MARCH. 
55 
No one but an amateur of gardening can imagine the pure, quiet pleasure 
of taking a morning walk in the Orange-house during the above-mentioned 
dreary months, and plucking from the trees Oranges fully ripe. I have had 
much experience in the culture, and, I may add, in the eating of fruit; but 
I can say with a firm conviction that I have never enjoyed any kind of fruit 
so much as I have Oi'anges of my own plucking in winter. 
In addition to the three leading varieties- I have mentioned, there are 
several kinds which will, doubtless, prove interesting and valuable. It is 
not to be expected that so much variation in flavour, as in the Pear, for 
instance, can be met with in Oranges. I believe, however, that when our 
Orange palates are educated we shall find many delicate distinctions in the 
flavour of Oranges. As far as I have gone I have found the Mandarin 
Orange larger and more flat in shape than the Tangierine, and not so good 
as that sort. The Embiguo, the Egg, the Silver Orange, the Botelha, the 
White Orange, and some others, all varieties from the Azores, are of various 
degrees of excellence, and are all worthy of a place in an English Orange 
garden. 
There are many various forms of the genus Citrus, which, in a large 
Orange garden, may be cultivated, and prove of interest to the cultivator, 
but I have thought it proper to confine myself, in conformity with the 
heading of this paper, to the kinds of Oranges proper for our desserts. It 
may, however, be not thought out of place if I mention that the Lemon, 
more particularly the Imperial Lemon, is well worthy of a place in the 
Orange garden, as is also the Small Lime, which is a concentration of acidity. 
In these few remarks, I hope to be excused any lack of full and propier 
directions to carry out my conceptions. It is at all times difficult to tell 
people how to cultivate even a Cabbage; for unless full directions are given 
as to which end should go into the ground, it is just possible that a tyro in 
gardening would plant it head downwards. So it is in the higher branches 
of horticulture : it is only an outline that can be given in print, the picture 
must be filled in by observation and study. Ten minutes showing will do 
more than ten hours reading; still, without the preparation of reading, the 
mind will not take in what is shown. 
Sawbridgeworth. Thomas Rivers. 
FUCHSIAS FOR EXHIBITION. 
Few of our florists’ flowers have undergone greater or more improving 
change at the hands of the breeder than the Fuchsia, as must be apparent 
to any one who will compare the original Fuchsia coccinea, gracilis, or virgata , 
with such modern sorts as Enoch Arden, Father Ignatius, Minnie Banks, 
and Vainqueur de Puebla which have sprung from them. Not only has 
the form been changed, but also the colour. The first decided break was the 
production of the variety with white tube and sepals, known as Yenus Vic- 
trix; this was raised by Mr. Gulliver, gardener to the Rev. S. Marriott, of 
Hormonden, Kent, and was sent out in 1842 by Mr. Cripps, of Tunbridge 
Wells. The next important move which was made is due to the success¬ 
ful experiments of the late W. H. Storey, Esq., of Exeter, who shortly 
before his death succeeded in raising the first of the varieties with a white 
corolla; this, which was called Queen Victoria, and was let out by Messrs. 
E. G. Henderson & Son, of St. John’s Wood, in 1855, was figured in the 
Florist for that year. All this time the Fuchsia in its old-fashioned colours 
had gone on improving both in size and form, in the hands of various 
