GLORY OF FORM AND COLOUR

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 106, 28 January 1939, Page 8

GLORY OF FORM AND COLOUR

Begonias At Botanical Gardens A sight of rare beauty, which should attract many visitors in the coming weeks, is the begonia house at the_ Botanical ■ Gardens. Each year these exquisite blooms invite the wayfarer to bathe his spirit in their loveliness of form and colour, and it is little wonder that their culture is a source of special pride to the diiector of parksand reserves, Mr. J. G. MacKenzie, and the staff at the gardens. From the doorway the picture is one that lives in the memory, and the delicate form and tint, of each bloom, from the rich red of Black Knight to the snow white of Everest aud Albatross, are something to linger over. Neighbours to the begonias are the soft-tinted cape primroses in their delicate profusion, and many other lovely exotics that bloom gratefully in the regulated atmosphere. There, too, are the life-like flamingo plant and the estrange pitcher plant that sets out from a flower-pot to climb the ceiling, and still" has strength to bear its peculiar gourd-like pods. In the open the roses are coming into their own, watched by the sweetscented stock, and a large circular bed of phlox blooms in profusion with a veritable riot of colour.