84 PROPAGATING THE CAMELLIA BY GRAFTING OR INARCHING, 
plant “shifted,” this is the way to do it properly :—take hold of the 
plant-pot in your right hand, and cover the top of it with the four 
fingers of the left hand, passing the stem of the plant between the fore 
and middle finger; then lower the left hand till the pot is turned 
upside down, and the soil and pot then rest on the palm of the left 
hand; now take hold of the bottom of the pot with the right hand, 
and strike the rim of it gently against the window-sill, and it will 
easily part with the soil ; then, without moving the left hand, put the 
new pot over the ball of soil, and the work of shifting is finished. 
You might, however, try and find out the cause of the soil turning so 
wet, before you put on the new pot.— Cottage Gardener. 
PROPAGATING THE CAMELLIA BY GRAFTING OR 
INARCHING. 
BY A LONDON NURSERY PRACTITIONER. 
Tuts very popular family has always the best effeet when cultivated 
in a house by themselves; and as there are certain seasons in which 
this genus requires a treatment almost peculiar to itself, their separate 
culture is therefore the more necessary. The splendour and profusion 
of the blossoms of this genus do not only attract our notice, considered 
merely as an ornamental plant, but has a considerable claim on our 
more intimate regard, when we consider it as supplying us with one of 
the necessaries of life, and probably one of the most exhilarating and 
useful medicines of which our Pharmacopceias can boast. From the 
species Camellia bohea, viridis, and sasanqua, are obtained the well- 
known tea of commerce, which is imported by us from China, where 
these three species, together with C. Japonica, grow in abundance, and 
in that country attain the character of evergreen shrubs or low trees. 
From these species have been originated, by cultivation, the many 
varieties now cultivated. ‘The most successful and generally adopted 
method of propagating this family, is by inarching or grafting; by 
either of these means each variety is perpetuated, but new varieties are 
only to be obtained from seeds ; as these seldom ripen, at least in any 
quantity in this country, and few are imported in a fit state to vegetate, 
the propagation of new varieties is consequently a matter of some 
importance. As, in most other cases, it is from single flowering plants 
that seed are to be expected, although sometimes the semi-double 
flowers also produce them, and of these the common single red is the 
most prolific in 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. Stocks, however, are for the most part obtained 
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. Camellias 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. 
