| Description | An extremely beautiful but variable species found on moist, semi-shady slopes from about 300 m - 1500 m with a dormant period in the dry season. Fantastically lobed leaves with many forms from plain green to silver patterns. R. Morris noted several forms in Arunachal Pradesh. The Gardeners' Chronicle, ser. 3, v. 34, 1903 B. palmata as SYN B. laciniata Perhaps no changes in plant form are more remarkable than those that have been effected by gardeners in the case oi the Begonias. All these have been effected in the course of little more than a quarter of a century. The genus itself is a very large one, and very widely dispersed. Naturally, it is very diverse in its characteristics, and now that the hybridists have worked their will in it they have succeeded in inducing such additional changes that, judging from the flowers alone, the student might well doubt if the flowers put before him were Begonias at all. They look as much like Camellias or Balsams or Carnations as Begonias. Whether it is good taste to make a flower resemble anything but itself is a matter that need not be discussed, as no finality could be arrived at. It is enough that our gardens have been enriched to a wonderful extent by the introduction and development of different types of Begonias, and that even in the dull months of winter it is possible to have a brilliant display of color. The genus, as we have said, is very large, and the botanists have been at much pains to divide it into convenient, easily recognizable, sections. For garden purposes, however, the botanical subdivisions are of little moment, it is more convenient to classify them into subdivisions according to habit and the use to which they may be put- stemless or with a long stem, fibrous rooted, or provided with tubers, Begonias grown mainly for their ornamental foliage, others for their flowers, winter flowering Begonias, bedding Begonias, the offspring of B. semperflorens, and so on. The foliage Begonias are in many cases derivatives from B. rex, a plant described by Putzeys in the Flore des Serres, t. 1255, and figured also in the Botanical Magazine, t. 5105. According to Mr. C. B. Clarke, in Hooker’s Flora of British India (1879), vol. 2, p. 647, this is a native of Assam and Mishmee, and numerous specimens are quoted as being in the Kew herbarium. Another species native of India, from Nepal to Burma, and found also in Southern China, is B. laciniata, with which B. Bowringiana is considered synonymous (Clarke, Loc. cit), Botanical Magazine, 5021, 5182. Our illustration (fig. 149, p. 368) of this plant has been prepared by Mr. Worthington Smith from living specimens furnished by Messrs. Sander & Son, of St. Albans. This species has dark-green leaves, with median pale silvery-green band graduated into the darker parts. The margin is red, and the veins blood-red. The back of the leaf is crimson and very hairy, as also are the stems. From these two, B. rex and B. laciniata, crossed reciprocally, were produced by Messrs. Sander the two fine varieties exhibited by them and called respectively ‘His Majesty’ and ‘Our Queen’ (p. 369). The influence of the female parent is, we are told, very marked in the case of the various crosses that have been made. ‘His Majesty’ is the result of a cross from Bowringiana out of B. rex, and ‘Our Queen’ is from Rex out of Bowringiana, alias laciniata. The form of the foliage may be seen in Mr. Worthington Smith’s illustrations taken from the living plants (fig. 150, p. 369). The prevailing color in ‘His Majesty’ is a rosy-lilac, but in the center of the leaf is some olive-green, approaching brown color, concentrated around the principal ribs and nerves. In ‘Our Queen’ the leaves have a center or disc of dark velvety, olive-green, nearly brown, bordered with a stripe of light-green between the center and the margin, the whole spotted with small pink spots. The merits of both plants were recognized by the Floral Committee. The history of the tuberous Begonias bas often been given in our columns, and the varieties induced by the gardener have ousted the original species, which are now rarely, if ever, seen even in Botanic Gardens. Of one of these varieties we have lately had occasion to speak, not indeed as new, but as particularly brilliant and effective in the flower-beds at Versailles. It approaches in form the original B. boliviensis, from which no doubt it is descended; see p. 254. [Excerpted from pg. 254: One bed in particular was very striking, consisting chiefly of an extremely brilliant scarlet Begonia, of which M. Bellairs, the courteous Superintendent of the Parks and Gardens, has kindly given me the history. It was raised some twenty-five or thirty years ago by M. Bertin, of Versailles, and distributed by MM. Vilmorin, Andrieux et Cie, under the name Begonia Bertini x. Like B. Worthiana, it is a hybrid from B. boliviensis, but with larger flowers, with the segments more widely spreading and more brilliant in color; the tubers, M. Bellairs tells me, attain a large size; the plant itself is robust and starts into growth early. When planted out in May it is already in full flower. It is employed in shady situations as well as in those exposed to the full sun, and in any case, is most brilliant in coloring and very free flowering.] The tuberous Begonias are mostly of Andean origin; they have been crossed with one another and with South African species, so that geographical remoteness does not interfere at all with inter-crossing. Very striking in this connection is the Socotran species, B. socotrana, introduced by Prof. Bayley Balfour. This, crossed with B. Dregei from the Cape bas given us the popular ‘Gloire de Lorraine’. The whole series of beautiful winter-flowering hybrids which have been raised for Messrs. Veitch by Mr. Heal, have also B. socotrana as one of their parents. Fibrous-rooted varieties have been crossed with tuberous forms, and the Assamese B. rex has been crossed with B. socotrana, so that the distinct ions, whether geographical or morphological, between them are broken down. As to the flowers the plants are usually "monoecious" - that is, the male flowers, though separate from the female, are borne on the same plant, generally in the same inflorescence; but some of the hybrids, like ‘Gloire de Lorraine’, are mostly "dioecious." Female flowers and ripe seeds are, indeed, only very occasionally produced on this variety. The same phenomenon is witnessed in the variety called ‘Joh Heal’, but, as the plants are most easily propagated by cuttings or leaf-buds, the absence of seed is of no great importance. The female flowers have usually an "inferior" ovary, but it is not uncommon to see it " superior," whilst hermaphrodite blossoms are now and again met with. These divagations are rather troublesome from one point of view, but from another they are of great interest as showing how arbitrary are the distinctions on which we rely, and as furnishing the botanist with some clue to the real ancestry and relationships of the genus. Before quitting the subject, we may call the attention of our readers conversant with the French language to a little book lately published by M. O. Doin, of Paris, and com piled by M. A. Van den Heele. This gives in small compass the history of the genus, the methods of cultivation and propagation, and very full lists of the varieties. It is an excellent little treatise; but its utility would be much enhanced if, in addition to the sectional lists, a comprehensive alphabetical index to the whole book were provided. |
