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. To cultivate them successfully we must divide them into two classes:—the _tuberous_ rooted, and the _shrubby_. Each of these will require separate treatment. The following kinds are amongst the best in cultivation, either here, or in English gardens, from whence they can be easily procured. TUBEROUS ROOTED. 1. B. discolor or Evansiana, native of China, with pinkish white flowers, may be had in bloom from May to October. 2. cinnabarina, from Bolivia, deep pink or cinnabar, from June to October. 3. Martiana, from Brazil, deep pinky rose, from July to October. 4. diptera, Cape of Good Hope, whitish, June to August.