182 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



the decoration of the stove or for exhibition pur- 

 poses. They may be grown small and used as 

 window plants, where they are really charming 

 subjects. In ferneries they flourish vigorously, and 

 produce a grand effect, their splendid banded leaves 

 being beautifully relieved by the fern-fronds ; whilst 

 as Wardian-case plants they are unequalled if the 

 atmosphere is not kept too heavily charged with 

 moisture. From experience we know they thrive 

 well in the open air during the summer months, the 

 writer of these remarks having used them in this 

 way on a sheltered piece of rockwork twenty-five 

 years ago. 



Begonias require to be grown freely and well, 

 otherwise they, like many 

 other of the soft - wooded 

 class of stove-i)lants, present 

 a very miserable and weedy 

 appearance. The flowering 

 group requires to be cut back 

 directly the blooms are all 

 past, the soil shaken from 

 their roots, and re-potted in 

 as small pots as it is possible 

 to get them, and then from 

 time to time, as they require 

 it, shifted into larger sizes, 

 until the plant has become a 

 good specimen, when it will 

 produce an abundance of 

 flowers all through the winter 

 months. The heat of the In- 

 termediate House wiU suit 

 these plants well, and the 

 soil they flourish in should 

 be light and open ; peat, 



leaf- mould, loam, well-decomposed manure, and 

 sand, in equal parts, with good drainage, suits them 

 admirably. Water moderately at the roots, but very 

 seldom with the syringe. This group of Begonias 

 are mostly winter bloomers ; to these we have prin- 

 cipally confined ourselves, and none can be reckoned 

 upon for public exhibition purposes, but for a beauti- 

 ful display at home in the plant-stove they have 

 few rivals. The ornamental-leaved group of Bego- 

 nias are mostly of garden origin, the great ease with 

 which hybridisation can be effected enabling every 

 one, who cared, to raise fresh forms. The parent of 

 this group is B. Bex, introduced from Assam, and 

 when this plant was first publicly exhibited by the 

 IMessrs. Eollissons, of Tooting, it fairly took the 

 breath away from the whole gardening fraternity. 

 From this plant there soon sprang a large and 

 variable progeny, until the unlimited forms seemed 

 to pall upon the sight, and they became neglected. 

 More recently, however, plant-growers seem to miss 



Beaucarnea eecurvifolia. 



and want such Begonias, and they are now sought 

 after again. These ornamental-leaved Begonias no 

 doubt lost favour to a great extent from the fact 

 that most amateurs and gardeners treated them as 

 summer plants only, when really their great utility 

 is conspicuously displayed when grown and shown 

 in full beauty through the autumn and winter 

 months. In the spring, they may be cut back and 

 treated in the same manner as recommended for the 

 flowering section. 



Group I. — Flowering Kinds. 

 B. albo-coccinea.—A. dwarf plant, leaves thick and 

 fleshy, peltate, deep green ; flowers large, white, and 

 reddish-scarlet. Winter and 

 spring months. East Indies. 



B. baccata. — An erect plant 

 with large orbicidar leaves, 

 which are deep green above, 

 slightly toinentose beneath ; 

 flowers in short cymes, up- 

 wards of two inches across, 

 and pure white. "Winter 

 and spring months. West 

 Tropical Africa. 



B. crassicauUs. — A procum- 

 bent plant, with dark green 

 palmate leaves ; flowers white, 

 suffused with a flesh-coloured 

 hue. Winter months. Guate- 

 mala. 



B. crinita. — This extremely 

 pretty species grows about a 

 foot high ; leaves obliquely- 

 ovate, coarsely toothed at the 

 margin, deep green; flowers 

 in erect branching cymes, soft rosy-red. Spring and 

 early summer. Bolivia. 



B. DigsivelUana. — A dwarf free-flowering plant* 

 with large pink flowers, the buds before opening 

 deep red. English gardens. 



B. falcifolia. — An erect plant; leaves falcate-lanceow 

 late, deep green, with a few white spots on the upper 

 Bide, reddish-purple beneath. Flowers in axillary 

 cymes, deep rose-colour. Peru. 



B. foliosa. — An elegant pendulous species, adapted 

 for baskets ; leaves oblong, obliquely-cordate at the 

 base, dark green ; flowers small, but numerous, 

 white, slightly tinged with pink. New Grenada. 



B. fnchsioides. — This is amongst the prettiest of 

 them all ; it is suitable for room decoration when 

 small, and when trained upon a pillar or rafter it ia 

 very effective ; leaves small, oblong-oblique, deep 

 shining green ; flowers in long pendent cymes, deep 

 scarlet. Winter months. New- Grenada. 



B. geranioides. — A dwarf, small - growing, and 



