132 The Fuchsia. 



The Fuchsia. 



This belongs to the natural order Onagracese ; all the species 

 are American, though principally found in the southern conti- 

 nent ; a few came from the "West Indies. It is in the class Oc- 

 tandria, order Monogynia ; the generic name was given in honor 

 of Leonard Fuch, a famous German botanist of the sixteenth 

 century, whose skill as an artist in the drawing of plants was 

 considered unrivalled. We do not find that it bears any other 

 name in Europe, nor has its original South American one been 

 ascertained. Its characters are, calyx funnel-shaped, always 

 closed, superior, and soon falling off; it has four petals, often 

 considered nectaries, which are in the throat of the calyx, alter- 

 nately, consistently with the ideal type, with its divisions. Stig- 

 ma four-sided and capitate ; it has an oblong four-celled berry 

 containing numerous seeds. 



The Fuchsia Coccinea — Ladies' Ear-drop — is, as Phillips re- 

 marks, a beautiful exotic plant, and although now cultivated in 

 most parts of Europe, and in the civilized world, was unknown 

 there until 1788, when it was presented to the Royal Garden at 

 Kew, in England, whence it was afterwards distributed as a stove 

 plant. From the stove it was removed to the green-house, and 

 it is now found to be sufficiently hardy to stand in the open gar- 

 den, if planted in warm situations where it is sheltered from the 

 north by a wall or buildings ; and like the China roses which 

 were for some years treated as tender plants, the Fuchsia is found 

 to grow with greater luxuriance in the open air, than when nursed 

 as a house plant. We have placed the Fuchsia in the language 

 of flowers as the emblem of Taste ; for with its richly colored 

 blossoms there is a peculiar harmony and beauty in the unas- 

 suming appearance of the flowers, which hang with so much 

 gracefulness from amongst the elegant shaped foliage of this plant. 

 The length of the stamens also adds greatly to the beauty of 

 these pendant blossoms, having the appearance of so many gems 

 suspended from a small roll of the richest violet colored ribbon, 

 over which the beautiful carmine calix hangs like a half ex- 

 panded parachute, allowing only a glimpse of the purple petals 

 to be seen between the openings, the whole being headed by an 



