BEGONIA ALBO-COCCTNEA. 
(White and scarlet Elephant's Ear.) 
Class. Order. 
MONCECIA. POLY ANDRI A . 
Natural Order. 
BEGONIA CEiE. 
Genkric Character. — See page 77> j tudinal petioles. Petioles appressedly hirsute. Sepals, 
Speciktc Character. — Plant perennial, stemless, | two of a roundish form, exterior, and conspicuously 
with obliquely-ovate or very obtusely sub-reniform, 
peltate, coriaceous, fleshy leaves. Leaves quite 
glabrous, somewhat lobed or sinuated, with longi- 
scarlet, the remainder smaller, obovate, and white. 
Fruit turbinate, three-winged ; wings somewhat equally 
spread.— Hook. 
Publishing this species, and writing of Begonias generally, Dr. Lindley takes 
occasion to observe, that " Whoever shall apply the requisite leisure and skill to an 
examination and comparison of the numerous species belonging to the order of 
Begoniads, will be rewarded by a rich harvest of discovery. But he must look to 
something beyond the stems, the leaves, and the wings of the fruit, if he makes any 
pretence to a philosophical inquirer. It is in the seeds, placenta, and floral enve- 
lopes that sound characters are to be sought upon which sections and genera may be 
founded, instead of the vague characteristics hitherto employed." 
The very fine member of the genus now given is said to be from the East Indies, 
which is all we know of its native habitat, there being no intelligence of the par- 
ticular locality it inhabits. In this country it was obtained from seeds raised at the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where it first flowered last year, and whence it has 
found its way into other establishments. Few can boast the possession of it, owing 
to the slowness of increase natural to the species ; the crowns or shoots which do rise, 
in addition to being few, form very tardily. Its leaves, or parts of them, there is 
little doubt might be induced to strike, and help to multiply it, but they have 
been too few, and each one too considerable a part of such plants as have hitherto 
existed, and consequently too valuable to have been subjected to the possibility of 
destruction. 
Beautiful and valuable as many Begonias are, there is scarcely one but that 
requires associating with some of its fellows before its beauty can be fully compre- 
hended. They are so different to the generality of plants regarded as ornamental, 
that unless they are in some degree maintained characteristically, their features of 
