Twenty species, besides many varieties. Green-house evergreen shrubs. Seed and cuttings. Light rich loam and peat.

Varieties For Open Borders

F. Ric-cartonia; globosa; gracilis; Thomsonii; Clintonia; conica; reflexa; erecta; and virgata.

For Pot-Culture

Brockmannii; Exo-niensis; Colossus; Attractor; Enchantress; Eppsii; Stanwelliana; Splendida; Defiance; Laneii; Toddiana; Champion; Victory; Majestica; Paragon; Splendens; Fulgens; Robusta; Youel-lii; Chandlerii; Venus Victrix; Money-pennii; Standishii; Dalstonii; Curtisii; Eclipse; Rosa Alba; and Spectabilis. There are about eighty other named varieties of differing degrees of merit.

Soil

The best is formed of equal parts rotted turf, sandy loam, and peat.

Propagation By Seed

Sow directly it is ripe. Bruise the berries, wash away their pulp, mix the seed with sand, sow thinly in pans of the soil just described, and place in the green-house. Prick into thimbles when the seedlings are large enough for handling; place under a hand-glass, in a stove or hotbed, for a few days, and then remove into a green-house. Shift into larger pots as the roots fill those in which they are growing.

By Cuttings

No plant is more easily propagated by cuttings at any season of the year than the Fuchsia, but the best season is from the end of May to the end of July. Have the cuttings about three inches long; strip the leaves off the lower half of their lengths, and plant in pots, having the surface of the compost in them to the depth of an inch covered with sand. Plant in this the cuttings, so that their ends just touch the compost. Moisten the sand, place the pots in a green-house under the cover of hand-glasses. When rooted, pot singly in sixties.

By Grafting

"The early part of May is suitable for grafting fuchsias, or rather for inarching them, as this is decidedly the most successful mode of combining more than one variety upon the same stock. This is very desirable where room has to be husbanded. Cut away to the length of one and a half inch, half the thickness of the two shoots to be united, bind them together; sever through the scion three-fourths of its thickness, just below the junction, keep in a warm moist atmosphere, and in three or four days the junction will be complete. F. fulgens, F. Cormackii and other strong growing varieties are the best stocks." - Gard. Chron.

To Make Specimen Fuchsias

"In order to have specimen plants of Fuchsias," says Mr. G. Watson, "put in cuttings in the beginning of August; planting them round the rims of five inch pots filled with light sandy soil and well drained; then place in a cucumber-frame till sufficiently rooted, and afterwards remove to a cool and airy part of the green-house, and let them remain till February. In that month, pot off into small sixties, and when well rooted in these pots, two or more healthy and well-shaped plants of each variety put into larger pots according to their size. While young, care must be taken that the earth, in which they are growing, does not become soured by over watering, or the plants will soon become sickly. When they have filled these pots with roots, the plants must be removed into larger pots and carefully tied up to sticks in order to keep the leading shoots upright, as several of the varieties have a tendency to grow downward, and it is only with constant care that these varieties are kept vigorous.

"About the second week in June, shift for the last time into pots sufficiently large to bloom them in; in potting particular attention must be paid to the drainage, so that the superabundant water may be easily passed off.

"Plants treated in this manner will begin to bloom profusely at the latter end of July, and continue flowering till the end of September; during this period the pots should be placed in pans, so that the plant may be well supplied with water, and yet not constantly soaked in it.

"Plants thus treated, with their shoots pruned to three or four buds, form beautiful objects for turning out into' the flower garden the following summer; but if very large specimens are required, their pot room must be increased, and they should be grown in the open air.

"Those who cultivate the Fuchsia, with the desire of obtaining it in the greatest perfection, should remember that in its native haunts it flourishes under the shade of loftier shrubs. Reason, therefore, suggests, and experience has proved, that nothing more conduces to its vigour than shading it for three or four hours during the hottest period of the day, and syringing gently every night and morning during hot weather." - Gard. Chron.

Winter Protection

At the approach of frost, that excellent horticulturist, Mr. Mearns, recommends that the plants should be taken out of the soil, and all the laterals cut from them; upon those intended to be trained to a wall, paling, or trellis, leave three, four, five or six canes. They are then ready to be deposited until the end of April, or beginning of May, in a pit in heath or any other tolerably dry soil, or sand, and place them in a sloping direction in the pit with stakes driven here and there diagonally over them, that they may be kept hollow, and to prevent the soil from pressing too much upon their brittle stems.

In covering them use no straw, or matting, but allow the soil to fall amongst them, and form it into a sharp ridge at the top. - Gard. Chron.

The laterals removed at the time of this winter-pruning, if divested of their laterals, and packed in powdered charcoal, or perfectly dry earth, in boxes, and placed out of the reach of frost, in a cool place, will retain their vitality until next April, when they may be cut into lengths of about a foot long, and planted with a dibble; insert them into the ground, so as to leave about three inches of the cuttings above the surface in any place where they are wanted to flower next summer. If kept tolerably moist, they will be found to make good flowering plants with little trouble. - Gard. Chron.