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Single Fuchsia
Fuchsia gracilis.
THE fuchsia is too modern a flower to have a great history, but what is known of it historically is full of interest. Strictly speaking, it is not so modern as is generally supposed, for it begins with the adventures of Father Plumier, who was born at Marseilles in 1646. At the age of sixteen Charles Plumier was admitted to the religious order of Minims, and under the training of Father Maignan he soon became an expert mathematician and a practical turner. He wrote a remarkable book on the art of turning, and might have continued turning and calculating, save that he had injured his health by too close application, and turned to the study of botany for occupation and rest. He soon became a master of this science, and the friend of the great botanist Tournefort. Three several voyages he made to the West Indies and the American continent in search of plants, and in the capacity of King's Botanist he published in 1695 his first botanical work, "Description des Plantes de P Amerique." After his third voyage he published in 1703 his "Nova Plantarum Genera," in which occurs the first description of the fuchsia, which he had discovered. In this work a feature of great importance is developed. Plumier dedicated about fifty of the plants he discovered to eminent botanists, by adopting their names as generic designations. Thus he dedicated the plant before us to the memory of Leonard Fuchs, and on him, therefore, we must bestow a paragraph.
Leonardo Fuchs (or Fox) was born at Wembding, in Bavaria, in the year 1501. Early in life he devoted himself to learning and letters, became a convert to the opinions of Luther, and in 1521 graduated as a physician at Ingoldstadt. He was the first German physician whose name became famous in foreign countries; and, strange to say, his fame rested chiefly on his vindication of the system of medicine that prevailed among the early Greeks. He was rather a herbalist, and made great but often vain profession of his knowledge of the plants of Dioscorides. His works are now regarded as mere curiosities, of considerable historical importance, but valueless in respect of the science they uphold and teach. The most important of them is the "Historia Plantarum," published at Basic in 1542.
But these relations do not bring the flower "home to us." That was done by a sailor, about a hundred years after the discovery of the plant by the learned monk Plumier. The adventurous tar and brought home from Chili a plant bearing flowers of a kind unknown till then in Europe, and he gave it to his wife, and in the course of time she sold it to Mr. Lee, the eminent nurseryman of Hammersmith. It soon became famous, and as a garden flower the fashion was thus, as we may say, created. And it is worthy of observation that the kinds that were earliest introduced were of such high quality that later discoveries have not eclipsed them. Perhaps the greatest sensation experienced by the floral world in connection with the fuchsia occurred in the year 1847, when Messrs. Veitch obtained their first flowering plants of Fuchsia spectabilis from seeds sent home by Mr. William Lobb, who met with it in the Andes of Cuenca, Peru, growing at an elevation of four to five thousand feet. But we dare not touch on the floral history of the plant, for we should need years for the study of it, and endless volumes for the text. Nor have we space left for a disquisition on the beauty of the fuchsia, and therefore have determined to follow a good example. A lean cure dined with a fat bishop, who first gave the cure a very poor vin ordinaire. But the cure' praised the miserable wine, and astonished the bishop, who new determined to astonish the cure'. So he brought forth his wines of rare vintage, and watched for the effect, but the cure spoke not a word. "What," said the bishop, "you praise my meagre vin ordinaire, and you say nothing of the wine now before you !" "Pardon, monsignor," replied the cure'; the wretched wine you first gave me needed praising; but this-this speaks for itself."
Ladies and gentlemen, as regards the elegance and freshness of the fuchsia it is not needful to speak-it speaks for itself !
In sheltered gardens in all the southern counties, and in some places even north of the Trent, the beautiful named fuchsias that are grown in the greenhouse may be planted out, and will pass through the winter safely if slightly protected, except in those seasons when the frost is unusually severe. Large old fuchsias may be turned to grand account in this way. The soil must be rich and mellow, and the plants must have abundant supplies of water; and if valued for their strong steams they should be lifted in November and be stored away in a greenhouse or a cellar, to be planted out again in May. If allowed to remain in the ground they should be cut down and a little cone of coal ashes piled over them. For permanent features the hardiest fuchsias are F. coccinea, F. gracilis, F.vigata, F. globosa, and F. Riccartoni. OF F. spectabilis we have already given a description.