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BEGONIA PLATANIFOLIA. 
(PLATANUS-LEAVED BEGONIA,) 
CLASS. oanKH. 
MONCECIA. POLYANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
BEGONIACEtE. 
Generic Character. — Male destitute of calyx. Petals four, the opposite two tlie largest. Stametis 
many. Female also without any calyx. Petals four to six. Capsules inferior, three angled, 
winged, three-celled, many- seeded. 
Specific Character, — .Plant shrubby, from eiglit to ten feet high, erect, seldom branched ; producing, 
when well grown, leaves upwards of a foot in diameter. 
This plant is rarely met with in a flowering- state in the stoves of this country ; 
a circumstance probably accounting- for its limited circulation, and the more 
frequent occurrence of other species of this genus, most of which are in many 
particulars inferior, and very distinct from the one we have figured. 
Our drawing was made, about the latter end of last autumn, from a sample 
kindly furnished by our friend Mr. Cameron, of the Birmingham Botanical Garden, 
with whom it flowered beautifully in the stove. It is a plant frequently seen 
in the collections about Paris, and is stated to flower freely in that country. 
The plants of this genus partake somewhat of a succulent habit, and are generally 
more admired from the circumstance of the neatness of their leaves, which are 
oblique at the base, than from any trace of beauty in their flowers ; they grow 
with little difficulty among other plants in a bark stove, potted in a light loamy 
rich soil. Propagation is readily efl'ected by cuttings, planted in sand in heat ; or 
by seeds (if such can be obtained), is a ready mode of increasing them. 
The generic name is given in honour of Michael Begon, whose exertions in the 
promotion of Botany were conspicuous in the seventeenth century. 
It is a native of Brazil, introduced from the Berlin Gardens by the late R. 
Barclay, Esq., in the autumn of 1829. 
