66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



appearance, and by the simply mixing of their pollen, an indefi- 

 nite number of new varieties have been and may be produced. 

 The begonia is called after a Frenchman named Begon, who, in 

 1638, was Intendant of Marine, but the old begonias which per- 

 petuate his fame bear no comparison in beauty to their Bornean 

 congeners. The leaf of all the varieties is strongly acid to the 

 taste, some of them like sorrel ; and it is a question how much 

 bearing this may have upon the varied hues of the leaf. To pro- 

 pagate them, all that is necessary is to cut the mid-rib and sev- 

 eral veins on the back of the leaf at their point of junction, and 

 removing to lay the detached leaf on a bit of moss suitably mois- 

 tened, when, strange as it may seem, little roots will put forth 

 from each cut, and each group make a plant of itself. The leaf 

 of the Begonia Rex is a deep green on the surface, with a band 

 of silvery grayish green running all around it to the point where 

 alone it touches the margin. Elsewhere there is a space of the 

 dark green between the stripe and the edge, as also a roundish 

 spot in the center, or heart. The back of the leaf is of a light 

 green color, sometimes tinged with reddish brown. The Zan- 

 thina, however, has a dark purple back, and a plain-colored sur- 

 face, slightly shot with silver, which glistens like metal in the 

 sun. The mixture of these two species, taking the Zanthina for 

 female and Rex for male plants, gives generally a mixture of the 

 face of the one with the back of the other, and the variety of 

 mottling of the surface is carried to the most illimitable extent. 

 Among the variegated plants, one of the most curious in this 

 exhibition is the Maranta from Brazil and other portions of trop- 

 ical America. The leaf is smooth edged, of a dark green color, 

 ribbed from the center with stripes of light green, while the 

 back of some varieties, for instance the Varscewizii, feels to the 

 touch like the pile of the finest Lyons velvet. The Caladium 

 has a leaf shaped like an arrow-head, which is poised on its side 

 on the end of a long slender stem. The leaf is green mottled 

 with blotches of white, which peculiarity in one variety, the Ar- 

 gyritis, is so striking as to look like drops of chalky water spilled 

 upon the leaf. In another variety, the Baraquina, the broad 

 leaves are painted in rose color, of such even tint as to look like 

 the fading- glories of a summer sunset. This latter variety was 

 imported by Mr. I. Buchanan last year from the valley of the 

 Amazon; and another little plant has just arrived, yesterday, 

 from the same region, in company with the plants of the Aloca- 



