CULTURE OF BEGONIAS. 
211 
seldom disposed to emit many side-growths. Such species also that, like B. ra- 
mentacea, have hardly any real stem, and are mainly dependent on their remark- 
able foliage for winning esteem, are completely spoiled when the roots are 
cramped. The leaves, instead of developing fully, turn down at the margin with 
a crumpled look, when little more than half-grown. Yet we find people condemn 
these plants as unworthy of cultivation ; whilst the real and simple truth is, that 
they have never tried what cultivation would do for them. Any other plant 
would cease to be beautiful if placed under circumstances as much the opposite of 
those which are most congenial to it. 
We are surprised that so few people ever think of planting these charming 
things in a border, which is decidedly the best method of bringing out their capa- 
bilities. Many of them will thus do well in a house intermediate between the 
greenhouse and the stove, and make handsome bushes two or three feet high. 
Several, we have little fear, might also be made to flourish in a greenhouse border, as 
for instance, the B. Evansiana, sometimes seen thriving even in cottage windows. 
The most effective way of carrying this out would be to have a border or division 
of a border expressly appropriated to them. It would be necessary to take them 
up, and renew the soil, at least to a partial extent, every other year at the farthest, 
as they soon exhaust it. The old shoots, also, of the caulescent kinds, should be 
cut away yearly, to encourage the strong stems that push up from the root. 
Those with tuberose roots ought to be replanted every year, as many of them 
increase to a great extent by means of the small tubers usually found beneath the 
main ones. 
Plants, which w T ould otherwise make fine specimens, are very often spoiled 
through nothing else than the want of pruning. Some cultivators would seem to 
have acquired a strange notion that these plants will not bear the knife : the fact 
is, they will hardly acquire any excellence without it. In some of the large 
collections about London, we have sometimes noticed an old stem of some such 
species as B. digitata, towering up seven or eight feet in solitary grandeur, without 
a leaf to adorn it till within a few inches of the summit. It would be folly to 
expect such plants to look healthy or to flower well. None of the caulescent 
kinds should be suffered to retain any stem more than two years, and the 
generality only one. The noblest specimens are always formed by those which 
consist alone of the strong suckers which are annually thrown up from the roots. 
By leaving the old stems upon an occasional specimen, the species may be had in 
flower at different seasons ; but if the stems are retained longer than the second 
year, both leaves and flowers dwindle to a very inferior size. It is true suckers 
will not be well developed unless the roots have plenty of room to spread, and a 
good soil and atmosphere to grow in ; but if they receive liberal encouragement 
they are capable of forming by far the finest specimens. 
A collection of species, embracing only those which are most handsome and showy, 
would require more space than can generally be spared for one family in an ordinary 
