There is no more interesting class of plants, either for the amateur or professional florist, than this large genus. It embraces hundreds of species, besides thousands of varieties. Begonias are roughly divided into four sections as follows: Fibrous rooted or shrubby, old Fuchsioides being a good type of these; semi-tuberous, of which the now famous Gloire de Lorraine is an example; the true tuberous-rooted, summer flowering, and the well known Bex section, which is grown almost solely as an ornamental foliage plant. The writer can well remember, about 1857, a small plant of the Bex begonia being purchased in London with two leaves. The price was about $5 per leaf. We have since sold thousands at 10 cents a plant. The above division is quite rough, for there have been such innumerable crosses between the many species that it would be difficult to determine to which section many belong. Semperflorens is classed with the shrubby, but is very different from, say, incarnata, for it flowers more precociously and freely as a summer bedding plant. Begonias are not very particular as to soil. A good loam with the addition of sand, if heavy, and a fifth of rotted manure will suit most of the flowering kinds, while the Bex section and kinds grown for their foliage will delight in a third or fourth of leaf-mold. Although begonias are all natives of warmer climates, they thrive in the winter at a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees.