B. dubia

Culture

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Published as B. pauciflora: Begonia pauciflora The Botanical register: London: Printed for James Ridgway, 1815-1828. v. 6 (1820): Plate 471 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/9042 Nat.· ord. Plantae incertae sedis. Polypetala germine infero. Jussieu gen. 436. Begoniaceae. Bonpland nav. et malm. 151. An. Hydrangea et inde Rubiaceis affines Lindley MSS. BEGONIA. Supra vol. 4. fol. 284. B. pauciflora, caulescens; foliis cordatis rotundatis nitidis plicatis subbi crenatis: inferioribus aequilateralibus, capsulae alis inaequalibus obtusan­gulis. Lindley_ MSS. SYN Begonia patula. Haworth suppl. succ. Pl 100 - Herba carnosa 2-3-pedalis. Caules teretes rubidi erecti ramosi impubes, intenodiis petiolorum longitudine. Folia fere verticalia minutim puberula, stipulis ovatis acutis scariosis, petiolo supra canaliculato, caulis colore, longitudine laminae, quae nitida, cordata, plicata subbicrenata. supra laete viridis infra pallidior, superiorum obliqua, inferiorum subaeqilateralis. Paniculae pauciflorae pilosae, bracteis faem. ovatis appressis, masc. subbrotundis. Flores, masc. pallidi rubio tincti laciniis exterioribus late ovatis obtusis, interioribus 4-plo angtustioribus concavis acutiusculis, Faem. pallidi virides paulo, minores, alis ovarii obtusis, altera majore. Lindley -MSS Begonia patula of. Mr. Haworth's above cited tract is reported to be this, but the specific character does not altogether apply to it, and if it should turn out to be the same, the name patula can never be retained, for the plant is anything but spreading." I think I have detected a remarkable affinity between this genus and Hydrangea, which I shall take a future opportunity of explaining, contenting myself for the present with indicating my view. I believe it is the opinion of some of the Botanists in France that the genus is allied to Polygoneae; an idea originating, I presume, in the taste of the leaves, which have certainly a very striking resemblance to that of different species of Rumex. The drawing was taken from a sample which flowered in the hothouse at the nursery of Messrs. Colville, in the King's Road, Chelsea, in June last. If this species is the same with the doubtful Begonia I have quoted, it has been introduced in 1816 from the Berlin Garden into the Physic Garden at Chelsea. Description: Caulescent, fleshy, 2-3 feet high; stems round, reddish, upright, branched, furless, intervals between the leaves the length of the petioles. Leaves nearly vertical, minutely furred, cordate, rounded, shining, plaited, somewhat doubly crenate, of a lively green above, paler underneath, upper ones with a slanted blade, lower with an almost entirely even sided one; petiole of the color of the stem, the length of the blade, channeled at the upper side: stipules ovate, pointed, scariose. Panicles few-flowered hairy; bracts of the barren flowers ovate close pressed, of the fertile flowers nearly round. Barren flowers pale tinged with red, outer segments broad-ovate blunt, inner ones four times narrower concave rather pointed; fertile flowers pale green, but little smaller, wings of the germen obtuse one larger than the rest.'' Lindley MSS. The whole of this article was kindly communicated by Mr. Lindley while the plant was in flower last spring. The following short notice of the natural tribe of our plant is taken from Mr. Brown's Observations on the Botany of Congo. “The extensive genus BEGONIA, which it is perhaps expedient to divide, may be considered as forming a ‘natural order’, whose place, however, among the Dicotyledonous families, is not satisfactorily determined. Of Begoniaceae, no species has yet been observed on the continent of Africa, though several have been found in Madagascar and the Isles of France and Bourbon, and one in the Island of Johanna”. Brown obs. bot. Congo. 45.