Observations on the Camellia, and its Varieties. 135 



The CamL'llia, during the winter, sliould be kept in ratlier a low 

 temperature, (say 40 to 45 deg. of Fahrenheit,) until the buds com- 

 mence swelling, when to ensure a splendid bloom, the heat should 

 be raised to 50 or 60 degrees. At the time of flowering and mak- 

 ing new wood, the plants should be abundantly supplied with water, 

 and when the young shoots are changing color and becoming hard, 

 if the heat be increased to 70 or 80 degrees, it will cause them to 

 form their blossom-buds in greater profusion. 



Wliile in the green-house, tlie plants should have a situation as- 

 signed them, so as to receive as much light and air as practicable, of 

 which they should be the daily recipients, whenever the weather will 

 permit; but they should not be exposed to the full rays of the sun 

 from May to September. When moved out to their summer resi- 

 dence, which will be about the first of June, or as soon as the flow- 

 er buds are formed, they should be placed under a shade, or in a 

 shady situation, to protect them from its scorching rays at noon, and to 

 give them its influence for a few hours, morning and evening of each 

 day. If it be necessary, however, to expose them to the sun, they 

 should be arranged compactly together in a circular form, with the 

 tallest in the centre, in regular gradation, according to their height, 

 thus protecting their roots from the intensity of its mid-day heat. 



During the hot season, the plants should be watered at evening, 

 leaving them to imbibe the moisture through the night, and in dry 

 weather frequently be syringed over their tops, with clear cold water, 

 which will much increase the health of the plants, and beauty of 

 their foliage. 



In this latitude it is not uncommon in the early fall months to have 

 cold nights, succeeded by hot days, producing a variableness in the 

 temperature, of many degrees. It is well, therefore, to remove the 

 Camellia to the green-house as early as the middle of September, 

 and although it is said it will bear several degrees of frost without 

 injury, I am confident if the plants are exposed to a temperature where 

 they become chilled, and of course the sap suddenly checked in its 

 circulation, it wiU either cause the flower-buds to languish, and finally 

 fall off", or prove a serious detriment to their free and perfect expan- 

 sion. 



The flowering of the Cameflia may be forwarded, or retarded, by 

 being subjected to a higher or lower temperature ; and though its 

 natural season for blooming is in the winter, and early spring months, 

 by this treatment a succession of flowers may be kept up throughout 

 the year. An example of the effect of this management may be 

 seen in a large plant of the Double White, belonging to the Hon. 

 John Lowell, Roxbury, and which, he informs me, has so changed 

 its natural disposition, that it now comes into blossom, in August. 



If wanted to flower early, it must be excited by an increase of 

 heat, to make its spring growth earlier than usual, and be returned 

 to the green-house in the month of August ; but as the weather will 



