154 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



very handsome foliage. At that time there were very few natural 

 species in general cultivation, and hybrids derived from them were 

 comparatively few in number and of no especial merit. The old 

 B. JEvansiana* was still to be occasionally seen in the cottage 

 window as well as in many well-regulated gardens ; B. hydro- 

 cotylifolia, B. manicata, and one or two other Mexican species were 

 cultivated in the stoves of those who could afford room for them, 

 and several of the suffruticose species were appreciated as winter- 

 flowering plants, but the genus, notwithstanding its great extent, 

 occupied but a very subordinate place in the horticultural opera- 

 tions of that time. But a change, almost amounting to a revolution 

 in its effects on the popular estimation of the Begonia, was at 

 hand. At the period I refer to, a little more than twenty-five years 

 ago, Pearce had sent to our firm four of the brilliant Andean 

 species, the progenitors of the now familiar tuberous Begonias ; 

 one more had been introduced by Colonel Trevor Clarke and 

 named after him ; and a little later we received B. Davisii. With 

 these species we commenced intercrossing, and in 1870 our 

 first seedling was distributed under the name of Begonia Sedenii. 

 Many here present doubtless have a recollection of these early 

 efforts, and how popular the first hybrids became which we 

 raised from these alpine species, and how soon it was evident 

 that a new epoch in the history of the Begonia had commenced. 

 The history of the origin and subsequent progress made in 

 this group is so well told in Mr. Wynne's little book on " The 

 Tuberous Begonia," that my further remarks on them will 

 be restricted chiefly to observations on their latest aspects and 

 their use. 



Few plants are more easily recognised than a Begonia ; its 



peculiar oblique leaf is so well marked a character that few 



observers are liable to fall into error respecting it. The obliquity 



of the leaf in the Begonia is not, however, peculiar to this genus, 



although more marked than in any other. It means simply this, 



that the mid-rib of the leaf is not its geometric axis, but divides 



it into two unequal parts (in B. sccotrana the obliquity is so 



much disguised as to be imperceptible upon a merely superficial 



view). Besides this the leaf is often curved, and when much 



narrowed it assumes a sickle-like shape ; and when both the 



* Nearly all the species and hybrids mentioned in the Chairman's 

 address were illustrated by living specimens. — Ed. 



