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FUCHSIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 273 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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FUCHSIA , so named by Plumier in See also:

HONOUR (Lat. honos or lwnor, honoris; in English the word was spelled with or without the u indifferently until the 17th century, but during the 18th century it became fashion-able to spell the word " honor "; Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries stereoty

honour of the botanist Leonhard See also:

Fuchs, a genus of See also:

PLANTS

plants of the natural See also:

order See also:

ONAGRACEAE

Onagraceae, characterized by entire, usually opposite leaves, pendent See also:

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

flowers, a See also:

FUNNEL (through an O. Fr. founil, found in Breton, from Lat. infundibulum, that through which anything is poured, from fundere, to pour)

funnel-shaped, brightly coloured, quadripartite, See also:

DECIDUOUS (from Lat. decidere, to fall down)

deciduous calyx, 4 petals, alternating with the calycine segments, 8, rarely io, exserted stamens, a See also:

long filiform See also:

style, an inferior ovary, and See also:

FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy)

fruit, a fleshy ovoid many-seeded See also:

berry. All the members of the genus, with the exception of the New See also:

ZEALAND (also SEALAND Or SEELAND; Danish Sjaelland)

Zealand See also:

SPECIES

species, F. excorticata, F. Colensoi and F. procumbens, are natives of Central and See also:

South America—occurring in the interior of forests or in See also:

DAMP

damp and shady mountainous situations. The various species differ not a little in See also:

SIZE

size as well as in other characters; some, as F. verrucosa, being See also:

DWARF (A.S. dweorg, D. dwerg, Icel. dvergr)

dwarf shrubs; others, as F. arborescens and F. apetala, attaining a height of 12 to 16 ft., and having stems several inches in See also:

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

diameter. Plumier, in his Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (p. 14, tab. 14, See also:

Paris, 1703), gave a description of a species of fuchsia, the first known, under the name of Fuchsia triphylla, core coccineo, and a somewhat conventional outline figure of the same plant was published at Amster-See also:

dam in 1757 by See also:

BURMANN, PIETER (1714-1778)

Burmann. In the Histoire See also:

des plantes medicinales of the South See also:

AMERICAN

American traveller Feuillee (p. 64, pl. x1.See also:

v11.), written in 1709-1711, and published by him with his See also:

Journal, Paris, 1725, the name Thilco is applied to a species of fuchsia from See also:

CHILE, or CHILI (derived, it is said, from the Quichua chin , cold, or tchili, snow)

Chile, which is described, though not evidently so figured, as having a pentamerous calyx. The F. coccinea of See also:

AITON, WILLIAM (1731-1793)

Aiton (fig.) (see J. D See also:

Hooker, in Journal Linnean See also:

Soc., See also:

BOTANY (from Gr. l3or6v17, plant; ,66vicety, to graze)

Botany, vol. x. p. 458, 1867), the first species of fuchsia cultivated in See also:

England, where it was long confined to the greenhouse, was brought from South See also:

AMERICA

America by See also:

CAPTAIN (derived from Lat. ca put, head, through the Low Lat. capitanus)

Captain See also:

Firth in 1788 and placed in See also:

Kew Gardens.

Of this species Mr See also:

Lee, a nurseryman at See also:

HAMMERSMITH

Hammersmith, soon after-wards obtained an example, and procured from it by means of cuttings several See also:

HUNDRED

hundred plants, which he sold at a See also:

GUINEA

guinea each. In 1823 F. macrostemma and F. gracilis, and during the next two or three years several other species, were introduced into England; but it was not until about 1837, or soon after florists had acquired F. fulgens, that varieties of See also:

INTEREST

interest began to make their See also:

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

appearance. The numerous hybrid forms now existing are the result chiefly of the intercrossing of that or other long-flowered with globose-flowered plants. F. See also:

VENUS

Venus-victrix, raised by Mr Gulliver, gardener to the Rev. S. Marriott of Horsemonden, See also:

Kent, and sold in 1822 to Messrs Cripps, was the earliest See also:

white-sepalled fuchsia. The first fuchsia with a white corolla was produced about 1853 by Mr See also:

STOREY (equivalents are Fr. etage, Ital. piano, Ger. Stock)

Storey. In some varieties the blossoms are variegated, and in others they are See also:

double. There appears to be very little limit to the number of forms to be obtained by careful cultivation and selection. To hybridize, the See also:

flower as soon as it opens is emasculated, and it is then fertilized with See also:

POLLEN, AUGUST (or, as he afterwards called himself, ADOLF) LUDWIG (1794-1855)

pollen from some different flower. Ripe See also:

SEED (from the root seen in Lat. serere, to sow)

seed is sown either in autumn or about See also:

FEBRUARY

February or See also:

March in See also:

LIGHT

light, See also:

rich, well-drained See also:

MOULD

mould, and is thinly covered with Fuchsia coccinea.

1, Flower cut open after removal of sepals; 2, fruit; 3, floral See also:

DIAGRAM

diagram. sandy See also:

SOIL

soil and watered. A temperature of 700 to 75° Fahr. has been found suitable for raising. The seedlings are pricked off into shallow pots or pans, and when 3 in. in height are transferred to 3-in. pots, and are then treated the same as plants from cuttings. Fuchsias may be grafted as readily as camellias, addition of a small quantity of the aldehyde. preferably by the splice or See also:

WHIP

whip method, the See also:

APEX

apex of a See also:

young shoot being employed as a See also:

SCION

scion; but the easiest and most usual method of See also:

PROPAGATION

propagation is by cuttings. The most expeditious way to procure these is to put plants in See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat in See also:

JANUARY

January, and to take their shoots when 3 in. in length. For summer flowering in England they are best made about the end of See also:

AUGUST (originally Sextilis)

August, and should be selected from the shortest-jointed young See also:

wood. They See also:

root readily in a compost of See also:

LOAM (O.E. lam; the word appears in Dut. leem and Ger. Lehm; the ultimate origin is the root lai-, meaning " to be sticky," which is seen in the cognate " lime," Lat. limus, mud, clay)

loam and See also:

SILVER

silver-See also:

sand if kept See also:

close and sprinkled for a See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short See also:

time. In from two to three See also:

WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

weeks they may be put into 3-in. pots containing a compost of equal parts of rich loam, silver-sand and See also:

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

leaf-mould. They are subsequently moved from the See also:

FRAME

frame or See also:

bed, first to a warm and shady, and then to a more See also:

AIRY, SIR GEORGE BIDDELL (1801-1892)

airy See also:

PART

part of the greenhouse. In January a little artificial heat may be given, to be gradually increased as the days lengthen. The See also:

side-shoots are generally pruned when they have made three or four See also:

JOINTS

joints, and for bushy plants the See also:

LEADER, BENJAMIN WILLIAMS (1831– )

leader is stopped soon after the first potting.

Care is taken to keep the plants as near the See also:

glass as possible, and shaded from See also:

bright See also:

SUNSHINE

sunshine, also to provide them plentifully with See also:

WATER

water, except at the time of shifting, when the roots should be tolerably dry. For the second potting a suitable soil is a mixture of well-rotted cow-dung or old hotbed mould with leaf-mould and sandy See also:

PEAT (possibly connected with Med. Lat. petia, pecia, piece, ultimately of Celtic origin; cf. O. Celt. pet, O. Ir. pit, Welsh peth, portion)

peat, and to promote drainage a little peat-See also:

MOSS

moss may be placed immediately over the crocks in the See also:

LOWER

lower part of the pot. Weak liquid manure greatly promotes the advance of the plants, and should be regularly supplied twice or thrice a See also:

WEEK (from A.S. wicu, Germanic *wikon, probably=change, turn)

week during the flowering See also:

SEASON (0. Fr. seson, seison, mod. saison, Lat. satio, sowing time, the spring, from serere, to sow; in Late Lat. the word is found with its present meaning, the spring being considered as particularly the season of the year)

season. After this, water is gradually withheld from them, and they may be placed in the open See also:

air to ripen their wood. Among the more See also:

hardy or See also:

HALF

half-hardy plants for inside See also:

BORDERS, THE

borders are varieties of the Chilean species, F. macrostemma (or F. magellanica), a See also:

SHRUB

shrub 6 to 12 ft. high with a See also:

SCARLET

scarlet calyx, such as F. m. globosa, F. m. gracilis; one of the most graceful and hardy of these, a hybrid F. riccartoni, was raised at Riccarton, near See also:

EDINBURGH

Edinburgh, in 183o. For inside culture may be mentioned F. boliviana (See also:

BOLIVIA

Bolivia), 2 to 4 ft. high, with rich See also:

CRIMSON

crimson flowers with a See also:

trumpet-shaped See also:

TUBE (Lat. tuba)

tube; F. corymbiflora (See also:

Peru), 4 to 6 ft. high, with scarlet flowers nearly 2 in. long in long terminal clusters; F. fulgens (See also:

Mexico), 4 to 6 ft., with drooping apical clusters of scarlet flowers; F. microphylla (Central America), with small leaves and small scarlet fujinel-shaped flowers, the petals deep red ; F. procumbens (New Zealand), a See also:

PRETTY

pretty little creeper, the small flowers of which are succeeded by See also:

OVAL (Lat. ovum, egg)

oval See also:

MAGENTA

magenta-crimson berries which remain on for months; and F. splendens (Mexico), 6 ft. high, with very showy scarlet and See also:

green flowers. But these cannot compare in beauty or freedom of blossom with the numerous varieties raised by gardeners. The See also:

NECTAR

nectar of fuchsia flowers has been shown to contain nearly 78% of See also:

CANE

cane See also:

SUGAR

sugar, the See also:

REMAINDER, REVERSION

remainder being fruit sugar. The berries of some fuchsias are subacid or sweet and edible. From certain species a dye is obtainable. The so-called "native fuchsias" of See also:

SOUTHERN

southern and eastern See also:

AUSTRALIA

Australia are plants of the genus See also:

CORREA

Correa, natural order Rutaceae.

End of Article: FUCHSIA

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