74 THE TUBEROUS BEGONIA. 



THE NEW RACE OF WINTER-FLOWERING 

 BEGONIAS. 



Jl S briefly mentioned at p. 22, a new race of valuable winter-flowering 

 2ESL varieties has been obtained in the Messrs. Veitch's Nursery, by crossing 



0^ Begonia socotrana with some of the best of the modern tuberous - 

 rooted varieties, and though neither B. socotrana nor the seedlings obtained 

 therefrom can, strictly speaking, be called "tuberous," yet this work would 

 be very incomplete without some reference to them. 



For Begonia socotrana (of which we give an illustration on p. 75) British 

 horticulture is indebted to Professor Bayley Balfour, of Edinburgh, who 

 introduced it from the island of Socotra in 1880. Its stems are only of 

 annual duration, erect, fleshy, leafy, and usually attains a height of from 6 ins. 

 to 9 ins. During the course of growth scaly bulbils are developed around the 

 base of the main axis, and from these the plant is propagated and grown on. 

 The bulbils should be rested in summer, and re-started in September in heat. 

 It comes into flower in the short dull days of the waning year, and continues 

 in bloom for a long time. The leaves are dark green, peltate, orbicular, 

 concave in the centre with the edges rolled backward, and crenate, while they 

 measure 4 ins. to 7 ins. in diameter. The terminal inflorescence is loosely 

 cymose, bearing bright rose-coloured flowers ranging from 1^ ins. to 2 ins. in 

 diameter. The male perianth consists of four segments and the female of six. 

 The stamens have club-shaped anthers, and are arranged in small dense globular 

 clusters, while the bifid stigmas are horseshoe-shaped and not spirally twisted. 

 One angle of the trigonous ovary is produced into a wing ; the ovary is three- 

 celled and the placentas undivided. 



CHARACTERISTICS or THE FIRST CROSSES. 



WHEN the winter-flowering habit became established, horticulturists soon 

 perceived that by intercrossing this new species with the summer-flowering 

 tuberous Begonias it was possible that a very important race of winter-flowering 

 kinds would be obtained. The idea was acted upon, and a satisfactory 

 measure of success has resulted therefrom, though it must be acknowledged 

 that the progress made is rather slow. This, however, is not greatly to be 

 wondered at, seeing how different B. socotrana really is from the tuberous 

 Begonias of the New "World in its various botanical characteristics. The half- 

 dozen South American species from which the tuberous Begonias have sprung 

 all belong to one section or sub-genus, with the exception of B. boliviensis, 



