THE BALSAM AND BEGONIA FAMILIES. 199 



THE BALSAM FAMILY (Bakaminacea). 



A small group of thick-jointed herbaceous plants, nearly 

 succulent in their character, and principally annuals, which 

 seed freely in our gardens, and hence are easy of propagation. 

 One of the finest of all the species introduced to our gardens 

 is Impatiens cocdnea (see ' Bot. Mag.,' t. 1256), which is a 

 most profuse bloomer, bearing its bright rosy flowers in the 

 axils of the ovate-serrate leaves. The varieties of the garden 

 Balsam originated from /. balsamina (Balsamina hortensis], 

 one of the prettiest of half-hardy summer-blooming annuals. 

 This plant may be readily increased by cuttings, which root 

 freely in sawdust. Two or three white, rosy, and yellow 

 flowered species are useful as winter-blooming stove-plants, 

 and these might be much improved by judicious hybridis- 

 ing. /. flaccida, I. Hookeri, and 7. latifolia (see ' Bot. Mag.,' 

 t. 5625) are very useful and attractive decorative plants; but 

 upwards of a hundred species of perennial Balsams, some 

 of which are very beautiful, exist as weeds in Ceylon, the 

 Western Ghauts, and on the Himalayas, the colours of their 

 flowers varying from pure white, as spotless as that of a 

 Phalaenopsis or St Bruno's Lily, through all the shades of 

 peach, flesh, and rose to a deep rosy-purple bordering on 

 crimson; others are yellow. Seeing what has been effected 

 with /. balsamina, there seems here a wide and varied field of 

 improvement. 



THE BEGONIA FAMILY (Begoniacea). 



This order is represented by many species of Begonia, an 

 ornate genus of flowering and foliage stove or greenhouse 

 plants, principally natives of South America and tropical Asia. 

 B. insignis, B. fuchsioides, B. Dregei, B. nitida, B. Rex, B. 

 Veitchii, B. Boliviensis, and the numerous half-hardy hybrids 

 (which have originated from the two last-named species and the 

 golden-flowered B. Pearcei\ are well-known examples. These 

 plants are monoecious, and bear seed freely if cross-fertilised. 



In the 'Journal of the Linnaean Society,' 1871, xi. 472, 

 is an interesting illustrated account of a species of Begonia 

 from Brazil, in which " all the male flowers show a tendency 

 to become hermaphrodite one, two, or three of the central 

 stamens being transformed more or less completely into pistils." 

 Occasionally this tendency may also be observed among the 

 tuberous-rooted varieties now so largely cultivated in our 



