CHAP. XI.] FUCHSIAS. 311 



they are, however, all shrubby, and will last 

 several years. When intended to he kept in 

 pots, the seed should be sown on a slight hot- 

 bed in February, and the young plants should 

 be pricked out into very small thumb-pots, 

 while they are in the seed leaf. In these pots 

 thev should remain either in the frame of the 

 hotbed, or in a room or greenhouse, for about 

 a week or ten days, and they should be then 

 shifted into somewhat larger pots. These 

 shiftings, always into somewhat larger pots, 

 should be repeated six, eight, or ten times, if 

 the plants are wanted to be bushy; and not 

 more than four, if the plants are wished to 

 grow tall. The bushy plants will flower abun- 

 dantly without any support; but the tall-growino- 

 plants, which are suffered to flower in compara- 

 tively small pots, must be trained to some kind 

 of frame. When the tall plants appear to be 

 growing too straggling, the extremities of the 

 shoots should be taken off and made into cut- 

 tings. Petunias may be grown in any good 

 garden soil; and they require no particular 

 attention as to watering, &c. In fact, thev are, 

 perhaps, the best of all plants for a lady to 

 cultivate; as they will aftbrd a great deal of 

 interest and amusement, with the least possible 

 amount of trouble. 



Fuchsias are another family of plants that 

 may be cultivated with very little trouble. 

 Fuchsia globosa is perhaps the hardiest kind 

 for general purposes ; though the Port Famine 

 Fuchsia (F. discolor) will bear the greatest de- 

 gree of cold. In the summer of 1841 I saw 

 several large bushes of this fuchsia, from ten 



