184 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
plants or succulent under shrubs. The leaves have an 
oblique form, and are placed alternately on the stem, having 
stipules at the base. The flowers have no petals, but consist 
of a single perianth, usually pink coloured, which is placed 
above the ovary or seed-vessel. Some flowers have stamens 
only, others pistils only; in the former the perianth has 
from two to four divisions ; in the latter from two to eight. 
The stamens are numerous, and are collected in a head. 
The stigmas are three, and the fruit is winged with three 
divisions. Some of the plants produce buds, which are easily 
detached, so as to constitute living plants. 
“ The plants are common in the East and West Indies and 
South America; a few occur in Madagascar and South 
Africa. They are said to possess bitter and astringent 
qualities, and some have been used in the cure of fluxes of 
various kinds. The succulent acid stalks of several species 
are employed as potherbs like rhubarb. 5 ’* 
We have, however, no knowledge of the uses of the Be- 
goniads in this country, either as food or medicine, though, 
from the flavours of some of them, we incline to the belief 
that a few of them might possess potent powers if employed 
as the latter. 
We would, however, now direct attention to these favourite 
greenhouse-plants, on account of their curious forms. 
The bright-coloured flowers of some of the species and the 
ornamental foliage of others have made them favourites 
alike in the cottager’s window and in the conservatory of 
the rich, where their peculiar disproportion of the basal lobes 
of their leaves at once attract attention. 
In the genus Begonia, named after Michel Begon, a French 
botanist, the leaves are sometimes so large and shaggy as to 
have got for the plant the name of the es elephant’s ear.” 
Sometimes the left lobe is the larger and sometimes the 
right. 
One of the cultivated forms, namely. Begonia tuberosa, 
has large leaves with thick, fleshy petioles ; these, like the 
petioles of rhubarb, are agreeably acid, and may be made 
into tarts, while the roots or root-stocks are not only large 
and fleshy, like those of the rhubarb, but possess the same 
kind of astringent properties. We append a sketch of a 
leaf. 
The Diploclinium (Begonia) Evansianum is remarkably 
like the one whose leaf is here figured for parti-coloured 
leaves—a character which attaches more or less to most of 
* ‘ Treasury of Botany/ vol. i, p. 133. 
