Plate 183. 
FUCHSIAS, SANSPAREIL AND HERCULES. 
The difficulty of transit, when flowers are so easily separated 
from their flower-stalks and so numerous as in the Fuchsia, 
materially affects the bringing of them forward, before the re¬ 
cognized courts of appeal, for adjudication on their merits ; and 
thus it has only once happened that our neighbour Mr. Banks, 
of Sholden Lodge, has been able to send any of his fine strain of 
seedlings to the Floral Committee, and then the result of the 
experiments did not (although his flowers received several certi¬ 
ficates) make him anxious to do so again. Those fortunate raisers 
who live in the neighbourhood of London are not so disadvan¬ 
tageous^ situated,—the distance is short, the plants can be 
carried in the hand, and are little the worse for the journey; 
among these, Mr. George Smith, of Tollington Nursery, Hornsey 
Road, has been long known as a successful raiser, and two of 
his flowers form the subject of the present Plate. 
It will be seen, that they are of an entirely different type 
from the more correct florists’ varieties raised by Mr. Banks, 
which were figured in our last volume, and sufficiently instance 
the sportive character of cultivated garden flowers. Some few 
years ago, Fuchsias with either double or white corollas were 
quite unknown, and now, we are every year receiving fresh ad¬ 
ditions, improvement being constantly made; the small and 
comparatively insignificant varieties raised by the late Mr. Story 
are giving place to others, which are rapidly approaching the 
florists’ standard, while those with double corollas evince by 
the names they receive, Mammoth , Hercules , etc., the robust 
character of their appearance. M. Cornelissen, among foreign 
raisers, and Mr. Wheeler, of Warminster, and Mr. Smith, of 
Hornsey, are those to whom we are indebted for the improve¬ 
ment that has taken place. 
