THE CULTIVATED SPECIES OF BEGONIA. 



173 



8-winged ovary, coloured like the petals. A useful plant for 

 the cold house ; said to be hardy in some parts of England. It 

 produces bulbils freely in the axils of the leaves. It flowers all 

 through the summer. Has anyone ever tried to cross this with 

 the Andean tuberous-rooted kinds ? 



B.foliosa (Bef.Bot. 222). — Introduced from New Granada 

 by Wilson Saunders in 1868. Shrubby. Stems herbaceous, 

 slender, branching ; the branches arranged A frond-like along the 

 stem. Leaves very numerous, small, 3-lobed, glossy green. 

 Flowers small, in short terminal and axillary panicles, white 

 tinged with rose. An elegant basket plant, its frond-like stems 

 and rich green foliage ornamented with the tassel-like racemes 

 of flowers being pretty. It blooms in early summer. 



B. Frcebeli (The Garden, 1877, pi. 94). — Introduced from 

 Ecuador by Otto Frcebel, of Zurich, in 1872. Eootstock 

 tuberous. Leaves radical, annual ; petioles 3 inches long, reddish, 

 hairy ; blades obliquely cordate, 6 inches to 12 inches long, by 

 from 3 inches to 8 inches wide, grey-green, hairy on both sides. 

 Flowers on erect red peduncles a foot long, vivid crimson ; males 

 2 inches across, formed of four ovate petals ; females smaller, 

 with five equal petals ; ovary woolly, 3-angled, wings £ inch 

 long. A pretty little plant which may be used for summer 

 bedding. It is also good as a winter-flowering plant for the 

 warm greenhouse. Mr. Gumbleton grew it with a leaf 15 inches 

 by 11 inches, and a flower-head of twenty-two flowers. 



B. fitchsioides (Bot. Mag. t. 4281). — Introduced from New 

 Granada to Kew in 1847 by the collector Purdie, who found it 

 on the Ocana Mountains. It has a woody rootstock, succulent 

 tall stems a yard or more high, clothed with numerous ovate 

 green leaves 1^ inch long, tinged with red when young. The 

 flowers are borne on drooping branched panicles ; males with 

 four concave petals, females with five regular petals and a 

 3-angled unequal winged ovary ; colour of whole inflorescence a 

 rich scarlet. This is a first-class greenhouse plant. It should 

 be planted out, and its stems trained up a pillar or tall stake. 

 A variety called B. miniata differs only in having flesh-coloured 

 flowers. 



B. gracilis (Bot. Mag. t. 2966). — Introduced from Mexico in 

 1829 by Mr. P. Neil, of Cannonmills, Edinburgh. Rootstock 

 tuberous. Stems annual, erect, sparsely branched, 2 feet to 3 feet 



