December  20,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
551 
with  pollen  from  the  orange  flowered  B,  Sutherland!.”  Few  plants 
have  attained  to  such  popularity  as  this  useful  Begonia  ;  a  few  years  ago 
it  might  have  been  seen  in  almost  every  garden,  and  it  is  too  t;ood  for 
decorative  '  ur-  ows  to  be  allowed  to  die  out.  The  name  of  Col.  Clarke 
is  also  associated  with  Moonlight,  a  white  flowered  kind  which 
received  a  certificate  in  1876  when  exhibited  from  Chiswick.  This  is  a 
charmius:  winter  flo-vering  hybrid,  which,  it  would  seem,  never  tound 
its  way  into  commerce,  aud  was  lately  rescued  from  compara  ive 
oblivion  by  Mr.  H.  J.  Jones* of  the  Ryecroft  Nursery,  Lewisham,  who 
has  shown  it  in  very  fine  character  during  the  present  year. 
B.  boliviensis,  certificated  in  May,  1867,  was  the  first  of  Messrs. 
Vei’ch  &  Sons’  introductions.  It  was  sent  home  from  Bolivia  by 
Richard  Pearce  in  1864,  and  when  that  frail-looking  plant  reached 
the  Exotic  Nurseries  at  Chelsea, 
who  among  us  for  a  m  iment 
imagined  it  would  become  the  pro- 
geni  or  of  such  a  numerous  race 
of  a  character  altogether  beyond 
the  bounds  of  anticipation  ?  John 
“Seden  was  quick  to  see  that  it 
might  become  the  parent  of  new' 
forms,  and  from  this,  crossed  with 
a  species,  came  in  1870  B.  Sedeni ; 
and  then  onwards  to  1880  some 
twenty  others,  a  few  awarded  cer¬ 
tificates  of  merit,  but  every*  ne  a 
prophesy  of  illimitable  ^regression. 
Then  John  Laing  and  Henry  Can- 
nell  took  the  new  tubeiou-s- rooted 
type  in  hand,  and  varieties  showing 
advances  apjjeared  with  unusual 
rapidity  ;  John  Liing  obtained  his 
first  Begonia  certificate  of  merit 
with  Daviesi  superba  in  1881,  a 
double-flowered  torm  of  the  hybrid 
B.  Daviesi,  and  Henry  Cana*  11  his 
in  Maich,  1884,  with  B.  Carrierei. 
The  earlier  certificates  of  merit 
awarded  to  varieties  of  the  tube¬ 
rous-rooted  Begouias  appear  to  have 
been  given  o  double  types,  and 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighties 
and  during  the  first  half  of  the 
nineties  large  numbers  of  awards 
were  made  to  new  varieties. 
Nor  must  the  fine  glaucous  hairy- 
foliaged  B.  Froebelli  be  fi  rgotten  ; 
it  obtained  a  first-class  certificate 
in  August,  1875,  and  its  pollen  has 
been  used  upm  itself  with  excellent 
efifect  by  raisirs.  As  it  is  known, 
this  species  does  not  ally  itself 
readily  wiih  any  other,  though 
there  are  those  who  assert  they 
have  obtained  distinct  crosses  from 
it.  More  of  a  winter-flowering 
character  than  is  shared  by  the 
descendants  of  B.  boliviensis,  B. 
Froebelli  has  been  found  very  useful 
as  blooming  successioually  to  the 
loregoing. 
B.  Socotrana,  introduce!  by 
Messrs.  V tritch  &  Sons  in  1880,  and 
awarded  a  certificate  of  merit  in 
1881,  has  in  the  hands  of  John  Heal 
produced  some  very  fine  hybrids, 
one  of  which  apprporiatelv  bears  his  name,  and  another  the  name  of 
his  late  wife.  Adonis,  Ensign,  Julius,  Success,  Sylvia,  Winter  Gem 
(tig.  141),  Winter  Cheer,  and  Perfection  are  from  Socotrana 
-crossed  with  tuberous  varieties,  and  the  value  of  their  progeny 
was  seen  in  the  splendid  display  made  by  Messrs.  Veitch  and 
Sons  at  the  meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  on  Novem¬ 
ber  20th.  Venus,  a  briliiant  coloured  form,  is  one  of  the  finest  of 
recent  developments. 
No  survey  of  the  Begonias  can  be  complete  without  some 
reference  to  the  work  of  the  French  florists,  and  especially  that  of 
M.  Victor  Lemoiu**.  Triomphe  de  Nancy,  certificated  in  1891 ;  Gloire 
de  Sceaux,  Gloire  de  Lorraine,  and  Triomphe  de  Lorraine,  in  1893,  are 
all  valuable  plants  for  winter  flowering;  Gloire  de  Lorraine  is  now 
so  universally  cultivated,  and  so  invaluable  as  a  flowering  plant,  that 
it  may  retrain  popular  for  half  a  century  to  come.  The  Guunersbury 
House  sport  from  it — Mrs.  Leopold  de  Rothschild — forms  an  excellent 
companion  to  it.  They  can  lay  claim  to  being  ideal  Begonias.  The 
new  white  sport,  Caledonia,  has  to  vindicate  its  character  as  a  white 
variety  during  the  earnin'  season.  Some  persons  think  the  award  of 
merit  was  too  hastily  given  a  year  ago. 
In  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Sutton  &  Sons  of  Reading  the  well-known 
B.  semperflorens  has  undergone  considerable  transition,  ana  tiiey  nave 
given  to  flower  gardens  a  most  useful  race  of  bed  ling  forms,  such  as 
I’rincess  Beatrice,  Afterglow,  and  fine  selections  of  various  colours. 
For  winter  blooming  in  pots,  Crimson  Gem,  D  ich“ss  of  Edinburgh, 
Reading  Snowflake,  and  Duchess  of  York,  can  lay  great  claim  to  the 
attention  of  gardeners.  They  flower  throughout  the  autumn  and 
winter,  and  afford  a  summer  service  of  bloom  in  the  open.  That  the 
glorious  B.  corallina  should  not  at  any  time  since  its  ir»trodiictioa  from 
Brazil  in  1875  have  received  recognition  from  the  Floral  Committee 
of  the  R.H.S.  seems  inexplicable. 
It  is  a  plant  nossessing  a  majestic 
beauty. 
Time  was  when  some  of  tne 
Boroiiias  were  grown  into  fine 
specimens,  such  as  B.  pinnata, 
B.  serrulata,  and  B.  tetrandra,  but 
their  culture  of  late  has  become  cir¬ 
cumscribed,  and  with  the  exception 
of  B.  serrulata,  the  flowers  of  which 
possess  a  most  agreeable  fragrance, 
the  others  are  only  rarely  seen. 
But  B.  mesastigma,  introauced  in 
1873,  B.  elatior  a  year  later,  and 
B.  heterophylla  in  1887,  represent 
a  trio  of  most  uselul  species,  highly 
fragrant,  in  two  cases  at  least,  and 
very  free  of  blossom.  When  well 
cultivated  they  can  scarcely  be 
surpassed  for  decorative  purposes. 
The  Bouvardias  have  received 
valuable  accessions  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  As  far  back  as 
1872  a  rosy  form  of  the  white 
B.  longiflora  named  flammea  was 
awarded  a  certificate  of  merit  when 
shown  by  Messrs.  E.  G.  Henderson 
and  Son,  who  occupied  for  some 
years  previously  a  nursery  in  the 
Wellington  Road,  St.  John’s  Wood, 
before  the  site  wis  merged  into 
Lord’s  Cricket  Ground.  In  1881 
the  double  white  Alfred  Neuner 
was  also  certificated,  followed  by 
Dazzler,  President  Cleveland,  Ho¬ 
garth  fl.-ph,  Mrs.  Robert  Green, 
Purity  and  Humboldti  grandiflora. 
Bouvardias  are  not  only  very  free 
in  blooming,  but  they  are  con¬ 
tinuous  also,  and  were  they  fragrant 
they  would  probably  be  even  more 
fully  appreciated.  Humboldti  and 
jasminiflora  are  the  only  two  pos¬ 
sessing  this  quality. 
Few  plants  have  a  higher  charac¬ 
ter  for  beauty  than  the  Brazilian 
Bougainvillea  glabra,  which  was 
introduced  in  1851,  and  certificated 
ten  years  afterwards  when  exhibited 
by  the  late  Mr  John  Daniels,  at 
that  time  gardener  at  Swyncombe 
Park,  Henley-on-Thames.  Mr, 
Daniels  also  grew  B.  speciosa;  it 
flourished  inside  one  of  his  plant  houses,  where  the  specimen  covered 
some  400  feet  of  glass,  with  every  terminal  spray  hanging  festoon¬ 
like.  B.  speciosa  superba  was  regarded  as  an  improvement  both  in 
the  size  and  colour  of  the  blossoms. 
The  Queensland  B.  spectabilis  was  also  certificated,  and 
B.  splendens,  which  does  not  appear  to  be  a  recogni*ted  species 
among  the  botanists.  B.  Sanderiana,  certificated  in  1894,  has  smaller 
leaves  and  bracts  than  B.  glabra,  but  the  latter  are  much  darker  in 
tint.  Between  these  two  comes  B.  Cypher!,  probably  a  form  of 
B.  speciosa,  of  free  growth,  and  of  a  bright  rosy  colour.  As 
Mr.  Cypher  of  Cheltenham  sometimes  shows  the  three  in  the 
same  collection  of  plants,  he  thus  recognises  them  as  distinct  from 
each  other.  In  the  cool  show  house  of  the  Birmingham  Botanical 
Society’s  Gardens  at  EJgbaston  Bougainvillea  glabra  does  remarkably 
well  trained  along  the  inside  of  the  roof,  and  during  the  month  of 
July  sup  lies  a  spectacle  of  glowing  colour  and  wondrous  floral  beauty. 
— R.  Dean. 
Fig.  141.— Begonia  Wintes  Gem. 
