Herbæ in Asia et America tropica indigenæ, foliis alternis petiolatis integris v. palmatilobis basi saepecordatis inæquilateris integerrimis dentatis v. mucronatoserrutis stipulis lateralibus membranaceis deciduis, cymis axillaribus pedunculatis dichotomis floribus albis roseis v. rubincundis.
CHARACT. SPECIF.—B. acaulis, rhizomate brevi crasso subtus radicante, foliis amplis oblique cordato-ovatis brevi acuminatis sinuatis denticulatis subtus discoloribus (rubris) petiolis aggregatis crassis folium subaequantibus rubris stipulatis crinitis, setis patentibus interioribus reflexis, scapo petiolis duplo longiore, floribus nutantibus corymbosis flavis, masculis tetrasepalis, sepalis 5 oblongo-cuneatis unico majore rotundato magis concavo, foeminis triplo minoribus hexasepalis, sepalis æqualibus ovali-rotundatis, fructus alis duabus brevibus unica horizontaliter elongata striata. Hook.
Begonia xanthina, Hook, Bot. Mag. t. 4683.
Although many different species of this valuable genus have been discovered up to this time, we have had only those with white or red flowers. B. cinnabarina with its orange red flowers was an approach to what we now figure—the Begonia xanthina. But even the yellow of this is shaded with the red which prevails in a greater or less degree in the flowers or leaves, and stalks of all the genus.
This species, which flowered in July, 1852, in the collection of Mr. Nuttall, at Rainhill, Lincolnshire, was received by him in 1850, from the Bootan Himalayas, having been sent thence by his nephew, Mr. Booth.
It may be some time before this beautiful plant is imported into this country; but we know that our enterprizing nurserymen and amateurs will obtain it as soon as it finds its way into the hands of the trade in Europe.
HISTORY AND CULTIVATION.
Few plants have a greater claim on the American plant grower than the Begonia. It has been too much the habit to sigh after, and bewail the want of “Chiswick Heaths,” and other things which do not do well in America, to the manifest neglect of many beautiful things which do. It is time we had ceased to be the mere copyists of English horticulture. We have so rapidly advanced, that we should aim at an independence that can be achieved; and, as in government so in gardening, take our place as one of the horticultural “nations of the earth.” We have been a “colony of Chiswick and Edinboro,” “Paris and Ghent” hitherto; we have experienced on every occasion slights and neglects; whatever we do is passed over in silence, and whatever we discover remains unnoticed or is scorned. These are some of our grievances. All our horticultural papers have taken up the subject in turn, and pressed our claims on English journalists; but how have they been met? A private letter on the success of one individual plant has been published in one magazine; and two hybrid Peonys have been named in Belgium in honor of Americans. Perhaps once a year a short extract in the Revue horticole on Forsythia viridissima from the Horticulturist; or, a notice in the Gardener’s Chronicle of how to preserve Tomatoes from Hovey’s Magazine. We must have done with whining and complaining about these things. Let us strike out new courses for ourselves. We may never hope to excel them in Heaths, Pansies, Calceolarias, or many other things, as a general rule, nor is it desirable we should. Let them boast of their excellence; we will raise another standard.
The Begonia is peculiarly adapted to become such a plant as I have described. Requiring in England a moist and very artificial atmosphere, it does not make any very great progress in popular estimation. Here it thrives with very common care; all doing in a greenhouse 9 months in the year; and many doing well in the open air, if in a somewhat shaded situation. They are for the most part natives of Brazil or Mexico.