BEGONIA FAMILY. 161 



53. BEGONIA-CE^, BEGONIA FAMILY. 



Somewhat succulent herbaceous or more or less woody-stemmed 

 house-plants, of peculiar aspect, with alternate and unequal-sided 

 leaves, deciduous stipules, and monoecious flowers, in cymes or clus- 

 ters on axillary peduncles, numerous stathens, inferior triangular 

 ova,ry, becoming a many-seeded pod, — represented in choice culti- 

 vation by the genus 



1. BEG-piflA, ELEPHANT'S-EAR. (Named for M. Began, Gover- 

 nor of St Domingo 200 years ago.) Flowers with the calyx and corolla 

 colored alike, sometimes dull but usually handsome, both kinds commonly in 

 the same cyme, and flat in the bud ; the outer pieces answering to sepals 

 mostly 2, valvate in the bud ; the inner, or true petals, 2, or in the fertile 

 flowers usually 3 or 4, or not rarely wanting ; in the sterile flowers surround- 

 ing a cluster of nuBierous stamens with short filaments ; in the fertile are 3 

 styles with thick orlobed stigmas. Ovary and pod triangular, often 3-winged. 

 — These cunous plants are remarkable for the readiness with which they may 

 be propagated by leaf es used as cuttings. The following are the commonest 

 pure species. There are several rarer ones and many hybrids. 

 # Leaves and whole plant smooth and naked: rather tall-growing, leafy-stemmed. 

 ■<- Leaves ovate-oblong, serrate with bristle-tipped teeth, not at all heart-shaped. 

 B. fucbsioides, so-called because the bright scarlet flowers, hanging on 



a slender drooping stalk, may be likened to those of Fuchsia ; the crowded and 



small green and glossy leaves only a little unequal-sided at base. 



*- •<- Leaves very obliquely heart-sliaped or half Iieart-shaped at base, almost entire. 

 _B. nitida, with obliquely heart-shaped glossy leaves green both sides, and 



with large light rose-colored flowers. 

 B. sanguinea, with large and fleshy obliquely ovate-heart-shaped leaves, 



having a narrow revolute margin, pale green above, red beneath, as are the 



stalks ; the flowers white, not showy. 

 B. maculkta, cult, under the name of B. AKOYKOSTfoMA, both names 



referring to the silvery-white spots scattered over the upper face of the 



leaves, which are narrower and more oblong than in the preceding, pttrplish 



or crimson beneath, the margin cartilaginous but not revolute, the flowers wWte 



or flesh-colored. 

 B, coccinea, with scarlet flowers, as the name denotes, and oblong half 



heart-shaped leaves glossy above, and green both sides or purple at the margin, 



which is a little wavy-toothed. 



« » Leaves slightly bristly-hairy above and more so on the sharp teeth : stems 

 elongated, naied, beqring tubers or bulblets in the axils. 



B. Evansi^na (or B. DfscOLOR), an old-fashioned species from China, 

 now rare, almost hardy even N., producing all summer showy rose-colored 

 flowers in the open ground ; the ovate and heart-shaped pointed leaves not very I 

 oblique, red beneath. 



» # * Leaves smooth and naked above, bristle-bearing on the toothed or cut margins 

 and long petioles : stems fleshy, erect or ascending ; flowers vdth the 2 colored 

 sepals, but seldom any petals. 



■ B. manic^ta, a handsome species of the conservatory, remarkable for the 

 purple bristle-bearing scales or fringes on the apex or upper part of the petiole, 

 and similar smaller tufts on the ribs of the lower face of the large and broadly 

 ovate-heart-shaped leaves ; flowers small, but numerous and elegant, in an open 

 panicle on a very long naked peduncle, flesh-colored. 



B. pbyllomaniaca, has the stem thickly beset with leaf-like scales or 

 little adventitious leaves, fi'om which the plant may be propagated, both 

 leafstalks and peduncles bristly, the large leaves ovate-heait-shaped and tapering 

 to a narrow point, their margins cut-toothed, and rather large but not showy 

 flowers. 



