336 GENERAL REVIEW. 



silver sand and a little leaf-mould mixed, or in sawdust, on a 

 genial bottom-heat of 65 to 75. Even the old leaves pricked 

 into sand on a gentle bottom-heat root and form little tubers 

 as freely as Begonias. 



Gloxinia. Tuberous-rooted, tropical, American plants, with 

 fleshy leaves and solitary flowers on erect scapes. Gloxinia 

 spetiosa (see ' Bot. Mag.,' t. 1937) is the original parent of the 

 large-leaved race, with drooping purple flowers, and it is a 

 common occurrence for seedlings of the best modern erect- 

 flowered varieties to revert to this form. All the older forms 



Hybrid Gloxinias. 



bore drooping flowers until the appearance of G. Fyfiana (a 

 seminal variety raised by M. Fyfe at Cothesay in 1845), an d 

 supposed to be a hybrid between G. speciosa, var. maxima, x 

 G. caulescens, which, according to Mr B. S. Williams, was 

 the first variety having erect flowers ; and from this, crossed 

 with other finely-coloured forms, we have now a race of very 

 valuable erect-flowered kinds, which show the delicate mark- 

 ings of the throat and limb better than the drooping or pendul- 

 ous-flowered varieties. 



Another Continental variety, G. Eichlerii, a white flower 



