Pe ae oe eS 
ERMETE Oe ar EAEE PA ee PENT Pe RETEA ey 
TERNSTRO@MIACEA. XXVI. Cametria. 
Kengna by the inhabitants. C. Keina, Hamil. mss. in D. Don, 
prod. fl. nep. p. 924. This species is very like C. Sasdnqua. 
The flowers are white and fragrant. It is called in the Newar 
language Kissi or Kissi-swa. The leaves of this shrub have a very 
strong but transient smell of tea, but their infusion possesses 
only to a very slight degree its flavour, owing perhaps, as Mr. 
Gardner justly observes, to the defective manner of gathering 
and drying them for the trials which he instituted. It has also 
been ascertained by Mr. Gardner that the Nipaulese extract an 
oil from the seed of the Kissi by pressure, which is much valued 
by them as a medicine. 
Kissi Camellia. FI. Dec. to May. Clt. 1823. Shrub 7 feet. 
6 C. oxer’rerA (Abel. chin. p. 174. with a figure;) leaves 
elliptic-oblong, acute, serrated, coriaceous, shining ; flowers soli- 
tary ; calyxes silky, deciduous ; petals 5-6, 2-lobed. h. G. Na- 
tive of China. Lodd. bot. cab. 1065. This plant resembles the 
two preceding species. The flowers are very numerous, white, 
and fragrant. The Chinese extract an oil from the seed by pres- 
sure, which is in very general use in the domestic economy of 
China. The seeds are white, and are as well as those of any 
other species, reduced to a coarse powder, which is stewed or 
boiled in bags, and then pressed, when the oil is yielded. Dr. 
Abel, trav. 176.—Ker, bot. reg. 492. 
Oil-bearing Camellia. Fl. Nov. Shrub 6 to 8 feet. 
7 C. prurt’rera (Lour. coch. 2. p. 499.) leaves ovate-ob- 
long, somewhat crenated; flowers terminal in twos or threes, 8- 
petalled; drupe 4-celled. h. G. Native of Cochin-China, 
where it is also cultivated. The flowers are probably white. 
The inhabitants of Cochin-china extract an oil from the seed by 
pressure, which is used by them to anoint their hair, and for 
various medical purposes ; it has a pleasant odour, and does not 
easily become rancid. It will perhaps prove a distinct genus 
from Caméllia, as well as the following species. 
Drupe-bearing Camellia. Tree 10 feet. 
8 C. ruryoipes (Lindl. bot. reg. t. 983.) leaves ovate-lan- 
ceolate, acuminate, serrated, silky beneath ; branches hairy ; 
peduncles lateral, 1-flowered, scaly. h.G. Native of China. 
Lodd. bot. cab. 1493. Théa euryoides, Booth in hort. trans. 
Flowers white. 
Eurya-like Camellia. Fl. May, July. Clt. 1822. Shrub 4 ft. 
Cult. All the species of Caméllia are universally admired by 
every collector of plants, on account of their beautiful rose-like 
flowers, and elegant, dark-gréen, shining, laurel-like leaves. 
They are very hardy green-house plants, and are easy of cul- 
ture, requiring only to be sheltered from severe frost. The best 
soil for them is an equal quantity of good sandy loam and peat. 
Messrs. Loddiges find that light loam alone answers as well or 
better, and in the Comte de Vandes gardens at Bayswater rotten 
dung is mixed with loam and peat. The pots should be well 
drained with pieces of potsherds, that they may not get soddened 
with too much wet, as nothing injures them more than over- 
watering, particularly when they are not in a growing state. 
When growing freely, they can scarcely have too much, and 
they should be watered all over the leaves with a fine rose pot. 
They are readily increased by cuttings or inarching on the com- 
moner kinds. The cuttings should be taken off at a joint as 
soon as they are ripened, and planted in sand under a hand-glass, 
where they will soon strike root ; when this is the case, they should 
be planted singly into small pots, and set in a close frame, and they 
must afterwards be hardened to the air by degrees. (Sweet.) 
The single red Caméllia Japonica is propagated by cuttings 
or layers and seed for stocks, and on these the other kinds are 
generally inarched or budded. Henderson, ot Wood-hall near 
Hamilton, puts in cuttings at any time of the year, except when 
they are making young wood ; lets them remain in a vinery for 
amonth or more, and then puts them in a hot-bed, where there 
VOL, I.— PART. VII. 
577 
is a little bottom heat. A speedy mode of obtaining stocks is 
by planting stools in a pit devoted to that purpose, and laying 
them in autumn; the following autumn most of the layers will 
be rooted, when they may be taken off and potted, and used as 
stocks the succeeding spring. Inarching or grafting is per- 
formed early in the spring, when the plants begin to grow ; the 
chief care requisite is so to place and fix the pot containing the 
stock, as that it may not be disturbed during the connection of 
the scion with the parent plant. The graft being clayed over 
is then covered with moss to prevent its cracking. When inde- 
pendent grafting is used, the mode called side grafting is generally 
used, and the operation of tongueing is generally omitted. A few 
seeds are sometimes obtained from the single and semi-double 
kinds; these require 2 years to come up, but they make the best 
stocks of any, but the seedlings are usually allowed to come into 
flower before they are grafted upon, in case some new variety 
should be produced, but the best cultivators cross-impregnate the 
blossoms by cutting off the stamens before the anthers burst, and 
when the stigma is in a perfect state, dusting it with the pollen 
of the kind intended for the male parent. C. Sasánqua seeds 
most readily, and is often employed as the female parent for 
raising new varieties. The plants so raised from seed, if well 
treated, flower in 4 or 5 years, and if nothing new is produced 
they still make excellent stocks. Henderson of Wood-hall, whois 
one of the most successful growers of Caméllias in Scotland, 
uses the following compost: equal parts of light-brown mould, 
river sand and peat earth, and a little rotten leaves, mixed well 
together; and when the camellias require shifting put some 
broken coal-char in the bottom of the pots, and some dry moss 
or Hýpnum over it. (Cal. mem. 3. p. 316.) 
Camellias have the best effect, and are grown to most advan- 
tage, in a house entirely devoted to them. Such a house should 
be rather high than otherwise, as the plants never look so well 
as when 6 or 8 feet high, trained in a conic form, and clothed 
with branches from the root upwards. The plants should be 
raised near to the glass by means of a stage, which should be so 
contrived that as they advance in height it may be lowered in 
proportion; only the very best crown or patent glass should be 
used, because it is found that the least inequality of surface or 
thickness of material, so operates on-the sun’s rays as to con- 
centrate them, and burn or produce blotches on the leaves. 
To grow Caméilias in perfection considerable care is requisite. 
The roots are apt to get matted, so as after a time to render them 
impervious to water. Hence frequent attention should be paid 
to see that the water poured on the pots moistens all the earth 
equally, and does not pass by the sides and leave the middle or 
principal part dry. When the plants are in a growing state they 
require to be liberally watered, and to have a greater degree of heat 
than that which is usually given to green-house plants. If this 
heat and watering is not given in November and December, the 
plants will not expand their blossoms freely, neither will 
vigorous shoots be supplied after the blossoming is over. To 
form handsome plants they should be trained with single stems 
to rods, and pruned so as to make them throw out side branches 
from every part of the stem; to encourage this, the plants 
should not be set too close together on the stage. In summer the 
plants should be set out of doors on a stratum of scoria or on 
pavement, in a sheltered but open situation, or the glass roof 
may be taken off. Some kinds do very well if planted out ina 
green-house conservatory. The single and double red Caméllia 
will endure the open air when trained against a south wall, and 
protected by mats in winter. Henderson, of W ood-hall, gives 
the following account of his mode of treating Caméllias: ‘The 
best time for a regular shifting of the Caméllia is the month of 
February and beginning of March. After shifting all those that 
require it, put them into a peach-house, vinery or pinery, or in 
4E 
