168 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



number of species, comprising altogether 108 species, besides 

 numerous hybrids and varieties. There is also a good collection 

 cultivated in the Botanic Gardens at Berlin. Specialists in- 

 terested in Begonias other than the tuberous-rooted are Messrs. 

 Haage & Schmidt of Erfurt, M. Lemoine of Nancy, M. Bruant of 

 Poitiers, and Mr. Gumbleton of Cork. I am certain that if some 

 of the amateur horticulturists in this country would turn their 

 attention to the shrubby Begonias, select and grow the best 

 kinds, and breed from them with a view to their improvement, 

 they would find both interest and profit in them. What little 

 has been done in recent years to improve the evergreen kinds 

 we owe to Continental growers. The forms of B. semperflorens 

 and hybrids raised from it and others are good work, indicating, 

 however, only slightly what might be done. 



The history of the Begonia in the garden is not an eventful 

 one. The first to be cultivated here was B. nitidd, which was 

 sent to Kew from Jamaica by Dr. W. Brown in 1777. In 

 October 1788 a Begonia flowered in Mr. Lee's nursery at 

 Hammersmith, and this is said to have led to a study of the 

 genus by Dr. Dryander, whose researches were published in the 

 following year in the Transactions of the Linnean Society. He 

 enumerated twenty-three species, all that were known at that 

 time. According to Aiton's " Hortus Kewensis," only seven species 

 were known in gardens in 1813. These were B. acuminata. 

 B. dichotoma, B. discolor (Evansiana), B. hirsitta, B. humilis, 

 B. macrophylla, and B. nitida. These are all American except 

 B. discolor, which is Chinese. Up to 1850 the number of species 

 that had been in cultivation was thirty-six, and of these sixteen 

 are included in the selection I have made from those known in 

 gardens to-day. 



The popularity of the Begonia as a garden flower did not 

 really begin until 1864, when B. boliviensis was introduced by 

 Messrs. Veitch from the Andes of South America. This was 

 followed by five others, the last, B. Davisii, arriving in 1876, 

 The important part these plants have played will be shown in 

 the papers by Messrs. Cannell and Laing, who have both done so 

 much to improve and popularise this section of Begonias. 



Second only to the Andean Begonias in interest to horticul- 

 ture is the remarkable winter-flowering B. socotrana, which was 

 sent to Kew from Socotra by Professor Bayley Balfour in 1880 



