Gen. Cuar.—Masc. Cal. 0. Cor. polypetala. Petala plerumque 4, inz-— 
qualia.—Fam. Cal. 0. Cor. petalis 4-9, plerumque inaqualibus. St, Hs 3, 
89 
BEGONIA ricra. 
Party-coloured Begonia. 
MONCECIA POLYANDRIA.—Nart. Orv. BEGONIACEZ, Bonpl. De Cand. — 
bifidi. Caps. triquetra, alata, 3-locularis, polysperma. 
Begonia picta ; caule perbrevi, foliis cordatis acutis acuminatisque, ru- 
gosis hispidis duplicato-serratis, capsule alis Soe ue. —Sm. 
Begonia picta, Smiru, Ex. Bot. t. 101. 
Begonia hirta, Wauiicu, MSS. 
Root perennial, of two small, roundish tubers, together with a few thick,. 
fleshy, simple fibres, mixed with others which are more slender and 
branched. Stem very short, yet. slightly branched, thick, succulent, 
green, more or less tinged with purple, hairy. Leaves 3 or 4 inches in 
length, few in number, cordate, more or less acute, or even (as in Sir. 
= aaa 2 
James Smitu’s plant, and some native specimens in my herbarium),. 
acuminate, green blotched with purple, especially beneath, rugose and 
hispid, waved, veined, the margins doubly serrated ; the footstalks long, 
terete, hairy, with a pair of broadly ovate stipules at the base. 
F lower-stalks vather long and thick, from the axils of the leaves, branched 
_ upwards into a sort of umbel of about 3 partial stalks, with two rather: 
large, entire or tridentate hairy bracteas. ‘The central flower is the male, 
and is formed of 4 large and delicate rose-coloured petals, of which the 
two outermost are much the largest, rotundato-ovate, crenato-serrate at the 
margin, longitudinally striated, and externally villose ; the two innermost 
smaller, obovate, glabrous and entire: Stamens numerous, and in reality 
monadelphous, the filaments often forked, yellow. The lateral flowers 
are female, having four nearly white petals, the two outermost the long- 
est, roundish, slightly crenate, and externally pubescent ; the two inner- 
most entire, glabrous : the germen large, inferior, triquetrous, thickly pu- 
bescent, with branched, or rather laciniated, white, reticulated processes, 
the angles protruded into glabrous ale or wings, which, though short, 
are evidently unequal in size. Styles 3, yellow, each bifid and twisted 
something like the shell of a snail. 
VOL. If. 
