114 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
KEW ELOWEEING BEGONIAS. 
BY WILLIAII COLE, 
Head Gardener, Ealing Park, Middlesex, W. 
compliance with the request of a correspondent, con- 
veyed in a letter which has recently been placed in my 
hands, I have prepared a few notes on the cultivation 
of the new-flowering Begonias. This has been done 
with much pleasure, for they are so thoroughly beau- 
tiful that they are all more or less entitled to take a high rank 
amongst flowering plants. 
In speaking of the cultivation of the new flowering Begonias, it 
will be necessary to include several species and varieties which are 
not, strictly speaking, new. For example, B. Veitchi and B. Boli- 
viensis have been in cultivation several years, yet it would not do 
to pass them by, for until quite recently they have commanded 
drices which have placed them quite beyond the reach of amateurs 
of limited means. Now, however, they are comparatively cheap, 
and those amateurs who have the aid of a heated pit or stove, and 
take an interest in raising seedling plants, may obtain a stock for 
a very little money, as they can be all most readily raised from 
seed, and seed of several can be obtained at the rate of half-a-crown 
per packet. Perhaps the most desirable course to pursue would be 
to obtain a moderately strong plant or a dormant tuber of each 
sort, and during the summer save a stock of seed from as many of 
the kinds as may appear to the cultivator desirable. .If the latter 
course is pursued, and care taken to fertilize the flowers with pollen 
from flowers of a distinct colour or character, it is probable that 
several very beautiful hybrids ma}' be raised. I have raised a very 
large number from seed, and although a few of the seedlings pro- 
duced flowers inferior to those of the parents, the majority were 
exceedingly good, and there was a great diversity in the colours of 
the flowers of the seedlings ; and thus a large stock of distinct 
varieties was obtained with no expense and very little difliculty. 
The whole of the best of the new flowering Begonias, and to 
these only is it my intention to direct attention, are tuberous rooted ; 
the stems die down on the approach of winter. This is a most 
important fact, and through an ignorance of it many fine tubers 
have been destroyed. It is very naturally supposed by those who 
are not well acquainted with their character, that when the stems 
have died down the plant has perished, and it is then turned out of 
the pot and ])itched on to the rubbish heap. I have known of more 
than one or a dozen fine tubers being destroyed under the suppo- 
sition that the plant was dead. 
In commencing with a stock of young plants obtained from a 
nursery, it will be necessary to shift them into pots one or two sizes 
larger, and place them in a warm and rather close corner of the 
stove or greenhouse, as the case may be, to enable them to overcome 
the check without loss of time, and to start away vigorously from 
the first. In about three weeks afterwards, if they have made a 
