FUCHSIA MACRANTHA. 
(Large-flowered Fuchsia.) 
Class. Order. 
OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ONAGRACEiE. 
Gkneric Character.— Calyx, tube adhering to the 
ovarium at the base, and drawn out at the apex into 
a cylindrical four-cleft tube, whose lobes soon fall off. 
Petals four, alternating with the lobes of the calyx, 
and inserted in the upper part of the tube ; very rarely 
wanting. Stamens eight. Ovarium crowned by an 
urceolate gland. Style filiform, crowned by a capitate 
stigma. Berry oblong, or ovate-globose, four-valved, 
four-celled, many-seeded. 
Specific Character. — Plant a dwarf evergreen 
shrub. Leaves ovate, acute, alternate, entire, smooth, 
dark-green above, purple beneath , large ; young leaves 
tinged with purple above ; petiole short. Flowers in 
partial clusters, peduncled, drooping, longer than the 
leaves. Calyx, tube slender, tapering to the base, 
very long, pale rosy crimson ; segments spreading, 
oblong, pale rose, tipt with green. Corolla wanting. 
Stamens unequal. Style protruding much beyond the 
stamens. Stigma globular. Fruit oblong. 
This is the plant noticed at page 94 of our last number ; the Messrs. Veitch 
inform us Sir W. Hooker has given it the above name. It is a native of Peru, 
where it was found by Mr. W. Lobb, 300 miles from Lima, and by him sent to the 
Messrs. Veitch 's establishment at Exeter. We have previously stated where, in a 
flowering state, it was first brought into notice. From the plant we allude to, its 
owners kindly favoured us with a specimen, the subject of the drawing from which 
our plates have been prepared. 
The great excellence of this species, apart from its own worth as an ornamental 
plant, consists in its complete distinctness from others. This feature is the more 
conspicuous, from the great number of hybrid varieties now existing, and continually 
accumulating. So numerous are they, that our Fuchsia taste is quite surfeited, and 
yet we quarrel not with the number of varieties, but with the sickening extent to 
which they are distinguished by names, when there is so little to justify its being 
done. F. macrantha has, of course, family features ; it is most like F. fulgens, 
being dwarf, and similar in habit, but it differs from that species in its very fine 
dark-green foliage, and the gay colour and immense length of its flower-tubes. In 
this latter respect it comes near to F. corymbiftora, but the form of inflorescence in 
the two species is quite different, and completely so the colour of their flowers. The 
true hue of those of F. macrantha, we are informed, was not discovered by the plant 
exhibited at Regent Street, nor their size, for the Messrs. Veitch acquaint us they 
VOL. XIII.— NO. CXLIX. 0 
