158 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



Loudon in the " Encyclopaedia of Gardening," 

 (1822) enumerates twenty-five varieties. In the 

 "Greenhouse Companion" (1824) are colored 

 plates of two varieties, Waratah and Lady 

 Hume's Blush, the former of which is now 

 superseded, but the latter is still much sought 

 after. It is there remarked, " New varieties are 

 ■continually originating by the nurserymen and 

 other growers from seeds. A number of hybrids 

 are in an advanced state but have not yet 

 flowered," 



The Camellia is frequently adverted to and 

 fi<nired in the botanical and horticultural publi- 

 cations of this time, and in the "Transactions of 

 the Horticultural Society, in a paper read before 

 the meeting, December 5, 1809, (vol. i., p. 175,) 

 we find the following:— " In October, 1795, a 

 •Camellia japonica was planted here (the South 

 Hams of Devonshire) among other shrubs in the 

 •open ground ; it has stood every winter since, 

 without the smallest shelter, thrives well and 

 has never had a bra'ich or leaf injured by the 

 weather. It is now about four feet high, the size 

 •of a gooseberry bush, but has not flowered." 

 Similar experiments, which have been repeated 

 frequently and in various soils and situations, 

 seem to prove that the plant is nearly hardy 

 in the cUniate of England, and may be 

 safely planted out-of-doors among other ever- 

 greens in warm sheltered situations. But in 

 thus treating it one loses the beauty of the 

 flowers, as, owing to their being produced in 

 March and April, they are nearly always spoiled 

 by the spring frosts. We remember planting 

 out two varieties, against a west wall in 1836, and 

 these passed through the winter of 1837-8 unin- 

 jured, although there were 30° of frost, and the 

 Bays, Arbutus, and Laurels standing in the open 

 quarters only a few yards distant were killed to 

 the ground. Mr. Joseph Harrison ('' Trans. 

 Hort. Soc," vol. vii., p. 168) found the double 

 white, the double red, and the double striped 

 grow satisfactorily out-cf-doors at Wortley Hall, 

 Yorkshire, " planted in a brown loam on a rocky 

 substratum." He covered the soil to the extent 

 of three feet from the stem of each plant with 

 ■ten inches of decayed leaves on the approach of 

 winter, removing the leaves in spring. In 1829, 

 a paper on the Camellia, by William Beattie 

 Booth, was printed in the " Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society" (vol. vii., p. 519). In this 

 paper six species and twenty three varieties are 

 described, four of the latter being figured, and it 

 js there stated : " Of these very ornamental 



plants the Society has formed an extensive col- 

 lection, such as I may safely say is not surpassed 

 at the present time by any other in the king- 

 dom." It appears that the double while and 

 double striped were introduced in 1792, Lady 

 Hume's Blush in 1806, Fimbriata in 1816, Imbri- 

 cata and several other varieties in 1824. 



Many of the varieties originally introduced 

 are now but little cultivated. Hardy plants of 

 them may be met with occasionally in the gar- 

 dens of the nobility and old English families, 

 but some of the modern varieties raised from 

 them are more beautiful, and consequently more 

 generally cultivated within the last forty years. 

 Many fine varieties have been raised in England, 

 especially by Mr. Chandler, of Vauxhall; Mr. 

 Press, of Hornsey ; and Mr. Fielder, of Enfield; 

 and France, Belgium, Italy, and latterly America, 

 have contributed largely to the improvement of 

 the flowers by selecting and preserving varia- 

 tions by sports and by seed. In Loudon's "' En- 

 cyclopaedia of Plants" (1820), eighteen garden 

 varieties are enumerated, and in Paxton's 

 "Botanical Dictionary" (edition 1849), as we 

 have already mentioned, no fewer than 200 va- 

 rieties are given. At this date there were at 

 least three establishments near London where 

 the Camellia was extensively cultivated, namely, 

 tbose of Mr. John Smith, Dalston ; Messrs. 

 Chandler, Vauxhall ; and Messrs. Loddiges, of 

 Hackney. It was one of our greatest treats of 

 that day to see the Camellias at Hackney when 

 in flower in the early spring. They were planted 

 out in a large house, and many of the plants 

 were thirty feet high, in splendid health and 

 laden with blossoms. It was a perfect forest of 

 Camellias, tenanted with blackbirds, thrushes, 

 and other birds, which built their nests in the 

 trees, passing in and out at pleasure through the 

 open doors and windows. Probably there never 

 was any floral display equal to this in England 

 before, and it may be many years before we see 

 the like again. Many of Messrs. Loddiges' large 

 plants were, we believe, sold to the Crystal Pal- 

 ace Company and removed to their palace at 

 Sydenham. 



The Camellias of Messrs. Lucombe Pince & 

 Co., of Exeter, have obtained a world-wide celeb- 

 rity, and are worth going many miles to see. In 

 nearly all the principal gardens and nurseries, 

 few or many may be met with, but we believe 

 that as far as regards quantity and variety our 

 collection stands unrivalled at the present time. 

 — William Paid in Gardener's Chronicle. 



