204 GENERAL TREATMENT OF FUCHSIAS. 
air or gases throughout the structure, and perform a second very important roll in the 
vegetable economy. The cellular system, we are certain, contains fluids ; and thus we 
obtain some rational view of those organs of the vegetable structure which are 
destined to convey and laborate the vital, nutritive fluids — liquid and aeriform — of 
the plant. 
GENERAL TREATMENT OF FUCHSIAS. 
There is scarcely a tribe, throughout the whole vegetable kingdom, that is 
more interesting to general cultivators than Fuchsias. Susceptible of such a great 
variety of treatment, and yet capable of reaching a large share of perfection by the 
very simplest means, they come quite within the range of the cottager's resources, 
are exceedingly well adapted for window culture, and are yet fit to shine in the 
gardens or conservatory of a palatial residence. 
Few exotic shrubs need so little attention in point of culture ; but, at the same 
time, there are few which, however difficult to manage, do not receive, in pro- 
portion to that difficulty, a greater amount of appropriate treatment. And although, 
in many places, splendid specimens are to be seen rewarding the cultivator for the 
trifling pains he has taken to give them suitable accommodation, while, in others, 
the accidental occurrence of favourable conditions occasions similar results, the 
majority of gardens are entirely devoid of the superior attraction which this 
charming flower would furnish when grown as it should be grown. 
Possibly the reason for such a comparative dearth of properly cultivated Fuchsias 
is to be found in the extreme simplicity of the means by which such perfection may 
be attained ; for it is generally observable in the world of floriculture, that, where 
any intricate, or refined machinery, or delicate and arduous process, is required to 
efi"ect an object, a larger portion of success is realized than when the method of 
accomplishing it is plain, and straightforward, and easy. So strong is thus the 
desire to call personal ability and skill into operation, and in this way to gain 
credit for the ends brought about, that plants of easy cultivation are often neglected 
by the experienced and accomplished grower, because persons of the most slender 
acquirements may almost keep pace with him in such a pursuit. 
Digressing, for a moment, it is of some importance to show that a practice of 
that description, in which men of talent sometimes almost unconsciously indulge, 
is based on a false principle, and is calculated very seriously to prejudice the 
appearance of gardens in which it is carried out. There is no class of plants, it 
may emphatically be urged, with whatever apparent spontaneousness they flourish, 
wliich a clever gardener cannot grow better than one less thoroughly informed on 
matters of cultivation. And he is the wisest man who, in a general way, selects 
such as are at once ornamental and readily managed on which to expend his skill. 
Good treatment will always tell with greater or lesser force, and it commonly 
