Edwards's botanical register. London v. 20 (1835): http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/9056 B heracleifolia: A native of Mexico, where it was met with by the German travelers Schiede and Deppe, in several localities. In the Linnaea three are mentioned, namely, shady places in Jalapa, in March; near Hacienda de la Laguna in September; Baranca de Tioselo in October. It is therefore probable that it flowers nearly all the year round in its own country as it does in England. The plant from which our drawing was taken was received by the Horticultural Society from the Botanic Garden, Berlin. It is a very free growing hot-house plant, producing its rosy flowers in every month of the year; all that it demands at the hand of the cultivator is heat, moisture and a full exposure to light. If kept too much in the shade, the flowers lose the bright rosy tint which is natural to them, and with it their beauty. Our learned friend, Dr. Graham, who obligingly pointed out to us the identity of his B. radiata with B. heracleifolia, thus describes it: ''Leaves (seven inches across) bright green above, paler below, all radical, subpeltate, cordato-palmate, hairy above and below, with seven strong radiating nerves, very prominent below, lobes lanceolate, oblong, undulate, sinuated, dentate, unequal, the central (four inches from the insertion of the petiole to its apex) being the longest, the others gradually smaller to the sinus; petiole rather shorter than the middle lobe, densely covered with long coarse entangled crystalline hairs, which, in fading, resemble yellow wool. Scape (two feet high) tapering upwards, straight, closely covered with oblong red streaks, from which spring long, tortuous, acute, crystalline hairs. Bracts in opposite pairs at each division of the flower stalk, serrated, ovate, hairy, dentato-ciliate, nerved, smaller in every succeeding pair. Peduncles dichotomo-deliquescent, streaked like the scape, and somewhat hispid. Flowers rose-colored, dipetalous, petals rotund, entire; male flowers in the cleft of the peduncles, expanding before the female. Stamens yellow, ascending; filaments cohering only at the base; anthers spathulate; connective extending beyond the loculaments." The fruit, with which neither Messrs. Schlechtendahl and Chamisso nor Dr.Graham were acquainted, has three rounded wings, of which two are small and green, the third much longer, pink, and a little directed upwards.; B. heracleifolia: Our plate represents a small flowering specimen, with male flowers only, of this fine and handsome plant from a drawing kindly made by Mr. Macnab at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, to which we have added a panicle with both male and female flowers, and nearly perfect fruit, from a noble plant in the stove of the Glasgow Botanic Garden, where it flowers in the greatest perfection, in April and May. The species is a native of Mexico, having been detected by Messrs. Schiede and Deppe in Xalapa, and first described by the learned authors above quoted in the Linnaea. Through Mr. Otto of Berlin, it has been introduced to our collections. Description: Leaves (seven inches across) bright green above, paler below, all radical, subpeltate, cordato-palmate, hairy above and below, with seven strong radiating nerves, very prominent below, lobes lanceolate, oblong, undulate, sinuate, unequal, the central (four inches from the insertion of the petiole to its apex) being the largest, the others gradually smaller to the sinus; petiole rather shorter than the middle lobe, densely covered with long, coarse., entangled crystalline hairs., which, in fading resemble yellow wool. Scape (two feet high) tapering upwards, straight, closely covered with oblong, red streaks, from which spring long, tortuous, acute, crystalline hairs. Bracts in opposite pairs, at each division of the flower-stalks, serrated, ovate, hairy, dentato-ciliate, nerved, smaller in every succeeding pair. Peduncles dichotomo-deliquescent, streaked like the scape, and somewhat hispid. Flowers rose-colored, dipetalous, petals round, entire. Male flowers in the cleft of the peduncles, expanding before the female. Stamens yellow, ascending: filaments cohering only at their base; anthers spathulate; connective extending beyond the loculament. Graham. Capsule triquetrous, with three obtuse, membranous, brownish wings, of which, two are comparatively short, the third much larger, and pointing upwards. Flora of Costa Rica. Begoniaceae. by Paul C. Standley. Chicago 1937. v. 18: pt. 2 (1937): Page 737-48 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19747 Plants with a thick, setose rhizome; leaves large, long petiolate, the thick petioles hirsute and covered with fimbriate scales; blades deeply 7-lobate, the lobes narrow, lobate and dentate, glabrate above, pilose beneath; flowers pink, showy. This species is _grown commonly as a house plant in the United States and doubtless in many other temperate regions. In Costa Rica, there are seen in gardens a number of other exotic species of Begonia, chiefly, it is probable, of Brazilian origin.
