CHAP. XI.] CAMELLIAS. • 303 



week; but care should be taken not to do this 

 when the sun shines, or at 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 partially 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 in 

 any way injured. If, on turning out the plants 

 previously to repotting, the ball of earth has 

 no white roots appearing on the outside, 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 in pots not exceeding by more than 

 an inch the diameter of the ball of earth left 

 round the sound roots ; and they should be 

 well drained at the bottom with very small pot- 

 sherds 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 vegetable mould may be laid 

 on the surface. The usual time for shifting 

 camellias is just when they have done flower- 

 ing, 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 regular waterins;, and svrinoins: 



O O' ./SO 



the leaves once or twice a week. When planted 

 in the open air, the roots should be carefully 



