supplementary to Encyc. of Plants and Hort, Brit. 581 



of all the Chilian fuchsias is very trifling : " and Dr. Lindley 

 remarks that there are some " who consider the greater part 

 of the Chilian fuchsias mere varieties of F. macrostema." Who- 

 ever considers this, considers the reverse of what is the fact. 

 Their origin is still more singular in a botanical point of view. 

 F. macrostema, in all likelihood, is as much a variety as any of 

 them. F. conica, gracilis, tenella, virgata, and many more 

 varieties, or perhaps species, may be originated by fertilising 

 the stigmas of coccinea with the pollen of arborescens ; this I 

 have proved three times over : and I have every reason to believe, 

 though I have never proved it, that F. macrostema may be 

 produced from the conica fertilised by the pollen of arborescens. 

 All the Chilian fuchsias will intermix freely with the arborescens, 

 and, what is very singular, F. arborescens will not intermix 

 with their pollen ; at least, I have failed in several attempts to 

 effect this. F. excorticata, impregnated with the pollen of either 

 conica or globosa, will produce fac-simiies of F. discolor, or the 

 Port Famine fuchsia; and the seedlings so produced will not 

 flower till the second or third year, which is the case with 

 discolor. 



F. longiflora is now called the "long-legged impostor;" an 

 unmerited stain brought on the character of this innocent family, 

 through the imposition hoaxed on the public through the misno- 

 mer longiflora. If the less roguish name of longepedunculata 

 had been adopted, in the first instance, for this variety, persons 

 might have competed for the longissime pedunculatum, and 

 saved their half-sovereigns into the bargain. F. globosa is cer- 

 tainly a variety from conica, otherwise there is no use in the 

 definition of the term. It will not reproduce itself from seeds, 

 yet its pollen has the same effect in producing mixtures from other 

 sorts, as that of conica. 



Now, the query is, are these fuchsias species, or varieties ? 

 The exact limits of species and varieties are so imperfectly un- 

 derstood, and so difficult to be defined, that many botanists 

 throw such as are produced by artificial means into varieties. 

 Should any of them be capable of reproducing themselves, they 

 are said to revert to either of their parents at the third or fourth 

 generation, or become sterile altogether. This is plausible 

 enough, and may be found convenient in the closet, but it will 

 not do at the potting-bench. 



That plants can be originated artificially which will be found 

 capable of reproducing themselves from seeds, ad iiifinitum, 

 with as little variation as is to be found in any natural species, is 

 as obvious to gardeners as the sun at noon-day. 



To distinguish such home-made species from mere varieties, we 

 ought to have some peculiar term. 



In conducting experiments in hybridising, it may be of im- 



