200 CULTURE OF THE CAMELLIA. 



affording seed. Sometimes seedlings so obtained are used only for 

 stocks, whereon to work other rarer kinds, although sometimes they 

 are kept till they attain a flowering state to ascertain their relative 

 merits. Mr. Knight, of the Exotic Nursery, has many seedling 

 plants thus originated, which assume as yet different characters, so 

 far as the buds, leaves, &c. are concerned, from those from which 

 they have sprung ; and, under the management of that very scientific 

 cultivator, every justice may be expected to be done them. These, 

 we understand, have been principally obtained from the magnificent 

 specimen which he so long and so well cultivated, and to which we 

 have already alluded. Stocks, however, are for the most part ob- 

 tained by nurserymen from layers of the common single red, which 

 they have often planted out in pits for this purpose, or from plants 

 originated from cuttings of the same or equally common sorts. Ca- 

 mellias are sometimes budded, but for the most part are either grafted 

 or inarched, in either case, the process of tongueing is dispensed with 

 as weakening the stock ; and that mode of grafting, termed side- 

 grafting, is preferred. It may be observed, that, of all the stocks, 

 for this or any other purpose, those obtained from seeds, are the best ; 

 but, in regard to Camellias, as the seeds are two years in coming up, 

 cultivators seldom wait till such stocks are of proper size to be oper- 

 ated on. Sometimes the double Camellias are obtained from cut- 

 tings, but this is both a tedious and precarious method of increasing 

 them. 



As to the proper season for grafting or inarching Camellias, the 

 spring is the best, and just at that time when the plants have done 

 flowering and are beginning to grow. This state of vegetation does 

 not always take place at precisely the same time, as some cultivators 

 force their Camellias into bloom very early ; such, therefore, should 

 be operated upon not by the exact period of the year, but by the 

 state of the plants: Some will be fit for tbis process in January, 

 February, March, and April. Those, however, which are operated 

 on in March and April, will have the better chance to succeed, al- 

 though those which are operated on in February answer pretty well. 



During the time the process is going on, the house should be kept 

 rather closely shut up, and the atmosphere kept rather damp ; how- 

 ever, these must not be too freely indulged in as in the former case^ 

 the plants would be liable to being drawn up weak, and consequently 

 become straggling and of bad habits. The time that elapses before 

 a union of the scion and stock completely takes place is in different 

 sorts, and more particularly in regard to the state of health and vigour 

 in which the plants may be, as well as the favourableness or unfa- 



