138 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
a somewhat lower — or “ warm greenhouse ” — temperature. Its con- 
tents are of a more flowery character than those of the Stove. It is 
distinguished by a greater or less degree of obliquity in the leaf. The 
genus was first represented in England, and probably in Europe, 
by a species ( Begonia nitida) introduced from Jamaica to Kew in 
1 777. In recent years the begonias have become more important than 
ever in gardens. The tuberous-rooted sorts and their hybrids are 
growing very popular for summer bedding, and a species introduced 
from Socotra to Kew in 1880 ( B . socotrana ) has, by hybridisation, 
given birth to one of the most valuable groups of winter-flowering 
greenhouse plants we possess. 
Whilst begonias fill the most important place in this house, room 
is also found for a succession of other interesting and beautiful flower- 
ing plants. Many tropical bulbous plants may be seen in blossom 
here during the year, such as Hymenocallis and Pancratium ; many 
gesneraceous ones like Gesnera and Gloxinia ; and many of the 
Acanthaceae, a well-marked order of great beauty. A large propor- 
tion of these are grown in private plant-houses, and only kept here 
whilst in flower. 
Inhabiting many of the islands and promontories on the Indian 
Ocean, but most abundant in Borneo, is the remarkable group of 
group of plants. The Nepenthes House at Kew, which runs parallel 
to and is entered from the compartment of the T-Range known 
as the Stove, was specially built for their accommodation in 1897. 
It is 70 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 9^ feet high, and the pitcher 
plants are grown in wooden baskets suspended from the roof. 
Although in nature the Nepenthes are climbers, in cultivation 
it is found that the best way to secure fine pitchers is to keep the 
plants dwarfed. At Kew they are cut back, almost to the base of 
the old growths, early in the year, and when about half-a-dozen 
pitcher-bearing leaves have developed on the young shoots, the latter 
have their tops cut off to prevent them from growing taller. The 
largely given up to the extensive and ornamental genus 
after which it is named. Begonias inhabit the tropics of 
both the New and Old Worlds, and are almost invariably 
Pitcher 
Plants 
(Nepenthes). 
plants known to botanists as Nepenthes. They are 
nearly always found in the hot, damp recesses of the 
virgin forest, and require under cultivation a more 
intensely tropical treatment than almost any other 
