ON BEDDING PLANTS. 



171 



dried carefully (which may be done by placing them in a light, 

 dry, airy position), or the decaying stems will rot them. As 

 soon as they are thoroughly dried they should be packed away 

 in boxes of dry sand or cocoa-nut fibre, and placed in a cool 

 position out of the way of frost until time for starting them 

 again the following spring. They are easily propagated by 

 division of the tubers just when starting into growth in the spring. 

 The tubers should be cut carefully with a sharp knife, and the 

 cut surfaces smeared with dry charcoal before repotting. 

 They may also be raised from seed sown in pans of light, sandy 

 soil in early spring. The pans should be well-watered before the 

 seed is sown. No covering of soil is required, as the seed is 



Fig. 



-Seedling Tuberous-Rooted Begonia. 



very minute, but squares of glass might with advantage be placed 

 over the pans so as to keep the soil in a uniformly moist 

 condition. They should be placed in a temperature of from 

 6odeg. to 65deg., and kept shaded. When the seedlings are 

 large enough to handle, they should be pricked off into pans of 

 light soil ; they should afterwards be potted singly in small pots, 

 grown on, and finally hardened off and planted out towards the 

 end of June. Seedlings thus treated, if sown early enough, will 

 flower the same season. 



The shrubby fibrous-rooted section also contributes several 

 species which are now used for bedding purposes ; of these,. 

 B. semperflorens and its varieties are especially suitable, as they 



