AND CONSERYATOIir. 141 



CHAPTEE IX. 



THE FUCHSIA. 



The Fuchsia needs no praise, and strange to say, there 

 is not much to be said on the subject of its cultivation. 

 At all events it is our intention to dispose of the matter 

 in a few words, and we shall have to include in a short chapter 

 all that really need be said about it. If we hammer too hard 

 and too long on a soft subject, we shall probably crush it out 

 of all identification, and none of our readers would wish to see 

 the fuchsia obliterated by needlessly prolix directions for its 

 cultivation. 



The fuchsia requires to be grown rather fast, and therefore 

 a starving system must not be practised. It loves warmth 

 and moisture and some amount of sunshine. It cannot endure 

 a dry soil or a dry air and a long-continued roasting glare of 

 sunshine. No matter whether you wish to grow nice little 

 bushes for a small greenhouse or the sitting-room window, or 

 giant pyramids for a flower-show, the routine practice will be 

 very nearly the same, and the few differences to be made will 

 be taken note of in the directions that follow. 



If grand specimens are desired take cuttings in September, 

 but if only plants of moderate size, take them in spring as soon 

 as you can get them. In the month of February prune a few 

 old plants into shape and put them in a temperature of 60°, 

 and keep them regularly syringed. In the course of a month 

 they will supply you with any number of cuttings, and to 

 strike these is the simplest task in propagating the greenhouse 

 will ever aflTord you. 



At the earliest moment the cuttings should be potted off 

 into small sixties and soon after be shifted into forty-eights, 

 then into twenty-fours, and, lastly, into eights or sixes. The 

 size of the final shift must be determined upon by the culti- 

 vator, but if very large plants are wanted the last size is the 



