NEW BEGONIAS— NEW AUCUBAS. 
77 
NEW BEGONIAS. 
The following- are very elegant., and beautifully variegated. 
Price 3*. Gd. each. 
AMABILIS 
ELEGANS 
EXIMIA 
MAGNIFICA 
MIRABILIS 
PICTURATA 
SPECIOSA 
SPECTABILIS 
SPLENDENS. 
BEGONIA ERECTA MULTIFLORA. 
A pretty erect-growing variety, with ornamental foliage, but principally remarkable for its extremely 
floriferous character, the flowers bright pink. 3 s. Gil. 
BEGONIA PEARCEI. 
This possesses tho quality so seldom found in the same plant, of having both beautifully coloured 
'eaves and large showy flowers, and is a most desirable acquisition to this popular section of plants. 
Its foliage is very pretty, tho upper surface being- of a dark velvety green,, traversed by pale straw 
coloured veins, and the under side of a dull rod colour. 
The flowers are large, and bright yellow, and aro borne on slendor stems well above tho foliage. 
It is figured in the November number of the Botanical Magazine for 18C5, and has received 
numerous awards. 
Price 3,i. 6 it. each. 
NEW AUCUBAS. 
These new hardy evergreen shrubs are most desirable novelties ; indeed, they may be looked 
upon as the most permanently useful introductions of modern times. Many havo been the novelties 
recently added to our selections from Japan, but for durable importance none of them oome up to 
these plants, and for this reason : the common Aucuba is a shrub that grows and thrives better in 
towns and cities than any other ovorgreen ; it thrives vigorously where everything else dies, as 
some of the gardens of London can testify. To us, however, it has hitherto been a fruitless shrub, 
but now we have the male form of this plant, and as soon as it becomes efficiently circulated all the 
Aucubas will bo covered with large bunches of berries about four times the size of those of the 
common Holly, and of tho brightest glossy red colour ; this can now be seen, at present in perfection, 
at Mr. IV. B.’s establishment, as well as the male and female plants hereafter named. 
Nothing in the way of hardy evergreen shrubs will at all compare with Aucubas when laden with 
their coral-like red berries. 
As somo littlo misunderstanding exists about Aucubas, perhaps it may be as well to state that the 
Aucuba is a dioecious plant, that is to say, some of its individuals produce only male, and others 
only female flowers ; and that some eighty years ago the ordinary Aucuba was introduced from 
Japan, but the plant or plants so introduced happened to be females ; by propagation tho whole 
stock in Europo sprang from the original introduction, and Japan from that time being a sealed 
country, the male plant could not be obtained. To the celebrated Chinese and Japanese traveller 
and collector, Mr. Robert Fortune, is due the merit of introducing the first male plants with which 
we are acquainted. Lately, however, there have been several most important and distinct varieties 
introduced by Dr. Van Siebold, including male and female kinds, with plain green unspotted leaves; 
also others in both sexes, having blotched and variegated foliage. 
The following extract is from the Gardeners' Chronicle, May 6th, 1865, page 416: — “ The new 
Aucubas are at present one of the chief attractions here ; the collection is a very remarkable one, 
and no doubt destined to work no small improvement in our shrubberies. There are half-a-dozen 
well-blotched variegated varieties, several with the leaf, except a narrow margin of green, of a 
clear lemon yellow, and free and excellent-looking varieties without any variegation. These, I am 
inclined to think, will prove most valuable, especially for towns, for it is reasonable to expect that 
they should thrive where the variegated form does ‘ pretty well.’ Of these, Aucuba japonica 
macropbjlla is a fine plant, with leaves of a lighter green than its very dark hued neighbour, latifolia, 
which has also very large leaves, and promises to mako another noble shrub ; maeulata is a very 
fine spotted variety, with broad leaves, quite flat ; elegantissima is a great-leaved variety, with one 
