126 



begoniacejE. ' [Begoniacea. 



oasly combined; anthers adnate, 3-celled, opening outwards. Female flowera : 

 Ovary inferior, 3-angled or 3-winged, 3-celled, with simple or branched axile 

 placentas, or rarely 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentas. Ovules numerous, 

 minute. Style short, 3-cleft ; stigmas entire or branched. Fruit inferior, 

 3-angled or 3-celled, capsular. Seeds minute, without albumen. Eadicle 

 next the hilum. Cotyledons short.— Shrubs or herbs, usually articulate at 

 the nodes. Leaves alternate or very rarely opposite, entire or divided and 

 usually oblique, with stipules. Peduncles axUlary, usually dichotomous. 



The Order, containing very few species Besides the genus Begonia, ranges over the tropical 

 regions of America and Asia, with a yery few African species. 



1. BEGONIA, Linn. 



A genus constituting nearly the whole Order, and distinguished from the 

 other two small ones by the placentas always axile, not parietal, and the capsule 

 opening by longitudinal or curved slits.on each side of each angle or wing, not 

 by the splitting of the angle itself. 



1. B. laciniata, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 649 ; Bot. Mag. t. 5021. Ehizome 

 thick and perennial. Stems herbaceous, erect or decumbent, 1^ ft. high, 

 covered more or less, as well as the imder side of the leaves, with a rusty- 

 coloured wool. Leaves broadly and obliquely cordate, irregularly 5- or 7-lobed, 

 the longer ones 6 to 8 in. long, 4 to 6 in. broad, sprinkled with a few minute 

 hairs on the upper side, the wool of the under side often wearing oflF at last. 

 Peduncles shorter than the leaves, bearing usually 3 or 4 male flowers and 1 

 female one, of a pale pink colour. Male flowers with 3 broad nearly orbicular 

 outer petals or sepals about 6 lines long, and 2 inner nan'ower ones not above 

 half as long. Female flowers with 4 nearly equal obliquely ovate petals, 3 or 

 4 lines long, with occasionally a fifth smaller one. Stigmas thick and sinuous ; 

 capsule 5 to 7 lines long, with 3 narrow wings, the third extending horizon- 

 tally to the breadth of 7 or 8 lines. Placentas double in each cell, one cell 

 usually empty by the abortion of the ovules. — B. Bowringiana, Champ, in 

 Kew journ. Bot. iv. 120. Boratometra Bowringiana, Seem. Bot. Her. 379. 



Eavines on Mount Parker and other half-shady places. Champion, Hance, Wilford, 

 Wright. Common in Sikkim and Khasia. 



Order XL VII. PORTULACIia:. 



Sepals 2, or rarely 3, free, and partially united and adherent at the base. 

 Petals 5 or rarely more, sometimes slightly united, perigynous or hypogynous. 

 Stamens either equal in number and opposite to the petals, or more frequently 

 indefinite, perigynous or hypogynous. Ovary free or pai-tially adheiing, 1-celled, 

 with several ovules attached to a free central placenta. Style single, with 2 

 to 8 stigmas or branches. Capsule l-ceUed. Seeds several. Embi-yo curved 

 round a farinaceous albumen, the long radicle next the hiliun. — Herbs more 

 or less succulent, with entire leaves, usually opposite, but occasionally alter- 

 nate. 



A smaU Order, with a, wide geographical- range over the gi-eater part of the globe, with 

 the greater number of species however from JJorth or South America. 



