494 APPENDIX. 



sionally produce three cotjledons, and subsequently single flowei-s. He 

 has never observed a double flower under these circumstances, though 

 it is true his experience in this matter has been but small. 



A writer in Otto's ' Grartenzeitung,' considers that double flowers are 

 a consequence of dryness of soil and atmosphere, and not of a luxurious 

 soil, rich in nutritious matter, having arrived at this conclusion from an 

 observation of the following circumstances : 



" Fifty years ago we saw Kenna japonica in a hothouse with single 

 flowers. Twenty yeai-s later we met with it in several gardens, in the 

 open air, but always with double flowers. At this time we were 

 \ assured that single-flowered plants were no more to be found in the 

 ' whole of Europe, and botanists forming herbaria oflFered considerable 

 sums for a branch of K. japonica with single flowei*s. We were requested 

 to take the plant in hand for the purpose of inducing it to produce 

 single flowers. We were advised to plant it otit in a rich soil, which 

 was done, but, by chance, the situation was sloping, consequently it did 

 not retain moisture, and all the flowers produced for several years in 

 succession were double. Shortly after, the captain of an English ship 

 again brought plants bearing normal flowers from Japan, which were soon 

 spread over the continent, and of which we received one plant. After 

 three years all the young plants raised from cuttings were double- 

 flowered. 



" In the year 1820 we several times visited a garden in the neighbour- 

 hood of Vienna, well known on account of its plant culture. The 

 gardener there possessed an immense plant of Camellia japonica with 

 single flowers, and some small plants raised fi-om this by cuttings, but 

 no other variety of camellia. He fertilised the flowers with their own 

 pollen, hai-vested seeds, which he sowed, and the plants raised from them 

 were placed in an extremely dry, lofty conservatory, where, after some 

 years, instead of producing single flowers, they all produced double 

 ones. The seedlings and mother plant were planted in one and the same 

 kind of earth, and some of the flowers on the old plant also showed an 

 inclination to become double. 



" This, at that time, to us, enigmatical phenomenon, was kept in mind 

 until we had an oppoi-tunity of instituting comparisons between the 

 climate of Japan and China and our own, and we then concluded that 

 in the case of a plant imported from thence, and exposed to such 

 diff'erent climatical influences, the origin of the greater or less imper- 

 fection of its sexual organs was probably owing to this change, as we 

 had experienced in Kerria and Camellia ; and that the sterility of many 

 other exotic plants might be attributed to the same cause. The difference 

 in the climatical relations of Japan and Europe is very considerable. 

 In Japan, previous to the new growth of Kerria and Camellia, a rainy 

 season of three months' duration prevails ; in Europe, on the conti*ary, 

 dry winds prevail especially in the eastera part, where our plains are 



