162 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and the marked improvement since attained in the double- 

 flowered varieties attests the amount of energy that has been 

 applied in that direction. 



The latest aspect of the tuberous Begonias is seen in their 

 adaptability for summer bedding. There are now crimsons, 

 scarlets, rose or pinks, whites and yellows, and, to use a florist's 

 term, all these colours are " fixed," although it must be con- 

 fessed that the yellows are not so satisfactory in their blooming 

 out of doors as the others. One great advantage of the tuberous 

 Begonias for bedding purposes lies in the fact that whether the 

 weather be wet or dry the bloom remains for a long time in per- 

 fection, and so proving much more useful and satisfactory in the 

 garden than their older rivals, the Pelargoniums. 



I have but a word more to add on the tuberous group. In 

 contemplating the splendid results now so manifest, one cannot 

 help feeling regret that the orginal types to which we owe them 

 have practically, if not entirely, disappeared from cultivation. 

 But so it is — unless, perchance, some of them still find a resting- 

 place in some botanic garden or in the collection of some care- 

 ful amateur. In the group of species and hybrids I have brought 

 together to-day for illustration (for many of which I am indebted 

 to the kindness of Col. Beddome) they are conspicuous only by 

 their absence. 



In alluding to Begonias as bedding plants, mention should be 

 made of a very useful group represented by B. semperflorens and 

 its varieties, and also by B. Carrierei (two forms), growing but a 

 few inches high and blooming most profusely. These are ad- 

 mirable for edgings to beds of which the centres are filled with 

 their larger congeners or other plants. They are also specially 

 suitable for forming a floral carpet amidst which can be dotted 

 specimens of various kinds of sub-tropical bedding plants. I 

 know of no happier combination, for instance, than such a carpet 

 with plants of Acacia lophantha as reliefs. 



The prominence acquired by the tuberous Begonias during 

 their rapid development into the splendid forms we are now 

 accustomed to, threw into the shade for a time some interesting 

 species discovered and introduced while that development was in 

 progress. Among such are B. geranioidcs, a pretty species from 

 South Africa ; B. Dreggei, also from South Africa, useful for 

 winter decoration, and which Mons. Lemoine, of Nancy, has used 



