86 THE GREEN-HOUSE.—CAMELLIAS. 
pot. The pots should not have saucers, or if they have for the sake 
of cleanliness, the water should be carefully poured out of them im- 
mediately after the plants have been watered. The plants should be 
watered abundantly every day while their flower-buds are swelling ; 
as, if this be neglected, the buds are very apt to drop off. When the 
flowers begin to expand, the watering is not of so much consequence, 
though it should be continued in moderate quantities; and abun- 
dance should be again given when the plants are making their young 
shoots. After they have done growing, watering once or twice a- 
week will be sufficient till the flower-buds again begin to swell. Dur- 
ing the growing season, the plants should be set out and syringed 
all over the leaves once or twice a-week; but care should be taken 
not to do this when the sun shines, orat any rate not to set the plants 
in the sun while they are wet, as the heat of the sun acting on the 
water will scald the leaves, and make them appear blotched, and par- 
tially withered. The roots of Camellias are seldom very strong, and 
they are very easily injured. Great care should, therefore, be taken, 
when the plants are repotted, not to bruise the roots, or to cut off all 
that are at all injured. If on turning out the plants previous to re- 
potting, the ball of earth has no white roots appearing on the out- 
side, the earth and decayed roots should be shaken or cleared away, 
till good roots are seen; and these should be carefully examined, and 
all the bad parts cut away. The plants should then be repotted ir a 
pot not more than an inch in diameter than the diameter of the ball of 
earth left round the sound roots; and it should be well drained at the 
bottom with very small potshreds, or clean gravel. Small Camellias 
should not be shifted oftener than once in two years; and large ones, 
that is, those above five feet high, not oftener than once in three or four 
years ; but if the earth in the pot appears to have sunk, a little veo- 
stable mould may be Jaid on the surface. The usual time for shift- 
ing Camellias is just when they have done flowering, before they are 
beginning to send out their young shoots. When planted in the free 
ground in a conservatory, they will require no other care than regu- 
lar watering, and syringing the leaves once or twice a-week. When 
planted in the open air, the roots should be carefully protected by 
straw during frosty weather.* There are some Camellias in the 
* Camellias will not, in this country, endure the open air in winter north of 
Carolina.—Ep. 
