182 
i 
FUCHSIA FULGENS. I 
There are two varieties of this curious plant which are to be found in private | 
collections and public nurseries, differing little from each other, except it be in 
the higher scarlet tint of the one more recently introduced, and the greater breadth 
of its tube, which is also somewhat shorter than the first variety that appears to 
have been brought from Mexico in 1837 : see the plate and description in vol. v- | 
p. 221 of this Magazine. 
We confess ourselves to be among the number of those w^ho entertain doubts 
that the plant in question can be correctly deemed a Fuchsia. The generic cha- 
racter of Fuchsia^ as we find it in the Encyclopedia of Plants, page 300, No. 304, 
under Octandria Monogynia^ is " Calyx funnel-shaped, coloured, deciduous. 
Petals 4, in the throat of the calyx, alternate with its segments. Nectary an 8-fur- j 
rowed gland. Stigma capitate. Berry oblong, obtuse, 4-cornered, 4-celled." 
Referring to the specific character of F. fulgens at page 221, as above, we 
perceive that one of the essential generic points is directly impugned ; for we read, 
" Calyx b-lohed^'' — an arrangement which is at variance with the quadrate structure i 
required. 
The genus is one of the families of the natural order Onagracem^ under which 
are grouped plants that are certainly known by their inferior ovary, and by all 
the parts of the flower being four, or a constant multiple of that number : " thus 
there are " four sepals" (calyx-leaves), " four petals, twice four stamens " (Octan- 
drous), " four stigmas, four cells to the ovary ; and the fruit, when ripe, bursts into 
four valves. 
" The species characterised by this peculiarity are chiefly herbaceous plants, 
inhabiting the more temperate parts of the world, and have white, yellow, or red 
flow^ers — such, for example, as the great genus of (Enotheras and the Epilobiums, 
which are common as wild plants. It is only in the Fuchsia, which has a succulent 
fruit, and forms an approach to Myrtacese, that a woody structure is met w^ith." 
The foregoing is from a very high botanical authority : if, therefore, the number i 
5 appear in the structure of our plant, it expels it not only from the family of 
Fuchsia, but from the order which comprises all the genera, among which 4 is the 
essential governing number. 
But we will not insist upon this minute point ; for in the course of our observa- 
tions, one single flower only with a 5-parted calyx has been met with. We 
therefore are rather inclined to disallow the correctness of the above-cited specific 
character, than to admit that our plant differs from Fuchsia in the structure of its 
calyx. 
But though it herein accord with its supposed congeners, it varies widely from 
them in its corolla ; and here it is that we make our chief stand against received 
opinions. 
