THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



77 



the greatest facility ; and as pollen is 

 abundantly produced, there is no 

 difficulty in the operation. But it 

 requires judgment to determine on 

 the varieties which have to be used 

 for crossing, and the flowers selected 

 must be dealt with as aoon as they 

 open: it would be best, indeed, to 

 remove the stamens from the mother 

 flowers previous to the expansion of 

 the sepals by opening them artificially, 

 so as the more effectually to prevent 

 fertilization by the natural process. 

 As the fuchsia ripens berries in abun- 

 dance, seed is always obtainable in 

 plenty ; and those who save the seed 

 as produced, without taking any 

 trouble to effect a cross, will have 

 almost as good a chance of improved 

 varieties as those who manipulate 

 most diligently. 



The berries should be gathered 

 when quite ripe ; they should then 

 be crushed, and the pulp washed 

 away from the seed ; the seeds spread 

 on paper, and dried in the sun, and 

 put away till March, which is the 

 best time to sow them. The ardent 

 cultivator will, however, prefer to 

 sow a batch as soon as gathered from 

 the earliest flowers, in order to get 

 strong plants before winter. In a 

 warm house, most of these, if the 

 wood was well ripened the previous 

 autumn, will flower early in the 

 spring ; and their merits can be then 

 sufficiently determined, and a few be 

 saved to prove by summer cultiva- 

 tion, the utterly worthless to be 

 committed at once to the muck -pit. 



To PROFAGATE FROM CUTTINGS, 



get the old plants into active growth 

 in a moist pit, on a dung- bed, or a 

 warm greenhouse. Take off the 

 young shoots with a heel when about 

 two inches long, put them round the 

 sides of 5-inch pots, in silver sand, 

 place them in a steady bottom-heat, 

 and they will be rooted in a week. 

 Cuttings of one inch will make as 

 good plants as those of larger growth ; 

 it matters not, indeed, how small 

 they are, if plump and stubby. For- 

 tunately for the inexperienced, the 

 fuchsia does not easily suffer from 

 damp in the cutting pots, if the tem- 

 perature be between 60" and 70' ; we 

 have rooted them in pans of Band 



and water — the water half an inch 

 above the surface of the sand — with- 

 out losing more than two or three 

 per cent, from the smallest cuttings. 

 Where the stock can be kept grow- 

 ing all winter, the autumn is a good 

 time to propagate, as the plants can 

 be grown to much greater size before 

 blooming. There is no better practice 

 for beginners than the propagation 

 of the fuchsia. 



Pot Culture for Specimens.— 

 Well-rotted turf and old dung are 

 indispensable in the culture of the 

 fuchsia. The compost for specimen 

 plants should be sound loam, rotten 

 dung, and turf, equal parts, with 

 enough sand to make the mixture 

 porous. It is impossible to give 

 directions as to the proportion of 

 sand, as that must depend upon the 

 texture of the loam ; the lighter that 

 is, the less sand will be required. It 

 is important, however, for the culti- 

 vator to bear in mind, that the lighter 

 the soil, the more rapid will be the 

 growth ; and, vice versa, in a heavy 

 compost the growth will be slow. 

 For purposes of exhibition, or in 

 growing specimen plants for decora- 

 tive purposes, a quick growth is not 

 desirable ; and in a firm compost the 

 plants will make shorter joints and 

 stouter wood than in a very light 

 soil. In raising a large stock, a con- 

 siderable proportion of leaf-mould 

 may be used, in which they will make 

 rapid progress. At the first potting 

 from the cutting-pans the soil may be 

 leaf-mould, old dung, and turf, equal 

 parts ; this mixture will not require 

 the addition of sand. In shifting to 

 forty-eights or thirty-twos, a fair pro- 

 portion of yellow loam should be 

 used, to promote a sturdy habit. At 

 every stage of growth, and until 

 bloom is quite over, the fuchsia re- 

 quires liberal supplies of water, but 

 the drainage must be perfect ; no 

 good result can be expected if the 

 pots are water-logged ; but with 

 effectual drainage they can scarcely 

 have too much water, and they like 

 it overhead as well as at the root. A 

 warm, moist air is etniuently favour- 

 able to growth in the early part of 

 the season ; but when the plants are 

 in bloom they need a drier air, and 



