Begonia rex

Begoniaceae - Begonia rex

From: Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe by Charles Lemaire and others. Gent, Louis van Houtte, 1857, volume 12, plate 1255-1258. 2 chromolithographs finished by hand

The founder, publisher and part-editor of this lavish Belgian periodical was Louis van Houtte, the propietor of the largest nursery of its time on the continent. It appeared monthly for almost 40 years and was published by his own printing office in the middle of the gardens, the Horto van Houtteano. All the plants shown were for sale in his nursery and include many exotics. The work is notable for the craftmanship of the Belgian lithographers Severeyns, Stroobant and De Pannemaker, who had mastered the art of colour-printing from stone.

Begonia manicata

Begonia manicata 'Aureomaculata'

Begonia angularis

Illustration from Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1902

I'm pleased to have finally tracked down this one. Identified the old fashioned way from the b+w photos in Alfred Graf's Exotica. (mine is the 8th edition 1976 - over 1800 pages in a single volume, and before the internet your only hope of identifying an unknown exotic plant!) For many years I have grown this as B. ulmifolia since it is grown under this name in some Lisbon collections, but apart from the asymmetrical leaf base (which nearly all begonias have) this leaf owes nothing to the elm. The true ulmifolia has puckered or bullate leaves and looks just like the leaf of an Elm!

This was possibly the "Begonia arborescens" of Walter Oates, Monserrate 1929 (See posting) It grows easily to two or more metres high. Tough and robust it has survived in a number of old Sintra gardens. Notably at Quinta do Relógio and in a villa garden on the Rua Dom João de Castro, just below Quinta Nova. Flowers all year round. Angular-stems (a key identifying characteristic) and large leathery smooth leaves. Local gardeners call it the "Lingua da Vaca" or Cow's Tongue.

Native to steep, shady, moist areas in the central region of the Atlantic Coastal forest of Brazil at an altitude of 600-1500 m. This forest is home to almost 200 Begonia species. Commonly cultivated Begonia species from this forest include B. coccinea, B. convolvulacea, B. cucullata, B. herbacea, B. luxurians, and B. venosa. 90% of Brazil's Atlantic Coastal Forest has now been destroyed, but there are now large areas protected within the National Park System.

See Begonias By Mark C. Tebbitt, Brooklyn Botanic Garden p. 83-4 Timber Press

Originally collected from San Gabriel in the Serra d'Estrella, near Rio. Distributed to gardens in 1845. Grown for many years at Kew in the Temperate House, where it grew to a height of eight feet.

Begonia angularis Raddi

Section Pritzelia - cane-like group of shrubby Begonias

Synonyms: Pritzelia angularis; B. compta Bull; B. crenulata Schott; B. zebrina Hort. Angl.; B. hastata Vell. Fl. Flum.; Pritzelia zebrina Klotzsch.

Begonia arborescens

Begonia arborescens var. confertiflora

As the name suggests this begonia is tree-like and one of the tallest of all free-standing begonias. Begonia arborescens is native to the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Brazil, where it is common in humid shady locations in the rain forest. After seeing this species in the wild, Marc Hachadourian, a horticulturist at New York Botanical garden, has suggested that it may mimic certain species of Cecropia, which are common trees of the rain forests where B. arborescens lives. This hypothesis is intriguing since cecropias have an intricate relationship with ants that live inside their stems and protect them from herbivores. If this Begonia is indeed capable of fooling potential herbivores into thinking it is a Cecropia and therefore protected by ants, it is easy to see why this bluff may have evolved. Three readily distinguished varieties of B. arborescens have been described. The species, B. arborescens var. arborescens, as commonly found in nature, has large very broad leaves and is almost hairless. The plant B. arborescens var. confertiflora inhabits a higher altitude and has dense, long, soft hairs along the main vein of its leaf blade and on its flower stalks. Begonia arborescens var. oxyphylla has relatively narrow leaf blades that measure no more than 6 cm across. This variant, while having the smallest natural distribution, is the one most often seen in cultivation.

Begonia arborescens needs a lot of space and for this reason is often grown in a bed within a greenhouse, rather than in a pot. The Atlanta Botanical garden grows it in this way in their tropical house, and its large size helps produce the illusion that it is growing in a natural tropical rain forest. At that garden the species thrives in a very shady position with a high relative humidity. The species has seldom, if ever, been used in hybridization.


Begonia arborescens Raddi
Section Pritzelia, shrub-like group
Memoriè di Matematica e di Fisica Società Italiana della Scienze (Modena) 18: 408 (1820)

Extract from Begonias By Mark C. Tebbitt, Brooklyn Botanic Garden p. 83-4 Timber Press

Synonymy: Begonia dimidiata Vell. Fl. Flum. X. t. 46; Steineria pulchella Klotsch Begon. 65; Begonia patens Giseb. in hb. Hook; Begonia confertiflora Gardn. in Hook. Journal IV. 134

Though this is the name attributed by Walter oates to the Begonia growing at Monserrate, I suspect that the plant was actually Begonia angularis, at tree-sized Begonia which is still found in some old Sintra gardens.

Sir Frederick and Lady Cook - 1904

Visconde & Viscondessa de Monserrate in 1904
Mary Anne Elizabeth Cotton married Frederick Cook on 7 January 1868. She died on 9 August 1913. Frederick Lucas Cook succeeded to the baronetcy 17th Feb. 1901.



Portraits from Misericordia de Sintra - erroneously ascribed to first Visconde. Frederick looked very much like his father, especially under a panama hat, but his wife Mary is unmistakably the same in both instances.

Vale das Rosas, Monserrate, 1949

cabralmoncadaleiloes.pt

Pedro Cruz
oil painting signed and dated 1949
33 x 24 cm

Vathek's Antonio

Beckford's adopted patron saint, St Anthony of Padua, stood on a plinth of Siena marble bearing the inscription 'DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA'. (The Lord is my light - Psalm 27)
The authorship of this statue has generally been stated as "Rossi" and has generated some controversy. According to an anonymous article in O Século (9th October, 1898) it was made in Rome by Giacomo Rossi (1748-1817) Director of the Portuguese Academy in Rome. Beckford is supposed by some to have commissioned the sculpture for Monserrate.

It is more likely however that Beckford had the statue made for Fonthill where it occupied the focal position in the oratory.

The statue was later placed by Beckford in the Sanctuary at Lansdown Tower.

On descending the staircase, the door opening showed us at the end of a small vaulted corridor a beautiful statue by Rossi of St. Anthony and the infant Jesus. At the back, fixed in the wall, is a large slab of red porphyry, circular at the top and surrounded by an elegant inlay of Sienna verd, antique border surrounding the whole figure of the Saint, and has a most rich effect; it is difficult to believe that the Sienna is not gold. The light descending from above gives that fine effect which sets off statues so much.

Modern scholarship attributes the statue to J. C. Rossi, R.A.

ROSSI (John Charles Felix) 1762-1839
Born 8 March, 1762, at Nottingham, the son of an Italian from Siena who practicised medicine. As a young man Rossi studied sculpture under Locatelli. In 1785 he won the Academy Travelling Studentship and went to Rome for three years. In 1798 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, becoming a full member in 1802. Sculptor to the Prince of Wales 1797.

John Charles Felix Rossi by William Daniell, after George Dance, pencil, circa 1802-1814 (1798) National Portrait Gallery

In 1845, after Beckford's death, the statue was sold for thirty-two-and-a-half guineas at the Lansdown sale in Bath.

According to Ida Kingsbury, Sir Francis Cook, at Monserrate read about the forthcoming sale of a "cardinal with a babe in arms". Recognising this as Beckford's Anthony he sailed from Portugal to London to make the purchase. He then sent it to Monserrate and converted one of the ground-floor bedrooms into a chapel, or "Saint Anthony's room" (before 1869). In 1952 it was sold at auction to Sr. Emauz e Silva for the sum of 30,000 escudos. He donated it to the Jesuit fathers at the Colégio de São João de Brito, where it remains today.

Recollections of the late William Beckford of Fonthill, Wilts and Lansdown, Bath, Henry Venn Lansdown; M. L. Bettencourt Pires, William Beckford e Portugal, 1987; Ida Kingsbury, Sir Francis Cook and Monserrate, BHS, 1976; Rocha Martins O Palacio de Monserrate - Habitações Artisticas. Notas Rapidas, A Illustração Portuguesa, 26 de Septembro de 1904, p.742.; O Século, 9.10.1898