Ill 



ON BEGONIAS, MOST BRILLIANT OF BEDDING PLANTS 



THE tuberous Begonia, as we grow it in our gardens 

 to-day, is an entirely modern production. Begonias, and 

 Begonias with tubers, were known a good many years 

 ago, but flower gardeners took very little notice of them, 

 because they were either straggly and ungainly in habit, 

 or had drooping, ineffectual flowers. 



" Begonia " is derived from Begon, the name of a 

 French floriculturist. 



There is little of the interest of folk-lore or literary 

 association in the Begonia. When the reader who is 

 interested in the beginnings of popular plants looks up a 

 botanical dictionary, he finds the names of an enormous 

 number of species, but nearly all were introduced in the 

 nineteenth century. Nitida is one of the oldest, and 

 that came from Jamaica in 1777 ; it has not played any 

 part in the development of garden Begonias, and we can 

 pass it over. Modern garden Begonias have come in 

 the main from six species, the salient facts about which 

 are set out in the following table: 



