Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



unopened flower buds, like so many scarlet pendants, 

 each a long oval, hang from the branches, and amply 

 justify the cottagers' name for the shrub " Lady's Ear- 

 Drops." Its leaves are usually set together in threes, they 

 are a pointed oval in form, with veins deeply defined. 



When the flower fades, the scarlet calyx, purple 

 petals and warm-tinted stamens and style all shrivel 

 and fall off together. The green seed-case swells and 

 darkens into a juicy berry, like a black cherry, though 

 not so rounded. 



P. macrostemma has a variety built on similar but 

 slighter and more delicate lines, which is known to 

 gardeners as F. gracilis. 



F. globosa is a variety (or species) where the colour- 

 ing is identical with F. macrostemma, but where the 

 flower buds are quite globular in outline. And even 

 after the buds begin to burst, and broad streaks of 

 purple petals show between the scarlet sepals, the sepal 

 tips adhere, and so for a while a striped balloon still 

 keeps up the " globosa " idea that the globe-like 

 scarlet buds initiated. When ultimately the tips are 

 released, the flower proves to be generally shorter and 

 broader than the corresponding one of F. macrostemma. 

 We first read of this Fuchsia at the Horticultural 

 Society Show in 1832, where, trained on a fan-shaped 

 trellis, it evoked great interest and admiration, especially 



as its origin seemed something of a mystery. 



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