182 THE FLOEAL WORLD AIS'D GARDEN GUIDE. 



for they always seem to me to be a mass of confusion, and put me 

 m mind of those mops we see the coachmen cleaning their carriages 

 with ; but every one admires the object of his own aifection — one 

 man admires what another despises, it beiug natural for the judg- 

 ment to favour the inclination in fixiug the character on such as we 

 admire or despise, and to call that wisdom which in another man's 

 mind passes for folly. 



But I think we may safely presume that the fuchsia is a universal 

 favourite, and deservedly so, for there are very fe^i^ plants that come 

 under the care of the floriculturist that are possessed of so many 

 useful properties for the decoration of the conservatory, the green- 

 house, the flower garden, or the cottager's window. If we take 

 into consideration the graceful habit of the plant, the abundance of 

 its lovely blossoms, the charming variety of colours, and the length 

 of time it continues in bloom, tliere are very few plants that are 

 more worthy of general favour. In the propagation of the fuchsia, 

 or any other plant, we observe that the buds of plants have the 

 power of developing roots if removed from the parent, and may 

 thus form a completely independent structure. It is by separating 

 the buds, and placing them in circumstances favourable to their 

 growth, that any particular variety of plant may be propagated 

 more certainly than by seeds. The limits which have been set by 

 the Creator to the duration of the life of each being that exists at 

 any one time on the surface of the globe, would cause the earth to 

 be speedily unpeopled were not a compensation provided in the 

 faculty of reproduction, or of the formation of a new being similar 

 to itself possessed by every kind of plant. This power of creating, 

 as it were, a living structure, with all its wondrous mechanism, 

 seems more extraordinary and mysterious than any which we else- 

 where witness ; yet it is not so perhaps in reality. The processes 

 which are constantly taking place during the life of each being, and 

 which are necessary to the maintenance of its own existence, are no 

 less wonderful and no less removed from anything we witness in the 

 world of dead matter. When the tree unfolds its leaves with the 

 returning warmth of spring, there is as much to interest and 

 astonish in the beautiful structure and important uses of these 

 parts as there is in the expansion of its more gay and variegated 

 blossoms ; and when it puts forth new buds, which by their extension 

 prolong its branches over a part of the ground previously unshaded 

 by its foliage, the process is in itself as wonderful as the formation 

 of the seed that is to propagate its race in some distant spot. 



The best time to propagate the fuchsia from cuttings, for 

 growing fine specimens the following season, is from the middle to 

 the end of August ; and always select a young healthy shoot for the 

 cutting. Avoid the points of shoots from a flowering plant, for 

 they will not make such fine plants as a young healthy shoot with- 

 out flower-buds upon it. The best way that I know of is, to select 

 a plant of each sort we intend to cultivate, and plant them out 

 about the middle of May, in a well-prepared soil in a shaded situa- 

 tion ; and, by attention in giving them water when they require it, 

 and pinching out the points of the shoots to prevent them from 



