344 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 

 By Chas. F. Langdon, F.R.H.S. 



[Read Aug. 26, 191 3 ; Mr. W. A. Bilney, J. P., in the Chair.] 



The early history of the tuberous Begonia has been so fully and 

 so well dealt with by Sir Harry Veitch and the late Mr. John Laing 

 at the Begonia Conference held at Chiswick in 1892, and recorded in 

 the R.H.S. Journal vol. xv., that it will not be necessary to dwell 

 upon it, and as my first acquaintance with these plants did not com- 

 mence until the year 1885, and then with only a limited collection, I 

 cannot add anything to the remarks then made by the illustrious 

 horticulturists before-mentioned. I should like, however, to repeat the 

 opening remarks of Sir H. Veitch. He says : " In the whole range of 

 subjects which horticulturists have taken in hand with a view of 

 effecting their improvement and their better adaptation for decorative 

 purposes, there is not one, I think, which stands forth more prominently 

 at the present time than the Begonia." These remarks are as true 

 to-day as they were in 1892 ; the twenty years that have intervened 

 have only served to accentuate their truth, for great as was the trans- 

 formation effected by those early hybridists, I think that all will agree 

 that the advances made since have been equally great. 



My experience with Begonias dates from the year 1885. Since 

 then I have spent almost the whole of my time in cross-fertilizing 

 and raising them, the first seventeen years with the Rev. Edwin 

 Lascelles, of Newton-St.-Loe, and since 1901 as partner in the 

 firm of Messrs. Blackmore and Langdon. 



It was the year after I had taken up the duties of gardener at 

 Newton-St.-Loe that Messrs. J. Laing sent out their Royal set of 

 single Begonias, and being already in possession of a small collection, 

 including such varieties as ' Vesuvius/ ' Acme,' and others, Mr. 

 Lascelles, who was a most enthusiastic amateur, procured the 

 new set and thus possessed a quite up-to-date collection of single 

 varieties. 



The following year, 1887, Messrs. Laing sent out their Jubilee 

 set of doubles, conspicuous among them being ' Mrs. A. Adcock/ 

 alba fimbriata, ' Prince of Wales ' and 1 Lady Lennox.' These created 

 quite a sensation. The set included practically all the colours then 

 known, and with a number of varieties of Continental origin which 

 Mr. Lascelles procured, among them being ' Mme. Arnoult,' ' Gabriel 

 Legros,' ' Clemence Denizart,' ' Mme. Comesse,' 1 Mme. Crousse,' 

 and ' Mme. de Dumast,' we had ample material to commence work 

 at cross-fertilization. 



Having been fairly successful with a batch of about a thousand 



