CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. Vol XLI 1885.
Tab, 6795.
FUCHSIA TRIPHYLLA.
Native of St.. Domingo.
_______________________
Nat. Ord. ONAGRAR1EÆ.
Genus FUCHSIA, Linn.; {Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl.
vol. i. p.790.)
________________________
FUCHSIA triphylla ; fruticulus pubescens, foliis ternatim
verticillatis breviter petiolatis oblanceolatis acutis subserratis
supra viridibus, puberulis subtus purpurascentibus velutino-pubescentibus,
nervis. numerosis arcuatis, floribus corymbosis nlutantibus v.
pendulis, bracteis viridibus 'pedicellis perianthiisque toto-coccineis,
calycis tubo basi modice inflato dein gracili supra medium inflato-ellipsoideo,
lobis triangularibus acutis, petalis rotundatis calycis lobis
brevioribus, staminibus 4 alternipetalis petalis subæquilongis
4 oppositipetalis petalis brevioribus, stylo exserto.
F. triphylla, Linn.. Sp. Pl. p. 1191; Willd.
in Usteri Annal. vol. iii. t. 6, fig. 3
(copied from Plumier) ; Hemsley in Gard. Chron.
1884, vol. ii. p. 263.
F. racemosa, Lamk. Dict. vol. ii. p. 565; and. Ill.
t. 282, fig.1; DC. Prodr. vol. iii.
p. 39; Descourlitz Flore Medicale des Antilles, vol.
ii. p. 161, t, 109,
FUCHSIA triphylla flore coccineo ; Plumier, Nov. Plant. Amer.
Gen, p.14, t, 14;
and Plant, Amer. Ed, Burm. t. 133, fig. 1,
__________________________
A most interesting plant, from being the type of the well-known
and large genus Fuchsia, which was founded upon it 180
years ago, and yet it has been all but unknown to science till
the present year ! I cannot do better than extract the details
of this anomaly in botanical history and literature from an excellent
account of Fuchsia triphylla drawn up by Mr.Hemsley for
the "Gardener's Chronicle" (cited above), premising
that Mr.Hemsley was the first, to recognize the name and interest
of the plant, when transmitted to Kew by Messrs. Henderson for
naming.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, Father Plumier,
a missionary, collected largely in the West Indies, and chiefly
in the Island of St. Domingo, and in 1703 published his "
Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera."
Of these genera one was that which he called " Fuchsia
trphylla flore coccineo." It is accompanied with a rude
and inexact figure, only four stamens being represented, and the
petals being of a wrong form; there is, however, no doubt that
the figure is intended for this plant, and Linnæus, in the
first edition of the " Species Plantarum " (1753 ),
took it up as Fuchsia tr1phylla.
Shortly afterwards, in 1758, Burmann published a series of
plates of drawings made by Plumier in the West Indies and South
America, including one of the Fuchsia (tab. 133, fig. 1).
Other species of Fuchsia were soon added to the genus,
and Lamarck (no doubt from finding the triphyl1ous; character
to be common to other species of the genus) in 1793 changed the
name to F. racemosa, without comment, which Descourlitz
in his " Flora of the Antilles " adopts. Lastly, Kunth,
in describing Humboldt and Bonpland's South American collections,
proceeding on the assumption that F. triphylla is a Continental
American plant, doubtfully refers to it a triphyllous species
from New Grenada; and in so doing is followed by De Candolle.
The specimen here figured was sent to Kew by Messrs. Henderson,
with the information that it was collected by 'l'homas Hogg in
St. Domingo, where it forms a round bush, " not over eighteen
inches high, every shoot of which is terminated by a raceme of
orange-scarlet wax-like flowers." Descourlitz's figure
is sufficiently characteristic, though he figures the flowers
as erect, and the leaves as green beneath.
He states that Plumier found it in uncultivated places, "en
allant du quartier de la bande du Sud, à celui qu'on nomme
le Grand Cul-de.Sac," adding that he has found it himself
; often at St. Jago de Cuba. He attributes to it medicinal properties,
amongst others the curing of certain intermittent fevers, and
says that it is a powerful remedy in asthenic derangements of
the lymphatic system. - J. D. H.
______________________________
Fig. I, Portion of under-surface of leaf; 2, calyx laid open;
3, petal; 4 and 5, anthers; 6, style and stigma :--all enlarged.