'"50 LETTER III. 



Nothing of this sort is found in the Evening Prim- 

 rose. 



Another plant, of far greater beauty than either of 

 the foregoing, is the Fuchsia, an American genus, for 

 which no English name has been contrived, and which 

 is now one of the greatest of all the foreign ornaments 

 with v»hich our gardens are embellished in the sum- 

 mer and autumn. Every body has Fuchsias ; the 

 poor weaver grows them in his window ; many an 

 industrious cottager shews them as the pride of the 

 little plot of ground before his door ; and even the 

 suburban inhabitants of London itself, speak of the 

 beautiful Fuchsias they rear, with enthusiasm and 

 delight. You must, therefore, know very well what 

 the Fuchsia plant is. Examine its flowers ; on the 

 outside of all, you have a deep crimson covering, 

 divided into four firm sharp-pointed leaves ; this is 

 the calyx. Rolled up within it, and closely em- 

 bracing the stamens, are four little dark purple leaves, 

 which are not half so long as the calyx ; they are the 

 petals. The other parts you will easily recognise. 

 But the fruit is not a hard dry case, or capsule, 

 bursting into four valves when it is ripe ; it contains 

 four cavities indeed ; but its rind is deep purple, fleshy 

 and juicy ; in a word, it is a berry. This, then, is a 

 marked distinction from other plants of the Evening 

 Primrose tribe ; but, as in all other respects the 

 Fuchsia agrees with them, it is not accounted suffi- 

 ciently difierent to belong to any other natural order. 



The Evening Primrose tribe has little, except its 

 beautv, to render it interesting to mankind ; for 



