JANUARY. 55 



to still greater perfection, and exhibit more vivid 

 colors than in the house : in this climate they need 

 no other protection. 



The Chrysanthemum, without some such shelter, 

 rarely exhibits itself to advantage. 



The Camellia, a native of the same climates, has 

 been introduced here, with much trouble and expense 

 incurred, to the number of about fifty varieties and 

 species, mostly of striking beauty of color and sym- 

 metry of form, exhibiting every shade in succession, 

 from deep crimson to the purest white, in some im- 

 perceptibly blended, in others strikingly contrasted, 

 and set in a foliage of glassy brilliant verdure, natu- 

 rally forming a light, airy, and slender pyramid, in 

 outline an unrivalled object of beauty from October 

 to May. Our gardeners have now succeeded in 

 raising new varieties of the Camellia, from seed in- 

 dependent of the Chinese, and rivalling, in many 

 instances, their most perfect specimens, principally 

 in variegation ; this is effected by intermixing the 

 farina of two oppositely colored varieties ; but as 

 this operation requires a combination of knowledge 

 and dexterity rather too profound for my fair readers 

 to meddle with, I leave it to learned professors, and 

 will proceed to the more obvious mode of cultivation 

 and increase. 



The double Camellia is generally cultivated by 

 graftings on stocks of the single, which are procured 

 by planting cuttings of the young shoots, in pure 

 sand, under cup glasses ; on these, when grown to 

 a sufficient size, are inarched the finer kinds ; some- 

 times these latter are also struck by cuttings, but 

 their progress by this manner is generally so feeble, 

 that it is seldom resorted to. To grow healthy 

 Camellias, you must procure a fresh, sandy soil, 

 generally of a redish color, to be mixed with about 



