64 THE TUBEROUS BEGONIA. 



either pot on as required, or plant out of doors in a well-prepared bed to' 

 form tubers for next year's work. They must not be over-potted, and 

 unless sown early and grown on very strongly, it will be better to keep them 

 in 3 or 4-inch pots the first season, though if they are forward and strong 

 they may have 5 -inch pots in June or July. "When well established in either 

 of these sizes they will bloom more or less freely, but if only two or three 

 flowers appear on those in small pots this will be sufficient to ascertain their 

 character, and they may be labelled and described in a note-book for growing 

 on next year. If the plants are forward enough to occupy 5 or 6-inch pots 

 before autumn, these will, however, bloom well, and make handsome plants. 



But these double Begonias hardly ever show their true character the first 

 season from seed or cuttings either ; and, as a rule, the flowers will come two 

 or three times the size, or at any rate, very much .larger often more double 

 and finer in every way the second summer. In this respect they differ con- 

 siderably from the single form, which, if sown early as directed, and grown 

 along vigorously, make fine plants, bearing grand blooms the same year as 

 sown, though even these, we think, are at their best, and the blooms largest, 

 the second summer. Then it is that a really fine variety comes out 

 in its true colours, the growth being naturally stronger from the tuber 

 than from the seed. Nevertheless, very fine double blooms indeed have 

 been had on young plants from seed sown in the spring, the plants 

 being in 5-inch pots ; last autumn, in particular, some of these measured 

 3 inches, 4 inches, and in one case nearly 5 inches in diameter, though, of course, 

 there were only a few blooms on each plant. 



It may here be as well to state, for the benefit of those who are not yet 

 acquainted with these lovely flowers, that only the male (or pollen-bearing) 

 blooms consist of more than the usual number of petals, the female or seed- 

 blossoms being invariably single, and, as in the case of the single kinds, 

 possessing only the usual five petals. Both the flowers and seed-pods of 

 double-flowering varieties are much smaller and more insignificant than those 

 of single-flowering plants, which are in some cases almost as handsome as the 

 male flowers. 



The first doubles raised were very pale and sickly in colour, generally of a 

 washed-out pink, or dull red shade, and when a pare white, or what passed 

 for a white at that time, was introduced, it was considered a great stride. 

 For a long time all doubles of this colour were strongly tinted with yellow 

 or pink, and sometimes with green ; this is frequently the case even now 

 among seedlings. They were also small and badly shaped. The introduction 

 of Madame de Dumast and a few others gave a great lift, however, to the 

 character of these flowers, and though none of these were really white, yet 

 they afforded a pureness and delicacy of tint, and an elegance of form that 

 was previously wanting, and we have now, probably more or less directly 

 derived from these, large doubles of the purest snowy white, and of the 



