2 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



fine beds and borders of camellias in private gardens and nurseries about 

 London and the southern counties, but that terrible winter destroyed 

 thousands of open-air camellias, and so injured those that escaped destruc- 

 tion that it will probably be many years before we shall again see such 

 displays of camellias in beds as we have seen in times past. "We remember, 

 in the spring of 1 860, that in reply to a correspondent in this work, we 

 said, " Out-door camellias are subject to too many risks to be recommended 

 to the notice of amateurs generally;" and we were immediately invited 

 by Messrs. Milne, of Vauxhall (the nursery is now being laid out for 

 buUding purposes), to see some beds of camellias there, which were gtand 

 features of the establishment ; but the very next winter cut them off, and 

 their death was like a prelude to the extinction of the nursery itself, 

 which, for time out of mind, had been the home of the camellia. These 

 facts are instructive. If, in ordinary seasons, the camellia wUl live out 

 of doors, every amateur who can afford it the protection of glass may 

 grow it to perfection with little or no fire-heat. Planted against a north 

 wall camellias make a magnificent appearance, but their blooms are fre- 

 quently destroj'ed by those cruel frosts that are so common in tins country 

 in the early spring, and it is impossible to retard the blooming of the 

 camellia beyond a certain time, as when the season has sufficiently ad- 

 vanced to set the sap moving, the first effect is the expansion of the 

 flowers, and if then caught by frost the flowers melt to a pulp and fall to 

 pieces. 



"We have named these few facts as affording to the beginner in flori- 

 culture some idea of the constitution of the plant, and we shall now pro- 

 ceed to state the points that are to be kept in view in the cultivation of 

 the camellia, reserving what is necessary to be said as to its propagation 

 for a future occasion. 



CAMt;LLiA House. — N'ow and then we come across an ancient green- 

 house, with high side- walls, rafters of unusual breadth, broad sash-bars, 

 heavy plates, and very small glass with wide laps, and those laps so filled 

 with dirt that what with the bad glass and the large proportion of wood- 

 work, there is not much more than half the amount of light admitted 

 which we obtain in a modem structm'e. If there are — as there most likely 

 will be — a lot of old camellias in such a house, we shall be pretty sure to 

 find them in marvellous health. One of the ugliest, darkest, and most 

 dilapidated houses we ever saw was that of the late Mr. Mackie at Stoke 

 Newington, who had some of the noblest specimens of double white 

 camellias in the country, and which Mr. Bird secui'ed when the stock was 

 sold. Those plants were annually loaded with blooms in such profusion 

 as to look like huge pyramids of snow, and the sale of the flowers was 

 understood to produce their proprietor a good income without entailing a 

 farthing expense beyond the rent of the ground on which the houses stood. 

 We cannot wish to see greenhouses built in the old style in these days, 

 but if a house is expressly for camellias, it need not be so fully lighted 

 as for quick-growiag, soft-wooded plants ; and those who grow camellias 

 in houses that admit of full daylight, must adopt some effectual method of 

 screening them from the sun from the 1st of March to the 1st of Sep- 

 tember. Hartley's rough plate will be found invaluable for the top lights 

 of a house in which camellias are to be grown, as this excludes sunshine, 

 yet admits the ordinary daylight without interruption. As a rule a 

 lean-to is preferable to a span-house for camellias, and if there is no method 



