CULTURE OF THE CAMELLIA. 201 



vourableness of the season. Observation alone can dictate when the 

 clay, and afterwards the bandage of matting, should be removed. 

 There is an evil in allowing either to remain on too long, as well as 

 taking them off too soon; however, there is less danger to be appre- 

 hended from their remaining on a week or even two too long, than 

 than in taking them off a week too soon. Some cultivators adopt the 

 Graffe Blaikie mode of inarcbing with much success, and others also 

 practise the mode recommended by Mr. Murray, of Glasgow, by 

 inserting the lower extremity of the scion into potato or small turnip. 

 Camellias will form a union when the branches are of considerable 

 size ; and, as we have already noticed, very large plants may be 

 speedily formed by inarching several whole plants upon one common 

 stock. This process is now becoming prevalent round London ; and 

 when the operation is properly performed, and the plantafterwards pro- 

 perly cultivated, specimens of large size may be expected to become 

 more common than they have hithertobeen ; and certainly one or two 

 large specimens of this plant, where there is convenience for keeping 

 them, are better than a number of small ones, which will take up 

 the same room, and never can produce so imposing an effect as is the 

 case with large specimens. Upon one or two plants may thus be 

 cultivated the whole collection of varieties and species now known. 

 In grafting Camellias, much care should be taken to perform the 

 operation neatly, so as to leave as little appearance of the place of 

 union as possible. I recollect, when this plant was much less common 

 than it now is, and the methods or propagating it less understood, 

 that some cultivators, to hide its deformity in the stem, performed 

 the operation very close to the surface of the pot in which the stock 

 grew ; and when the union had taken place completely, they used to 

 repot them into deeper pots, so as to bury the wound under the 

 mould. A practice so unskilful was of course unsuccessful; the 

 plants being thus too deeply potted did not prosper, and, as might be 

 expected, deterred many from purchasing, from an idea that the 

 plants were either short-lived, or would not grow without the care of 

 a proficient person. The case, however, is otherwise : scarcely any 

 plant is easier than the camellia; although it must be admitted, 

 that, to grow them in the first degree of excellence, much judgment 

 is required. Camellias, like most other plants, have their periods of 

 growth and also of the rest ; during the former state they cannot 

 hardly be watered over much, and during the latter, they will soon 

 languish if too bountifully supplied. For this, no rules can be laid 

 down ; experience and observation on the part of the cultivator alone 

 can be a safe guide. 



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