202 GENERAL REVIEW. 



whole of the flowers (male) were taken off B. manicata before 

 the time of crossing, arid continually removed as they ap- 

 peared, until the pod began to swell, and no others were in the 

 house at the time. The two varieties I have named Begonia 

 hybrida and Begonia prolifera"* 



B. hybrida has creeping stems ; oblique, pale, glossy leaves, 

 reddish brown underneath, with reddish hairs, and a tendency 

 to bear frills, like the female parent. It bears large corymbs of 

 pale flesh-coloured flowers, nearly all female and fertile. 



B. prolifera is of more erect habit, with narrower leaves, 

 more deeply toothed than the last. The stem and leaves are 

 covered with young plants mixed with glandular hairs. Flowers 

 large rose, in pendent corymbs from the axils. 



B. hybrida multiflora is a free-flowering hybrid, the result 

 of crossing B. fuchsioides with a pink-flowered plant of the B. 

 insignis group. 



B. Digswelliensis is a beautiful hybrid raised by Mr W. 

 Earley between B. odorata, as the female or seed-bearing 

 parent, and B. fuchsioides, as the male or pollen parent. Mr 

 Earley also informs me that B. phyllomaniaca (not of the ' Bot. 

 Mag.') (for which he received a first-class certificate at the 

 International Horticultural Exhibition in 1866) was obtained 

 from B. odorata fertilised with pollen of B. recinifolia. 



B. valida is a hybrid raised by M. J. B. A. Deleuil from 

 seeds of B. longipila, fertilised with pollen from B. Boliviensis. 

 The large oblique cordate leaves are of a deep lucid green 

 colour ; the flowers rose, borne in an ample panicle. Several 

 interesting hybrid Begonias have also been obtained by M. 

 Stange. Some of these hybrids were gained by fertilising B. 

 Rex with pollen from B. lazuli, while B. splendida produced 

 fertile seeds when fecundated with the pollen of B. xanthina, 

 B. annulata, or B. lariniata. Another Continental hybridist, 

 M. Malet, obtained a numerous batch of seedlings all sterile 

 by fertilising B. discolor, a hardy plant, with pollen of B. 

 Rex, B. Dregei, B. xanthina-Reichenheimii, and B. nivosa. B. 

 xanthina-marmorea, fertilised by its proper pollen, produced 

 seven or eight distinct forms, B. pulcherrima being one of the 

 best. B. rubro-venia, fertilised with pollen of B. xanthina, 

 produced B. Gandavensis, B. marmorata, B. Icztevirens, and 

 several other hybrids. M. Regel has noted that when a fertile 

 hybrid is obtained between two species of Begonia or other 

 plants, it is capable of producing numerous and variable forms, 

 even if fertilised with its own pollen or with that of one of its 

 parents. By using pollen from one of its parents, however, we 

 often favour the reversion of the offspring to that parent; and this 



