BEGONIA. A genus of the natural order Begoniacem, the species of which number about 350. and are found in the tropics of both hemi spheres, being especially well represented in Mexico and Central and South America. Some of the species of Begonia are very popular house-plants, and are extensively grown under the names of Begonia. Elephant-Ears, Beefsteak Geranium, etc., for their handsome flowers and their odd-shaped and often beautiful foliage. The plants are perennial herbs, or, in some eases, shrubby at base, and have root systems of sev eral kinds, upon which schemes of classification have been based. Some are tuberous, some have their stems continued into a rhizome, others have a cluster of scale-like bulbs, while still others have fibrous roots. Ordinarily the fibrous rooted species are designated as winter-bloom ing, the others being summer-blooming, unless especially forced to the contrary. The leaves, which are radical, or. if borne upon the stem, alternate in two racks, a re usually unequal sided, and vary within wide limits in size, out line, and texture. The flowers are momeeious. the male usually having four petals, the female five, sometimes two petals. The stamens are quite numerous; the styles two or four, with the stigmas twisted like corkscrews. The fruit consists of a winged capsule filled with numerous small seeds, which are without an endosperm.
Begonias may he propagated in a number of ways. Their tuberous or bulbous roots may be divided, their stems rooted, or they may be grown directly, either from leaves which are emit and placed in the soil, or from incisions made in the leaf, which lies flat upon the ground.
The leaves form a callus where emit, from which ultimately arises a number of adventitious buds. Horticulturally, the begonias may be divided into the following sections: Fibrous-rooted or winter-flowering, semi-tuberous or Socotran, tu berous or summer-flowering, and rex or orna mental-leaved varieties. Many cultural vari eties and hybrids of each are known to the flor ist, some of the hybrids being plants of great beauty, as the 'Gloire de Lorraine,' the double flowered, and some of the single-flowered tuber ous-rooted varieties, etc. The 'Rex Begonias' are of note on account of. the remarkable coloration of the leaves in some varieties. They are origi nally of Asiatic origin, and have by crossing and selection yielded many fine forms. The Soco tam species have peltotte leaves, those of the others being all unequal-sided. The cultivation of begonias was begun about 1777, and there are now hundreds of named varieties of recog nized merit. Of rather easy cultivation, they do not seem to withstand the burning summer sun and frequent droughts of the United States, and they grow better as house-plants than they do in the open. See Plate of GREENHOUSE PLANTS.