462 



PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS begonia 



ABO BRA. — A genus with 2 or 3 

 «pecies of smooth or rough climbers, with 

 cut leaves, and usually 2-cleft tendrils. 

 Flowers diceoious, slender, greenish. Berry 

 small, drooping. 



A. viridiflora. — A native of S. America, 

 with dark green elegantly cut and divided 

 glossy pale green leaves, fragrant flowers, 

 and oval scarlet fruits about the size of a 

 Filbert borne by the female flowers. 



Culture and Propagation. — This 

 plant grows rapidly, and when trained 

 over arbours, trellises &c. looks very 

 handsome, especially when in fruit. It 

 has fleshy tuberous roots, which may be 

 taken up in autumn, and stored like 

 Dahlias in a, cool, dry place free from 

 frost. To secure a good supply of the 



scarlet fruits male and female plants 

 should be grown together. 



This species may be increased by 

 dividing the tuberous rootstocks, and 

 where the male and female kinds have 

 been noted it is easy to place roots of each 

 together at planting time in spring. Seeds 

 may also be sown in gentle heat in spring. 

 The seedlings must be pricked out in due 

 course and grown on in pots under glass 

 until about the end of May or beginning of 

 June, when it wUl be safe to transfer them 

 to the open ground. Cuttings of the young 

 shoots from the tuberous roots may be 

 rooted in sandy soil in a hotbed in spring 

 in the same way as recommended for 

 Dahhas (see p. 519). 



LII. BEGONIACEyE— Begonia Order 



This order consists of Begonia, Begoniella and Hillehrandia. The last 

 genus was in cultivation several years ago, but has since become a lost 

 garden plant ; and Begoniella has not yet been introduced. For practical 

 gardening purposes, the order is thus represented only by the genus Begonia. 



BEGONIA (Elephant's Ear). — A 

 genus containing upwards of 350 species of 

 juicy herbs or undershrubs, many having 

 perennial tuberous rootstocks. Leaves 

 alternate, simple, more or less unequal 

 sided, entire, lobed or parted, irregularly 

 toothed. Flowers often showy, monoeci- 

 ous. Male flowers consisting of 2 large 

 outer (sepaloid), and 2 small inner 

 (petaloid), segments. Stamens numer- 

 ous, free or united in one bundle. Peri- 

 anth of the female flowers has 2-10 

 segments, of which the 2 outer ones are 

 larger and sepaloid. Ovary inferior, often 

 8-, rarely 2-, or 4-5-celled. _ Styles 2-4, 

 free, or united at the base, with branched 

 twisted stigmas. Fruit a capsule, usually 

 3-angled and unequally 3-winged. Seeds 

 numerous, minute. 



Begonias, both double and single, are 

 now so well known in the flower garden 

 that one can scarcely credit the fact that 

 less than a generation ago they were not 

 only unknown but not dreamt of. The 

 forms that now rival the Rose, Carnation, 

 Hollyhock, and Camellia in form and 

 colour have all been developed by careful 

 cross-breeding within the last quarter of 

 a century, and they have in that short 

 time reached such a stage that the 

 characters of their progenitors have been 



entirely lost. Indeed, some of the original 

 parents themselves have disappeared 

 altogether from cultivation. 



The species chiefly concerned in the 

 development of the florist's Begonia 

 were B. Pearcei (yellow), B. holiviensis 

 (bright scarlet), B. Veitchi (bright orange- 

 red), B. Claricei (rosy-red), B. roscejlora 

 (rosy-red) and B. Davisi (bright crimson) 

 — natives of Peru and Bolivia, some of 

 them at an altitude of as much as 11,000 

 to 13,000 ft. It will be noticed that with 

 the exception of B. Pearcei they have aU 

 red flowers, and yet their progeny have 

 crimson, pink, scarlet, rose, white, yellow, 

 orange and innumerable intermediate 

 shades. B. Pearcei, B. holiviensis, and 

 B. Veitclii have been more used than the 

 other three species, and they are most in 

 evidence in the beautiful hybrids of to- 

 day. All the flowers with yellow shades 

 show the influence of the yellow-flowered 

 B. Pearcei. 



The value of the florist's Begonia as a 

 garden plant is now well recognised, and 

 owing to the great beauty of the flowers 

 and the length of time they last, there 

 is a probability that many of the older 

 plants used for bedding out in summer 

 wiU have to make way more and more for 

 the Begonia every year, 



