188 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Duke of Edinburgh and H. M. Stanley, with maroon- crimson 

 flowers. By the autumn of that year I had made 161 different 

 crosses of carefully selected parents, single and double, using 

 Stanstead Bival, Eeine Blanche, and Lady Hume Campbell, the 

 first-named most extensively on account of its stiff upright 

 habit. 



Although it is interesting to know the first steps in the pro- 

 gress of development in this fine race of garden plants, the 

 subsequent records of cross-breeding would be as futile to science 

 as bewildering to anyone who might wish to trace the genealogy 

 to the present time. Suffice it to say, the best types only were 

 and are used as parents to sustain the onward march of pro- 

 gress. Size, shape, texture, and colour of the flowers, as well as 

 the habit of the plant, were always kept in view. As far as 

 size is concerned, the legitimate or desirable limit has been 

 reached in the eight varieties named Koyal Begonias sent out in 

 1886, particularly in Victoria, which has flowers measuring 

 7 inches across when well grown. 



Singles. — The aim in this section is to get as many distinct 

 and well-defined colours as possible, as well as an upright habit, 

 with a profusion of flowers that do not require staking. Naturally 

 the dwarf-habited and freely-branched sorts are the best parents 

 to select from for the latter purpose. Some few there are, 

 such as Leviathan, with stems like miniature hop-poles, but 

 their admirers are few. The texture of the flowers has made 

 wonderful strides within the last few years. Orbicular flowers, 

 as round as the compass could make them, have always been the 

 aim of the florist, and are well represented by Mrs. E. Ballantine, 

 E. G. Hill, H. M. Stanley, Lady Scott, Fringed White, Lord 

 Hillingdon, Lady Pigott, and others. These are some of last 

 year's acquisitions, and Duchess of Leinster and Duchess of 

 Westminster are also quite recent. The last-named is one of a 

 white-centred race ; and I am now working on a dark-centred 

 strain, with promising results. Lady Whitehead bears six to 

 eight large flowers in a truss and represents a floriferous type. 

 I still believe that improvement is possible, after all my previous 

 efforts ; for 



Wha does the utmost that he can, 

 Will whyles do niair. 



Doubles. — Good double varieties are more difficult to obtain 



