CULTURE OF BEGONIAS. 
211 
! (Idom disposed to emit many side-growths. Such species also that, like B. ra- 
mtacea, have hardly any real stem, and are mainly dependent on their remark- 
de foliage for winning esteem, are completely spoiled when the roots are 
i. -amped. The leaves, instead of developing fully, turn down at the margin with 
, crumpled look, when little more than half-grown. Yet we find people condemn 
lese plants as unworthy of cultivation ; whilst the real and simple truth is, that 
.ley have never tried what cultivation would do for them. Any other plant 
i[‘''^ould cease to be beautiful if placed under circumstances as much the opposite of 
, lose which are most congenial to it. 
We are surprised that so few people ever think of planting these charming 
, lings in a border, which is decidedly the best method of bringing out their capa- 
I ilities. Many of them will thus do well in a house intermediate between the 
recnhouse and the stove, and make handsome bushes two or three feet high. 
J everal, we have little fear, might also be made to flourish in a greenhouse border, as 
lir instance, the B. Evansiana^ sometimes seen thriving even in cottage windows, 
’he most effective way of carrying this out would be to have a border or division 
f a border expressly appropriated to them. It would be necessary to take them 
, p, and renew the soil, at least to a partial extent, every other year at the farthest, 
: s they soon exhaust it. The old shoots, also, of the caulescent kinds, should be 
lut away yearly, to encourage the strong stems that push up from the root, 
j'hose with tuberose roots ought to be replanted every year, as many of them 
.acrease to a great extent by means of the small tubers usually found beneath the 
i’aain ones. 
I, Plants, which would otherwise make fine specimens, are very often spoiled 
ihrough nothing else than the want of pruning. Some cultivators would seem to 
1 lave acquired a strange notion that these plants will not bear the knife : the fact 
fs, they will hardly acquire any excellence without it. In some of the large 
' ollections about London, w’e have sometimes noticed an old stem of some such 
iif . 
. pecies as B. digitata^ towering up seven or eight feet in solitary grandeur, without 
^ leaf to adorn it till within a few inches of the summit. It would be folly to 
i^ixpect such plants to look healthy or to flower well. None of the caulescent 
I finds should be suffered to retain any stem more than two years, and the 
^ jenerality only one. The noblest specimens are always formed by those which 
'jonsist alone of the strong suckers which are annually thrown up from the roots. 
JBy leaving the old stems upon an occasional specimen, the species may bd had in 
flower at different seasons ; but if the stems are retained longer than the second 
l^ear, both leaves and flowers dwindle to a very inferior size. It is true suckers 
jwill not be well developed unless the roots have plenty of room to spread, and a 
t^ood 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, 
I would require more space than can generally be spared for one family in an ordinary 
