89 
BEGONIA picTA. 
Party-coloured Begonia. 
MONOECIA POLYANDRIA Nat, Oiid. BEGONIACEM, Bmpl. De Cand. 
Gen. Char — Masc. Cal. 0. Cor. polypetala. Petaki plerumque 4, inse- 
qualia. — F(em. Cal. 0. Cor. petalis 4-9, plerumque insequalibus. Siyli S, 
bifidi. Caps, triquetra, alata, 3-locularis, polysperma. 
Begonia picta ; caule perbrevi, foHis cordatis acutis acuminatisque, ru- 
gosis hispidis duplicato-serratis, capsulse alis subagqualibus. — Sm. 
Begonia picta. Smith, Ex. Bat. t. 101. 
Begonia hirta, Wallich, MSS. 
Root perennial, of two small, roundish tubers, together with a few thick, 
fleshy, simple fibres, mixed with others which are more slender and 
branched. Stem very short, yet slightly branched, thick, succulent, 
green, more or less tinged with purple, hairy. Leaves 3 or 4 inches in 
length, few in number, cordate, more or less acute, or even (as in Sir 
James Smith's plant, and some native specimens in my herbarium), 
acuminate, green blotched with purple, especially beneath, rugose and 
hispid, waved, veined, the margins doubly serrated ; the Jbotstalks long, 
terete, hairy, with a pair of broadly ovate stipules at the base. 
Florver-stalks rather long and thick, from the axils of the leaves, branched 
upwards into a sort of umbel of about 3 partial stalks, with two rather 
large, entire or tridentate hairy bracteas. The central jlower is the male, 
and is formed of 4 large and delicate rose-coloured petals, of which the 
two outermost are much the largest, rotundato-ovate, crenato-serrate at the 
margin, longitudinally striated, and externally villose j the two innermost 
smaller, obovate, glabrous and entire : Stamens numerous, ai^ in reality 
monadelphous, the Jilaments often forked, yellow. The lateral Jlorvers 
are female, having four nearly white petals, the two outermost the long- 
est, roundish, slightly crenate, and externally pubescent ; the two inner- 
most entire, glabrous : the germen large, inferior, triquetrous, thickly pu- 
bescent, with branched, or rather laciniated, white, reticulated processes, 
the angles protruded into glabrous aloe or wings, which, though short, 
are evidently unequal in size. Styles 3, yellow, each bifid and twisted 
something like the shell of a snail. 
VOL. II. 
