1 



XXXI 



FUCHSIA 



Fuchsia macrostemma, or F* coccinea 

 globosa 

 riccartoni 



Fuchsia is rather an anomaly among garden 

 shrubs. In the south and west of England, 

 especially by the sea, it is represented by great 

 bushes, sometimes, indeed, by miniature trees boasting 

 a small trunk ; in other places, though in summer it 

 makes a fine shrub five or six feet high it has really 

 the habit of a perennial herb, for it dies back every 

 autumn to the ground, so that the whole of the bush 

 is one season's growth. In places again where the 

 climatic conditions are hard, greenhouse protection is 

 needed for it during the winter, and it can only be 

 placed out in the garden as a summer visitor. Actual 

 latitude does not appear to have much to do with its 

 presence, for while Cornwall, Devon and the west of 

 Ireland claim to see it at its best, Canon Ellacomb 

 speaks of seeing, at Kirkwall in , the Orkneys, houses 

 " covered with Fuchsias from the ground to the roof, 

 with spaces cut out for the windows." The ameliorating 

 presence of the sea doubtless allowed this. 



221 



