INTRODUCTION. 5 



plants. The single-flowering varieties are undoubtedly much more suitable 

 for out-of-door decoration than the doubles, the blooms of which, especially 

 in the case of the more improved kinds, are not produced with sufficient 

 rapidity, nor remain so long on the plant ; so that they become to some 

 extent disfigured by the weather before their natural span of life is nearly 

 completed. Either in masses of harmoniously-arranged or contrasted colours, 

 as single specimens (as a centre in small beds, or in other similar positions), 

 for which rather large plants are naturally best adapted, or dotted here and 

 there with more or less regard to uniformity in mixed, or even herbaceous 

 borders (in which position they afford an excellent contrast to plants of other 

 character or habit), the Tuberous Begonia is simply an invaluable subject, 

 and invariably creates a fine effect. The more commonly cultivated varieties 

 with droopina flowers are exceedingly graceful and admirable ; but a class has 

 recently been produced, by careful selection, of stiffer habit, bearing flowers 

 held more or less erect, which of course present themselves more fully to the 

 eye of a spectator than plants possessing only pendulous blooms can do. 



By far the most valuable characteristic of the Begonia, when employed as a 

 bedding-out plant, is its remarkable power of withstanding the influence of 

 extremes of weather and climate. In this respect it possesses a great advantage 

 over the Pelargonium, which, however brilliant and beautiful it may be when 

 in good condition, needs very special weather to enable it to develope its capa- 

 bilities to the full, when planted out of doors in our uncertain English climate ; 

 while the Begonia pursues the even tenor of its way all through the season, 

 come sunshine or shower, heat or cold ; and not only looks up to all appearance 

 refreshed and invigorated, instead of bruised and battered, after a storm of wind 

 and rain, but seems equally unaffected by a long period of tropical heat and 

 drought, provided only that its roots are working in a stratum of rich and 

 comparatively moist earth below the surface. The Begonia is also devoid of 

 the serious tendency of the Zonal Pelargonium to "run to leaf" in wet and 

 sunless seasons. As long as growth continues it produces a truss of bloom at 

 every joint, which never fails to expand if the temperature is moderately high. 

 Sudden changes from hot to cold weather alone seem to have an injurious 

 effect, sometimes causing a portion of the buds to drop before expanding. In 

 the cold wet summers we experienced four or five years ago, Begonias outside 

 looked as bright and fresh as possible all through the season ; and again during 

 the intense heats of the last summer the plants seemed literally to luxuriate 

 in the tropical blaze, and flowered with exceptional freedom, so long as there 

 was a supply of moisture about the roots, causing the beds to produce the 

 effect of solid sheets of dazzling bloom. 



The scarlet and crimson shades, which naturally predominate in a good class 

 of these plants, are, of course, more effective, either in the open air or under 

 glass, than the quieter and more subdued colours. Many of the varieties now in 

 cultivation, of varying tints of these bright or deep reds, are so dazzlingly 



