LYCIUM FUCHS10IDES. 
213 
rity, have been quietly rejected, they will 
encourage persons to rely on, or to use, 
opinions not valued by florists, or to refuse to 
submit to any test, and thus keep up the 
system of uncertainty and deception which 
has been the bane of Floriculture. 
The same observation that we have used 
with regard to Verbenas, Fuchsias, Petunias, 
and Dahlias, applies to Geraniums, Auriculas, 
Carnations, Pinks, Piccotees, Polyanthuses, 
Roses, and all other plants and flowers ; and 
the unwillingness of the dealers to submit 
some of these productions to the test which 
has done so much for others, is the sole cause 
of the limited number sold, and the backward 
state of the fancy in these particular flowers. 
Take, for example, the Geranium. People in 
all parts of the country complain that they 
can get no information as to which are the 
best varieties. They buy by the catalogue, and 
suffer deeply for their temerity. They buy 
according to the prizes given at some of the 
shows, and they are disappointed. Were it 
otherwise, there would be twenty growers 
where there is one now. We do not mean 
growers in the ordinary way, because every 
body grows a few; but growers for exhibition, 
growers who would make it their hobby, and 
lay out large sums. All we can advise in this 
matter is, that the amateur buy nothing ex- 
cept from his own judgment in bloom, until 
the growers submit, like the cultivators of 
other flowers, to something like an authenti- 
cated opinion. The idea of throwing away 
guineas upon a novelty which is often worse 
than we already have, is not only ridiculous, 
but mortifying ; whereas, if the certainty of 
improvement attached to the purchase, it 
would be tolerable. No amateur- should touch 
a Geranium the first year it is let out, unless 
he knows it to be worth his money. The 
trade may, and must, buy it to sell again: they 
keep collections, not selections; and a bad 
show-flower will fetch the common price to 
which it is reduced in one season as well as a 
good one, if there is anything remarkable in 
the colour. So long, therefore, as Geranium 
growers will rely upon their own recom- 
mendation, so long will their first year's sales 
of new ones be very limited. When they think 
it worth while to quote authentic opinions, 
the amateur will gain spirit, and buy early. 
The other flowers are mostly submitted now 
to a proper test. Dickson's new Auriculas 
were popular on that account. Several Pinks, 
Piccotees, and Carnations, have, through the 
favourable opinions bestowed on them by 
authentic judges, so increased in estimation, 
that, although by no means tender or remark- 
able as to propagation, they cannot be supplied. 
Polyanthuses (in their infancy round London) 
are to be brought into popularity in a single 
season, if the raisers will take the proper 
steps, to let them be known ; and in pro- 
portion as the raisers are open and confident, 
so will any flower, we care not what it be, 
advance in public estimation. Amateurs, 
therefore, will be doing essential service to 
Floriculture by purchasing freely all well- 
authenticated improvements on our present 
flowers, to encourage the plan of submitting 
to such test. They will secure themselves 
against imposition by not buying any which 
have not been so authenticated until they see 
them in flower. And with this advice, which 
will save hundreds of pounds, we close the 
present article. 
LYCIUM FUCHSIOIDES. 
THE FUCHSIA-LIKE LYCIUM. 
This truly noble plant, an evergreen shrub, 
from the Andes, is worthy of a place in 
every choice collection. It has flowered at 
Kew,. and been handsomely figured in the 
•Botanical Magazine. The foliage is hand- 
some, and the flowers are of rich orange 
scarlet, and very abundant. The Lyciums are 
a numerous family, but perhaps none so rich as 
this variety. Most of those in cultivation in 
this country are hardy or green-house plants, 
and natives of China, Barbary, Carolina, the 
South of Europe, the Cape of Good Hope, 
and Siberia. The greater part of them bear 
violet, blue, or purple flowers, to which this 
is a great contrast. As cultivated at Kew, it 
is a shrub five feet high ? and in good health. 
Lycium Fuchsioides. 
This species, or variety, grows well in a stove, 
and thrives under ordinary culture, but will 
bear much more hardy treatment. It is said 
to have been raised from seed, and_forwarded 
