CHAP, r.] CAMELLIACE^. 305 



like scales, and thus the flower lies encased in 

 a complete coat of mail. The single flower is 

 cup-shaped, with five, seven, or nine petals, 

 which are sometimes joined together at the 

 base. The stamens have long slender filaments, 

 which either grow together at the base, or are 

 separated into several bundles. The anthers 

 are elliptical and versatile ; that is, they are 

 poised so lightly on the filament as to quiver 

 with the slightest breeze. The ovary is of a 

 conical shape, and it has three or five slender 

 styles, ending in as many pointed stigmas, and 

 growing together at the base. The capsule is 

 three or five-celled ; and when ripe it bursts 

 into three or five valves, in the middle of each 

 of which is a dissepiment, which, before the 

 capsule opened, was attached to an axis or 

 column in the centre. The seeds are large 

 and few, and they are fixed to the central 

 placenta. There is no albumen, but the embryo 

 has two large, thick, oily cotyledons, which look 

 as if they were jointed at the base. The leaves 

 are leathery, dark-green and shining, and they 

 are ovate in form, ending in a long point, and 

 sharply serrated. The flowers spring from the 

 axils of the leaves, and grow close to the stem 

 without any footstalk ; and the leaf-bud for 

 the ensuing shoot grows beside the flower-bud. 

 I have above described the Camellia japonica, 



