. Veitchii, Begonia boliv- 

 iensis, Palava flexuosa, Ourisea Pearcei, Mutisia decurrens, and several 

 Peperomias. His next journey was to La Paz, and in November, 1865, he 

 sent home Begonia Pearcei, B. Veitchii, a number of good Hippeastrums, 

 such as pardinum and Leopoldi, the progenitors of the present magnificent 

 race of Amaryllis ; and two or three excellent species of Eccremocarpus, 

 which were subsequently lost. 



On returning from La Paz, Mr. Pearce left the firm, and went home to 

 Plymouth, where he married, but returning to London again in 1867, he went 

 out to Panama for Mr. William Bull, where he most unfortunately contracted 

 fever, and died a fortnight after his arrival, thus adding another name to 

 the long roll of intrepid men who have lost their lives while endeavouring 

 to enrich our gardens with the beautiful plants of foreign lands. Though a 

 man of small stature, Richard Pearce had a lion's heart, and his early death 

 was a great loss to British horticulture. 



