FUCHSIA FULGENS. 
71 
plants too old either; as the plantations are 
completely but gradually shifted from occupied 
to rested and enriched ground every four 
years. Some kinds of Strawberries will un- 
doubtedly do as well by other modes of cul- 
ture, not so the Myatt's Pine ; I may venture 
to say, at least, I never saw it do well by any 
other mode, and I never saw it fail when 
grown this way. John McDonald. 
FUCHSIA FULGENS, 
(grown as a standard.) 
Various are the modes of treating this 
plant, but there is only one way in which 
it is really handsome ; for its broad coarse 
foliage gives it a common appearance, and 
the blooms are always crowding one another; 
they hang in bunches like tassels of ordinary 
fringe, and unless the branches recline, they 
are in each other's way. Henry Ford, of 
Willow Hall, some years since, gave his mode 
of doing them. He says, in one of the works 
of that day (February, 1840) :— 
" Those who have not cut down their last 
year's plant, should cut it down to the mould 
immediately, turn it out of the pot, and shake 
all the old soil from the root of it, and re-pot it 
in as small a pot as the root will conveniently go 
in, in a mixture of equal parts of good turfy 
loam from a pasture, and old decayed manure 
that is nearly gone to mould: to every spade- 
ful of the above, add about one handful of 
Calais sand, the whole should be dried for 
a few days in a shed, then, broken fine with 
the back of the spade, it will be ready for 
use. Observe, when potting, there should be a 
good drainage of rough pieces of turf. When 
potted, they should be taken into the stove, 
or, if the grower have not a stove, a cucumber 
frame at work wall do; when it has begun to 
shoot, all the shoots must be taken off but 
the strongest, which should be trained up- 
right to a stick as it grows; as soon as it 
begins to show bloom trusses, take it into the 
green-house, where it can have the full sun, 
keeping it near the glass. Observe, it must 
be re-potted into one a size larger several 
times while growing; if it is doing well, its 
fibres will come through the top of the mould; 
the same sort of compost will do for every 
shifting ; it should be freely supplied with 
water when getting bud; if allowed to flag 
for want of water it will receive an injury 
which cannot be recovered that season. 
" I shall now give a description, as brief as 
I can, of one of my plants last year which 
were treated in the above manner. The plants 
were between four and five feet high from the 
root, on a straight stem, with a fine round 
head > measuring nine feet six inches round; 
they commenced flowering the first week in 
May, and continued in flower till October, 
and long after then were loaded with de- 
licious fruit; but they were the most beautiful 
in June and July : they had several hundred 
blooms out at one time in trusses from twenty- 
five to fifty blooms each. 1 have also bloomed 
small plants of it with equal success : even on 
plants not more than eighteen indies high 1 
have had a hundred flowers. I planted a few 
seedlings in the flower borders in June, and 
in September several of them flowered very 
fine, the roots of which I left in the ground 
unprotected from the weather, and they are 
now as sound as those kept in the green- 
house. I believe if good strong plants were 
put out in June, in a good rich sheltered 
border in the South of England, they would 
flower as fine as even in the green-house." 
Now the objection we have to this plant 
is, its coarse, lilac-bush-like appearance ; and 
there are no directions here as to how this 
straight stem is to be got five feet high with- 
out having side branches, although at reading 
a portion of the description, it would appear 
it had become a standard. The standard 
fashion is the only true mode of growing this 
plant to look well, and in that, if the form be 
not carefully managed, it is ugly instead of 
handsome. The particular management begins 
when the single stem begins to shoot up; for, 
besides all that has been directed, the side 
shoots have to be rubbed off, or cut off, as the 
stem advances, always preserving the few 
upper ones. Say that six upper pair of leaves, 
with any lateral shoots that come from their 
base, must be preserved all the while. It fol- 
lows, therefore, that when a pair of fresh 
leaves have perfected themselves, the lateral 
branches shooting from the base of the lower 
pair may be neatly cut out without damaging 
the leaves themselves, and this must be con- 
tinued until you have the stem as tall as you 
wish, say five feet from the surface of the pot 
to the top pair of perfect leaves, and then 
pinch out the top bud, to prevent any more 
from perfecting, and to make the lateral 
branches at the six pair of leaves already 
on the top throw out stronger. When these 
have grown some time, cut back the whole 
six to two pair of leaves each; this will induce 
a considerable number of lateral branches to 
grow, for as each of the six pair of leaves 
will produce generally a lateral shoot, the 
first growth after topping the plant will be 
twelve shoots, and these twelve shoots being 
cut back to form leaves, will produce a lateral; 
it follows that you will have forty-eight 
branches to form a head with. As one-half 
the number will do, cut out such as awkwardly 
cross one another, and are in one another's 
way, and leave only as many as will form a 
handsome head, growing equally all round; 
these must be well grown, and the longer 
