Fuchsia. 
149 
deposited our florist and his purchase. His first work on 
reaching home was to pull off and utterly destroy every ves¬ 
tige of blossom and blossom bud ; it was divided into cuttings, 
which were forced in hotbeds and bark-beds, were re-divided 
and sub-divided. Every effort was used to multiply the plant, 
and by the commencement of the next flowering season Mr. 
Lee was the delighted possessor of three hundred fuchsia 
plants, all giving promise of blossom. The two which opened 
first were removed into his show-house. A lady came. “ Why, 
Mr. Lee—my dear Mr. Lee ! where did you get this charming 
flower ? ” “ Hem !’t is a new thing, my lady : pretty, is it not?” 
“ Pretty ? ’t is lovely ! Its price?” “A guinea. Thank you, 
my lady.” And one of the two plants was at once carried off 
to her ladyship’s boudoir. Scarcely had the flower reached 
its new domicile than a visitor arrived, saw, and admired the 
new floral acquisition ; and learning that there was another 
left, ordered her carriage off at once to Mr. Lee’s. A third 
flowering plant stood on the spot whence the first had been 
taken. The second guinea was paid, and the second fuchsia 
found its way to the residence of her second ladyship. The 
scene was repeated as new-comers came, saw, and were con¬ 
quered by the beauty of the plant. New chariots flew to the 
gates of old Lee’s nursery-ground. Two fuchsias, young, 
graceful, and bursting into healthy flower, were constantly 
seen on the same spot in his repository. 
He neglected not to gladden the sailor’s wife by the pro¬ 
mised gift; but ere the flower season closed, three hundred 
golden guineas chinked in his purse, the produce of the single 
plant of the good-wife of Wapping ; the reward of the taste, 
decision, skill, and perseverance of old Mr. Lee. 
