Fuchsia

Fuchsia, a genus of plants, comprising upwards of 50 species, belonging to the order Onagraceae, named by its discoverer, Plunder, after the German botanist, Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566). They have simple leaves, usually in opposite pairs; pendulous flowers with an inferior ovary; a funnel-shaped, coloured, deciduous calyx of four valvate sepals; four perigynous, convolute petals, generally different in colour from the sepals; eight exserted stamens; a long style; and a four-chambered berry. Three species are known from New Zealand, one from the Falkland Islands, and the remainder from the forests or mountains of Chili, Peru, and Mexico. The globose-flowered F. coccinea was introduced into England in 1788: the long-flowered F. fulgens in 1837, and since then innumerable hybrids of these and other species have been raised. Fuchsias may be readily grafted, and grow to a large size and are perfectly hardy on the south-west coasts of England. The berries of some kinds are edible but insipid.