208 
GENERAL TREATMENT OP FUCHSIAS. 
is the cutting down all the stems, &c., each year, to the same extent to which they 
are destroyed by frost in hard winters, in order to make the plants throw up an 
additional quantity of new and stronger stems in the following spring. This, we 
have fully ascertained, is the most effectual plan for insuring a fine display of 
flowers, a great abundance of healthy shoots and foliage, and plants which pro- 
gressively improve every year, instead of degenerating, and becoming less prolific. 
It includes as properly those which are subjected to pot culture, as those which 
occupy the open borders, and is, in fact, applicable to any system of treatment, 
and to almost all the known kinds of Fuchsia^ hybrids as well as species. 
Several advantages attend the employment of this method, beside that of 
improving the plants. The leading one is that it facilitates, or renders more 
convenient, their preservation through the winter. By having all their wood cut 
away, they are more readily stowed away in a dry place, are less likely to be 
injured, and, by beginning to grow later and more regularly, can be better 
attended to, and with greater certainty, in the spring. A Fuchsia that is not thus 
cut down commences growing at so many points, and so irregularly, that it is 
much more difficult to catch the precise time at which it should be removed from 
confinement, and next to impossible to keep it in a symmetrical form without 
considerable pruning. According to the system here laid down^ no pruning will 
be requisite beyond the general and severe pruning already spoken of, unless the 
stems should get too numerous, and demand thinning. 
It can hardly be needful to offer any rules about the cutting back of Fuchsias. 
Still, lest mistake should arise, we may observe that it should be done as soon as 
the leaves fall, or about the beginning of November. Each stem should be cut 
carefully and cleanly down to within about half an inch of the roots ; and, after a 
short exposure to the sun to dry the wounds, the plants may be put away for the 
winter in a cellar, frame, room, or other convenient place, that is kept" sufficiently 
dry to prevent damp accumulating or frost entering, and yet not so dry as to 
impair the plants' vitality, nor so warm as to start them into growth. They will 
begin naturally to throw up shoots towards the month of March, w^hen they can 
be re-potted and put in a greenhouse or frame ; and if the stems arise too numer- 
ously, it is better to cut out the weaker ones when they are just pushing than to 
leave them till they have grown to nearly their full size, and thus to waste the 
resources of the plants. 
As we are well aware of the danger which may accrue from the broad and 
simple statement of any rule that is liable to be excepted from, we will mention a 
class of Fuchsias, which, we think, would not so well endure the treatment above 
recommended. It is that group of hybrids which have F.fulgens or F. corymhiflora 
for one of their parents, and take after them in producing their flowers at the 
extremities of the shoots in clusters. These, it is probable, would scarcely come 
well within the plan we have prescribed ; though a trial of it might possibly prove 
it to be of service to them as much as to the others. At any rate, all of them 
