Fuchsia
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Fuchsia. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
fu'shl-a, a tropical plant belonging to the evening primrose family. There are thirty species, chiefly native in Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Some of the species are small shrubs; one in New Zealand is a tree twenty feet high; but our house plants are usually herbs. Fuchsias are easily grown from cuttings. Gardeners recommend two joints, one to be thrust underground for rooting, the other to stand above ground for branching. Spring cuttings make winter flowers. They should be left in pots out of doors as late as possible, and when brought in should have good light and plenty of water, but should be screened from bright sunshine. The fuchsia was named for Leonard Fuchs, a Bavarian botanist connected with the University of Tubingen, 1501-1566. The fuchsia is known also as lady's eardrop. It is too delicate for outdoor growth, but it is a favorite conservatory and window plant. The foliage is attractive. The flowers hang singly, one from the axil of each leaf, or else from the tips of the branches. The calyx is composed of four long, brightly colored sepals, purple, rose, or white. The corolla is composed of four longer, usually darker petals. The stamens and style hang lower yet. They also are gayly colored, giving to the entire flower a beautifully rich, attractive appearance.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
so named from the discoverer, Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, a genus of Onagracæ, tribe Fuchseæ, of which it is the type. More than 50 species are known; most from the warmer parts of America, Mexico, Peru, Chile, etc., except two from New Zealand . These beautiful plants are common in gardens, conservatories, and flower pots in windows. The hybrids amount to some hundreds.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The two accounts differ on numbers — Aiton's counted "thirty species" in 1910, Collier's "more than 50" in 1921 — and modern botanists recognise roughly 110, still overwhelmingly Andean and Central American, with a handful in New Zealand and one in Tahiti. Collier's calls Leonard Fuchs "the discoverer"; in fact the genus was named in his honour by the French monk Charles Plumier, who found the first species in Hispaniola around 1700, well over a century after Fuchs died in 1566. Aiton's claim that the fuchsia is "too delicate for outdoor growth" has not held up: Fuchsia magellanica and its hybrids are grown as hardy garden shrubs and hedges across Britain and Ireland, where the plant has naturalised in the west. The cultivation advice — two-joint cuttings, spring cuttings for winter bloom, shade from hard sun — would still pass in a modern gardening book, though growers now also fight the fuchsia gall mite, an American pest that reached Britain in the 2000s.
Written for this edition, 2026.