50 ON THE CULTURE OF THE CAIuELLIA. 



Buckingham, Messrs. Loddiges, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Col- 

 viLL ; also by Mr. Gray, Mr. Press, and other persons. The 

 varieties recorded are upwards of two hundred. I have paid some 

 attention to raising seedlings, and have been most amply repaid by 

 some very handsome and peculiarly sti'iking varieties, some of 

 which are circulating through the country, and others which will 

 be distributed this year. My practice is to study which admix- 

 ture of two sorts is likely to produce the most striking distinct 

 colours, and to impregnate accordingly. I apply the farina by 

 means of a camel hair pencil, and for a fortnight aftenvards do not 

 allow any water to fall upon the flowers. I have unifonnly found 

 my seedlings to form the habit of gi-owth of the parent sort each 

 individual plant partook most of in colour, whether of the male or 

 female. 



I usually force the Camellias under my charge, so that they 

 bloom from September to April, thus having the opportunity of 

 impregnating early in spring. I generally do so in February or 

 March ; by this circumstance I get the seeds well ripened. 



When the seed is ripe, T retain it in its capsule till the following 

 February ; I then sow it in small pots filled with light sandy loam, 

 and place it in moist heat. When the plants are a few inches 

 high, I pot them singly into small pots, being careful to have 

 them well drained with broken potsherds. After keeping the 

 plants in the moist heat for a fortnight, I remove them into a 

 vinery, and gradually inure them to the greenhouse temperature. 

 The soil I find them thrive the best in, is tiu'fy loam, two years old; 

 turfy peat, two years old ; and rotten vegetable mould from tree 

 leaves, in equal proportion. 



The usual method of increasing the various kinds of Camellias 

 in cultivation is by inarching, plants being raised by cuttings of 

 the. single red, and the double sorts inaixhed upon them. I find, 

 however, that the double sorts may be raised by cuttings as suc- 

 cessfully as the single kinds, which method is less troublesome 

 than inarching. 



The advocates for inarching state that plants of the double sorts 

 may be raised by cuttings, but that they unifonnly wither and 

 die in a year or two. In opposition to this statement I have to 

 obsene, that I have many plants of tlie handsomest double kinds 

 raised from cuttings during several successive years, which are at 



