TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 



187 



kinds, the present race has sprung from these six species ; but 

 the first three are most in evidence to-day. The parents 

 have been left so far behind that there is no occasion to use 

 them further for improving the race ; and the types are in 

 danger of being lost to cultivation, unless they be preserved by 

 enthusiasts or others of a botanical turn of mind. The first 

 five of the six species above named were introduced by Messrs. 

 Veitch, who put them into commerce, together with some of 

 the first noteworthy hybrids they had made, and they were thus 

 the pioneers in the great work which was on the eve of taking 

 the horticultural world by surprise. Other eager workers, both 

 in this country and on the Continent, were soon in the field, 

 helping forward the great movement at a more or less rapid 

 pace. 



I commenced hybridising and cross-breeding in 1875, with 

 B. boliviensis, B. Veitchi, and B. Pearcei, together with the 

 varieties Vesuvius, Dr. Hooker, Dr. Masters, and Mrs. Masters ; 

 but 



The best laid schemes o' mice and men 

 Gang aft agley, 



and nothing very striking resulted in the following year. But 

 as " sma' beginnins hae sometimes big endins," I set to work in 

 earnest by obtaining the finest of continental as well as of home- 

 raised seedlings, and was encouraged by considerably better 

 results. In January 1878 I sowed seeds of fifty-seven different 

 crosses, obtained by cross-breeding with the best sorts I could 

 secure. The seedlings, when they fiow r ered, foreshadowed possi- 

 bilities I never dreamt of before, and I was awarded the Gold 

 Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society for a group of seed- 

 lings, as well as some First-class Certificates. The astonished 

 public also began to appreciate the " coming flower." That 

 same year I secured Queen of Whites and Henderson's White 

 Queen, and made numerous reciprocal crosses, from which, in 

 1879, I obtained 500 white-flowered seedlings ; the tall ones I 

 assorted under the name of Eeine Blanche, and the dwarf ones 

 I named Stanstead Bride. The greatest improvement, Stanstead 

 Rival, having orbicular flowers and erect flower-stems, came out 

 of the same batch. Besides other fine types, a small-flow T ered, 

 nearly black variety made its appearance, and was kept for 

 breeding purposes. It is represented in such modern types as 



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