oe 
FUCHSIA. 
life of the plant will be preserved, 
and the next spring, if the plant be 
cut down to the ground, it will spring 
up again from the collar. In general, 
the easiest ligneous plants to protect 
are those which throw up suckers ; | 
and the most difficult, those which 
shoot with difficulty from the root 
or stool, such as the Pine and Fir 
tribe. ‘The easiest plants to protect 
are those which are planted against 
walls ; because the branches can be 
saved from the perpendicular cold 
by a projecting coping, and the roots 
by litter, leaves, rotten tan, &c. 
What are called Alpine plants, which 
in their native country are covered 
during winter with snow, are best 
protected by being kept in pots, and 
placed in what is called a cold frame ; 
that is, a box covered with glass, 
placed on the common soil of the 
garden, and consequently without 
bottom heat, but covered in severe 
weather with mats, thatch, or boards. 
Planting herbaceous plants and low 
shrubs in raised masses of soil cover- 
ed with stone, technically< called 
rock-work, is also a good means of 
preserving plants which are not quite | 
hardy ; because the mass of soil | 
containing the roots is thus always 
more or less dry. One of the 
greatest enjoyments in gardening 
nee in growing the plants of 
warme 
the open air; this, in the climate of 
Britain, is not so much to be effected | 
by communicating artificial heat in 
the winter season, as by protecting 
them from frost and moisture. 
all gardening were reduced to the 
mere growth of plants which were 
quite hardy, the art would lose half 
its interest. ‘The nice point in this, 
as in many other cases, consists in 
overcoming difficulties ; and the 
pleasure will be great, in proportion | 
as these difficulties appear at first 
sight to be insurmountable. 
Fo‘cusia. — Onagrdrie. — The | 
Fuchsias being all natives of South 
216 
climates than our own in|} 
It | 
| FUCHSIA. 
/ America, have till lately been gene- 
rally treated as greenhouse plants, 
but the greater number are now 
considered to be among the more 
‘ornamental of our hardy exotics. 
They grow freely in the open air, 
and enliven our flower-gardeng 
during the whole of the summe1 
with their beautiful crimson flowers ; 
and though they die down to the 
ground in winter, they spring up from 
the root the following May, and dur- 
ing summer flower profusely. They 
grow freely in a mixture of vegetable 
earth, or peat, sandy loam, and a 
little well-rotted dung, which must 
be kept moist, but by no means sod- 
den. All the species strike freely 
from cuttings of the young wood, 
without bottom heat or bell glass ; 
but they will do better with these 
‘assistants; and if planted round the 
, edges of pots, in a rather more sandy 
soil than the mother-plants have 
| been grown in, and plunged into a 
slight hotbed, and shaded, they will 
be fit to pot off in about a month or 
six weeks. Seeds are frequently 
ripened, and many very beautiful 
varieties and hybrids have been 
raised in this country. One of the 
finest of these hybrids is F. Stand- 
_ishit, raised between F. globdsa and 
_F. fulgens, and figured in the Bo- 
tanical Register for 1840. Seeds 
vegetate freely if sown as soon as 
they are ripened in a rather sandy 
soil, on a little heat ; and unlike 
most other perennial plants, they 
will, if grown strongly, flower the | 
first year. F. Chandlerii is a splen- 
did kind, and was raised by Mr. 
Chandler, of Vauxhall, from seed of 
F. fulgens. The following ki 
are the best for growing in the ope 
air, F'. globosa, F. discolor, F. vir- 
gata, F. microphy'lla with small — 
flowers, and F’. gré@cilis ; which last, 
though naturally a handsome shrub, 
about four feet high, may be trained 
to a single stem so as to form a small 
| tree, in the following manner. The 
