165 



THE CULTIVATED SPECIES OF BEGONIA. 



By Mr. W. Watson, F.B.H.S., 

 Assistant Curator, Boyal Gardens, Kew. 



Notes on the Genus. 



Theee are about four hundred species of Begonia distributed over 

 the tropical and sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres. They 

 are most abundant in America, especially in Mexico and Brazil, 

 De Candolle enumerating a hundred species in Martius' " Flora 

 of Brazil," and Hemsley eighty-four in the " Flora of Mexico and 

 Central America." India appears to come next, Mr. C. B. Clarke 

 admitting sixty-four species in the " Flora of British India." 

 There are a considerable number in Africa, seven species being 

 known in the Cape region alone. None have been discovered in 

 Australia, but there are Begonias in the adjacent islands of Borneo, 

 New Guinea, Java, and Fiji. There is, however, a fragmentary 

 specimen in the Kew Herbarium which was sent by Sir F. von 

 Muller in 1883 as a Begonia which had been found near Laguna 

 Bay in Queensland. 



The botanical position of the order Begoniaccce is between 

 the Cucumber family on the one hand and the Cacti on the 

 other. Besides Begonia there are two other genera comprised 

 in the order, viz. Begoniella, a Colombian genus of three species, 

 remarkable in having flowers with a campanulate corolla, and 

 Hillebrandia, a monotypic genus native of the Sandwich 

 Islands, Begoniella has not yet been in cultivation, but Hille- 

 brandia was introduced a few years ago and flowered at Kew.. 

 There is a figure of it in the Botanical Magazine, t. 6953. 



The following botanical description of the genus Begonia is 

 taken from the "Flora of British India," with apologies to Mr. C.B. 

 Clarke for some slight alterations : — 



4< Succulent herbs or undershrubs ; stem often reduced to a 

 rhizome or tuber. Leaves alternate, more or less unequal sided, 

 entire, toothed, or lobed ; stipules two, sometimes large, fre- 

 quently deciduous. Peduncles axillary, divided into dichotomous. 

 cymes. Flowers white, rose, crimson, or yellow, showy, some- 

 times small, monoecious. Male flowers generally of two large 



