EVENING-PRIMROSE TRIBE. 433 



each other by delicate threads. The ovariura, which will be 

 found altogether below the flower, is four-sided, and contains 

 four cells, in each of which are a great many ovules ; from this 

 a single style arises, which mounts through the tube of the calyx, 

 and usually separates at the top into four stigmas. The fruit is 

 a dry capsule with four angles, separating into four valves. The 

 seeds of the Willow-herb are remarkable for the curious provision 

 by which they are dispersed ; each of them has a very long tuft 

 of silk at one end, which is so light, that the faintest breeze is 

 sufficient to buoy it up and carry it to a great distance. 



600. Although several handsome species of this order abound 

 in Britain and in other parts of Europe, it is in America that it 

 is most predominant ; and from that continent we have derived 

 a plant of far greater beauty than any native species, which is 

 one of the most splendid of the foreign ornaments of our 

 gardens during" the summer and autumn. This is the Fuchsia 

 (pronounced Fushia), which, although at first introduced as 

 a greenhouse plant, is now extensively cultivated in the open 

 air, in the southern parts of Britain, and in sheltered situa- 

 tions in the north. " Every body," it has been remarked, 

 " has Fuchsias ; the poor weaver grows them in his window ; 

 many an industrious cottager shows them as the pride of the 

 little plot of ground before his door ; and even the suburban 

 inhabitants of London speak of the beautiful Fuchsias they rear, 

 with enthusiasm and delight." The calyx of this genus is of a 

 deep crimson ; and the petals, which are of a dark purple, are 

 small, and rolled up within it. The fruit differs from that com- 

 mon to the order, in being a berry with a juicy rind, formed by 

 the thickening of the pericarp, instead of being a dry capsule. 

 This order has little, except its beauty, to render it interesting 

 to mankind ; for there is not a single species which possesses any 

 particularly useful property. The number of its stamens being 

 invariably 2, 4, or 8, its genera are distributed, in the Linnaean 

 classification, among the classes DIANDRIA, TETRANDRIA, and 

 OCTANDRIA. 



601. The next important order is that of MYRTACE.E, the 

 Myrtle tribe ; in the flowers of many among which, also, we find 



