BEGONIA INGRAMII. 
153 
BEGONIA INGRAMII. 
Nat. Order , Begoniacx®. 
Generic Character.— Begonia, Linnaeus. Flowers monoe¬ 
cious. Male :— Ferigone four-leaved, segments subrotund, the 
two outer larger. Stamens numerous; filaments very short, 
free or connate at the base. Anthers extrorse, bilocular, loculi 
linear, separate, adnate to the margin of the obtuse continuous 
connective, twisting longitudinally. Female :— Ferigone with 
a three-winged tube, connate with the ovary; limb superior, 
four-nine-parted, the persistent lobes imbricated in many series. 
Ovary inferior, three-celled. Ovules numerous, on a double 
placenta proceeding from the central angle of the cells, anatro- 
pous. Styles three, bifid. Stigmas thick, flexuose or capitate. 
Capsule with three membranous wings, three-celled, loculici- 
dally three-valved. Seeds numerous, striated. Embryo ortho- 
tropous, in the axis of fleshy albumen.—( Endl. Gen. Flant. 5153). 
Begonia (Diploclinium*) Insrajiii. —Ingram’s hybrid Ele- 
phant’s-Ear.— Caulescent; leaves stalked, obliquely ovate-acu¬ 
minate, sub-cordate at the base, glossy, slightly hairy on the 
margin ; stipules tapering from a broad base, membranous, de¬ 
ciduous ; flowers in dichotomous drooping panicles, which are 
“ alternately ” wholly of either sex [?]; outer sepals of the male 
flowers roundish ovate, inner shorter and narrower, the nume¬ 
rous erect stamens forming an open-tufted mass; female flowers 
of five spreading, nearly equal oblong, or obtusely-lanceolate 
sepals, with reflexed margins; styles terminating in a pair of 
spirally waved stigmatic arms ; tube of the perigone furnished 
at the angles with broad unequal obliquely-angular wings. 
B ESCRIPTION.—Stems erect, woody, with scattered, elongate wart-like excrescences. 
Leaves, large, four inches in length, ovate-acuminate, very oblique, and semi-cordate at the 
base, smooth and dark glossy green on the upper surface, with sunken ribs, and slightly 
undulated margins, slightly crenate-serrate, having short scattered hairs from the tips of the 
serratures; the under surface also glossy, paler, the ribs sometimes tinted red; footstalks 
nearly an inch long, with membranous deciduous tapering stipules, attached by their broad 
base. Flowers in large drooping dichotomous panicles, on longish stout spreading peduncles : 
the pedicels furnished with opposite, ovate-lanceolate, deciduous membranous coloured bracts; 
the male and female blossoms borne alternately in distinct panicles, delicate light rose co¬ 
loured. Male: outer pair of sepals roundish ovate, half an inch long, fleshy, rose-coloured, 
the inner pair alternating, shorter, narrower, and of thinner texture, oblong-lanceolate, or 
almost obovate, pale flesh colour, somewhat channelled down the centre, or boat-shaped. 
Stamens numerous erect, forming an open tufted mass, their bases united into a column; 
anthers oblong, yellow. Female: sepals five, more or less spreading, nearly equal, oblong, 
or obtusely lanceolate, in our specimens all having the margins reflexed, thus acquiring 
a nearly cylindrical form, three-quarters of an inch long, rose-coloured. Styles separating 
each into a pair of erect spirally waved, yellow, stigmatic arms, with a downy-papillose 
surface. Ovary oblong-ovate, triangular, the angles extended into broad, rose-coloured, 
unequal, obtusely angular wings; below the ovary, on the top of the flattened pedicels, is a 
pair of lanceolate boat-shaped deciduous coloured bracts. Ovary three-celled; ovules attached 
to a double placenta. 
History, kc .—Begonia Ingramii is a garden hybrid; and is one of a large number of 
hybridized seedlings, which has been raised in the gardens of Her Majesty at Frogmore, near 
Windsor. It is one of the handsomest of the Begonias, as regards the size, delicacy, and dis- 
* We flave hesitated to use, otherwise than as a sectional division, the genus Diploclinium proposed by Dr. Lindley, to which, if it 
should come to be hereafter adopted, B. Ingramii certainly belongs. The division of the placenta, in each cell of the ovary, into two 
plates or lamellae, in certain of the species of the large and heterogeneous family of Begonia, seems to afford good ground for the 
separation of such as really possess this peculiarity, from those in which these plates 
are consolidated into one; but the question, as yet unsettled, is, whether the evi¬ 
dent separation of the two lamellae in some kinds is not united with the more simple 
form observed in others, by transitional stages, in unexamined species. There is 
some trace of this doubt in the fact that, in B. argyrostigma, in which the placenta 
is “ double,” the ovules are not attached, as is more usual, on both surfaces of each 
lamella, but only on the outer face of each. The Begonia cinnabarina of Sir W. 
Hooker has quite a different placentation, which does not accord with either of 
the divisions already proposed; in this species the placenta, as examined in a full 
grown capsule, is irregularly spread out into numerous lobes, the whole surface of 
which bears seeds. It may, therefore, form the type of another section or genus, 
to which the name Platyclinium might be applied, from the extended surface over 
which the ovules are distributed. The old genus Begonia would thus comprise at 
least the following groups—sectional or generic, as the value of the characters may 
be estimated:— 
Begonia vera.— Placenta forming a single flattened plate in each cell of ovary. 
Ex: B. dipetala, albo-coccinea, Dregii, homonyma. 
Diploclinium. —Placenta forming a pair of parallel flattened plates in each cell of 
ovary. Ex : D. fuchsioides, semperflorens, incarnata, Ingramii, 
Platyclinium. —Placenta in each cell of ovary, deeply and irregularly lobed. Ovary of B. cinnabarina ; magn . 
Ex: P. cinnabarina.—M. 
VOL. II. U 
