INTRODUCTION. 



THE CAMELLIA belongs to a natural order (the Camel- 

 liacece) of exogenous plants and shrubs which are widely 

 distributed over the globe, and include several genera and 

 species of great economic value. Among these are the tea 

 plant {Camellia Bohea and viridis), also the English holly, 

 and on this continent the Loblolly bays and Stuartias. 



The Camellias proper are all natives of India, China 

 and Japan, and receive their generic name of Camellia 

 from George Joseph Kamel, D.D., a German Jesuit mis- 

 sionary to Luzon, who, like many of his confraternity, was 

 a botanist. He brought them to Europe in 1739. There 

 are many species, all marked by like texture of leaf and 

 shrub-like growth, but not all bearing fine flowers. 

 Some have seeds yielding a valuable oil (C. oleifera) re- 

 garded as equal to that of the olive. The two species 

 most admired for their flowers are Camellia Japonica and 

 Camellia reticulata. There are also some hybrids of these 

 two, greatly prized for their beauty. The Camellia Japon- 

 ica has its specific name from Japan, where it is largely 

 cultivated, but it is probably indigenous in both China and 

 Japan. The plant, in its wild state, bears red and single 

 flowers, and is grown both in China and Japan from the 

 seed, which is often one year in vegetating. The Chinese 



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