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TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 



By Mr. John Laixg, F.R.H.S. 



The origin of many old garden plants is involved in obscurity, 

 and it is doubtful whether the account given of several of thern 

 is anything more than the merest supposition. This is not the 

 case, however, with the garden race of tuberous Begonias. In 

 no other class of plants has the improvement been so rapid or 

 so extensive — a fact due, no doubt, to the diligence of hybridists, 

 combined with the readiness with which the wild types lend 

 themselves to hybridisation, and the progeny to cross-breeding. 

 Six species have been utilised in the creation of the summer- 

 flowering race, and the difference in the foliage of the parents, 

 in the habit of the plants, and in the colour of the flowers, 

 together with the new conditions created by cultivation, has 

 enabled such rapid progress to be made. The number of seeds 

 that a plant, or even a single pod, will yield enables the raiser 

 to multiply Begonias at a greater rate, perhaps, than any other 

 garden plant. Barely is it given within a lifetime to accomplish 

 such magnificent results as have been achieved. Twenty years 

 ago no one could have predicted, and far less believed, what 

 would have been accomplished in the time, judging, at least, 

 from the first hybrids that were sent out ; 



But facts are chiels that winna ding, 

 And downa be disputed. 



All the varieties of Chinese Primulas, and of Carnations and 

 Pinks, for example, have been raised in each case from a single 

 species, and, consequently, the variation and selection of seed- 

 lings has been a .slow process. Zonal Pelargoniums, on the 

 other hand, furnish an example in which a vast number of 

 garden varieties have been raised by the hybridisation of two 

 or more species ; but as they produce comparatively few seeds, 

 a long time has been required to achieve present results. A 

 large proportion of Pelargonium seedlings, again, are useless 

 for bedding purposes ; but the seedlings of a good strain of 

 Begonias can always be depended on to make a good display, 

 as the quality is relatively even. Therefore, with this facility 

 for raising seedlings, only the most rigorous selection should be 



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