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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



man, Mr. Lee himself went down to Limehouse and found the 

 plant in question, and inquired of the owner the price. The old 

 woman told him her son had brought it home with him in his last 

 voyage, and that she would not part with it for the " Indies of 

 gold," because she never looked at the plant without thinking of 

 her son. But Mr. Lee was so struck with the beauty of the 

 plant that he would not take a denial, and offered her twenty 

 pounds for it ; but no, not fifty pounds would buy it. However, 

 eventually he was the lucky purchaser for something like eighty 

 guineas. He named it " Coccinea," and it was admired by every- 

 body who saw it, and it is said that orders were at once obtained 

 for three hundred plants at a guinea apiece. 



The Fuchsia was named, according to Loudon, in honour 

 of Leonard Fuchs, a famous German botanist, and the next 

 introduction after F. coccinea was, he says, that of F. lycioides? 

 also from Chili, 1790. Then came F. gracilis, 1823 ; F. macro- 

 sterna, 1823 ; F. excorticata, from New Zealand ; F. parviflcra, 

 from Mexico, 1824 ; F.conica, from Chili, 1825 ; F. microphylla, 

 1828, from Mexico ; F. bacillaris, 1829, also from Mexico ; F. 

 tliymifolia, 1827 ; F. discolor, from Port Famine, 1830 ; F. arbor- 

 esce?is, 1824, described as a pink-flowering tree Fuchsia. 



It was in 1880 that the first English hybrid was raised, viz.. 

 the old, and for years a special favourite, F. globosa. F. recur - 

 vata (recurved sepals), an Irish hybrid, came out in 1835, and F. 

 elegans in 1836, which was supposed to have been a seedling 

 from F. globosa. 



In 1837 F. cylindracea was introduced from Mexico, also 

 that grand old species F. fulgens, which was distributed by 

 the same well-known firm of Messrs. Lee which had had the- 

 honour of sending out F. coccinea, the alpha of the genus Fuchsia. 

 A few years subsequently, F. corymbiflora and F. scrratifolia,. 

 said to have been discovered by Euiz and Pavon at Muna in 

 Peru, were introduced. 



Since then very much has been done by hybridists in pro- 

 ducing numerous varieties of great beauty, and such improvements 

 have been made in the form and colour of the flowers as could 

 scarcely have been anticipated in the early days of Fuchsia 

 manipulation, although hybridists were apparently fully impressed 

 even then with the great improvements which might result from, 

 their labours. 



