THE BEGONIA. 149 



shows what this species was like when first known to horticulturists. 

 It is a native of Assam, India. 



Griffithi. Another species is B. Griffithi, Hook., which was intro- 

 duced from Assam by Henderson, of England, in 1856. It has been 

 crossed but little with any other species, and is probably not known 

 in America. B. Xanthina, Hook., is so similar to Kex that it is proba- 

 bly only a form of that species. 



A number of varieties, such as Madame Trey ve, Mad. Luizet, Ed. 

 B. Kennedy, Henri Vilmorin, Sir Joseph Hooker, Ed. Pynaert, and 

 many others, have been produced by crossing B. Rex with B. discolor, 

 and are known as the Ecx-discolor hybrids. Others, such as Lesoudii, 

 Adrien Schmidt, Clementinae, Madm. Alamagny, Mad. Isabelle Bellon, 

 etc., have been derived from crossing Rex with diadema, and are 

 known as the Eex-diadema hybrids. There arc many miscellaneous 

 Rex hybrids of known origin which the writer might mention to-day, 

 but time will not permit. One, however, which is of particular inter- 

 est, is Countess Louise Erdody, a cross between Alexander Humboldt 

 and argentea cupreata. The smaller of the two lobes of the leaf is 

 twisted round at the base in a spiral manner with as many as four 

 coils. The upper surface is silvery, with deep green veins. It was 

 introduced by Nemeczik, gardener to Count Erdody, a Hungarian 

 nobleman, in 1884. 



Other varieties of unknown or uncertain origin are Louise Closson, 

 Lucy Closson, Marquis de Peralta, Duchess de Brabant, Louise Chre- 

 tien. Bertha MacGregor, Count Erdody, with spiral lobes similar to 

 the Countess, Matilda, and Alice White. 



Much more might be said about the begonia. The writer has not 

 touched upon the soil, conditions of moisture and temperature, dis- 

 eases and methods of propagation, all of which are of the greatest 

 importance. These must be treated at some future time, as to attempt 

 to give a few hurried remarks about these great essentials to success 

 would be unfair, not only to the writer and to his hearers, but also 

 to the genus. Whatever good may result from this paper, or what- 

 ever value it may be to our florists and horticulturists, one thing is 

 certain, that it shows the wonderful rapidity by which n genus, when 

 handled by the sagacious and careful gardener, may be multiplied, 

 within the course of fifty years, to an almost indescribable degree 

 of form, size, color, and beauty. 



At the time of reading this paper before the society the writer begs 

 to state that he was not aware of the collection of begonias of Mrs. 

 Theodosia B. Shepherd, of Ventura-by-the-Sea, California, and of her 

 excellent work with them. She has a collection of from 125 to 150 

 varieties of begonias belonging to the fibrous-rooted section, and has 



