98 THE TUBBROUS BEGONIA. 



what dry and very airy atmosphere, with gentle warmth, and a fair amount 

 of sunshine acting on the plants will bo found beneficial. Also do not give 

 more than just enough water at the root to keep the plants from nagging. 

 Damp is the great enemy of the pods when swelling and ripening, so that 

 should the weather prove dull, a little fire heat should put on, and an 

 abundance of air admitted in any case. 



As a rule, from seed saved in the ordinary way, or such as is usually sold 

 by trade growers, not more than fifty, or at most sixty per cent, of double 

 flowers can be expected often there will be less than this even. But by 

 the exercise of great care, and the use of pollen from flowers as nearly double 

 as possible, seventy, eighty, and even ninety per cent, of doubles may be 

 obtained. It is strange that the first one or two blooms on seedling plants are 

 seldom so double as those that succeed them, and also that any check, such 

 as re- potting, will often cause the blooms to come only partly double for a 

 time. The fact is that fully double flowers are, as a rule, only produced by 

 a plant in full health and vigour. The finest condition is generally attained 

 when the plant is becoming slightly pot-bounl after having attained a good 

 size, and the vigour kept up by means of frequent doses of weak liquid 

 manure. Any single flowers produced among the doubles are usually worth- 

 less, being almost invariably poor, weak, flimsy things. 



THE FIRST DOUBLE VARIETIES. 



THE race of doubles arose in the first place from a few plants that were 

 noticed to possess rather more than the usual number of petals. These were 

 inter-crossed, and the petals gradually became more numerous, until at last 

 the whole of the anthers (which in true doubles are simply converted into 

 petals) became displaced, and perfectly double blooms resulted. The first 

 doubles of any note or degree of excellence that were sent out, were Alba plena, 

 white ; Anemonae-flora plena, rosy red ; Argus, vermilion ; Gloire de Nancy, 

 bright vermilion ; Lemoinei, orange ; Louis Van Houtte, orange-scarlet ; Pres. 

 Burelle, a rather bright red ; Salmonea plena, salmon-rose ; W. E. Gumbleton, 

 bright salmon. These are all that were to be found in Messrs. Laing's list of 

 1877, and were introduced, we believe, during 1875 and 1876. Most of these, 

 however, were only partly double, and would look very poor beside many of the 

 introductions of the last two or three years. 



The great variety of form among the double-flowering Begonias constitutes 

 one of their great charms. Almost all are beautiful in their way, and 

 lovely and almost perfect as many of the new varieties are, there is evidently 

 still room for improvement in this respect in fact, none can possibly say 

 what these flowers are yet capable of becoming. In our opinion, the dwarf- 

 habited erect-flowered class, with round petals, is much the most desirable 

 and promising class, the blooms showing to so much better effect to a 

 spectator above them (which is usually the case) than the drooping-flowered 



