TERNSTRCEMIACEJE. XXVI. CAMELLIA. 



577 



Kengna by the inhabitants. C. Keina, Hamil. mss. in D. Don, 

 prod. fl. nep. p. 924. This species is very like C. Sasanqua. 

 The flowers are white and fragrant. It is called in the Newar 

 language Kissi or Kissi-srva. The leaves of this shrub have a very 

 strong but transient smell of tea, but their infusion possesses 

 only to a very slight degree its flavour, owing perhaps, as Mr. 

 Gardner justly observes, to the defective manner of gathering 

 and drying them for the trials which he instituted. It has also 

 been ascertained by Mr. Gardner that the Nipaulese extract an 

 oil from the seed of the Kissi by pressure, which is much valued 

 by them as a medicine. 



Kissi Camellia. Fl. Dec. to May. Clt. 1823. Shrub 7 feet. 



6 C. OLEI'FERA (Abel. chin. p. 174. with a figure,) leaves 

 elliptic-oblong, acute, serrated, coriaceous, shining ; flowers soli- 

 tary ; calyxes silky, deciduous ; petals 5-6, 2-lobed. Tj . G. Na- 

 tive of China. Lodd. bot. cab. 1065. This plant resembles the 

 two preceding species. The flowers are very numerous, white, 

 and fragrant. The Chinese extract an oil from the seed by pres- 

 sure, which is in very general use in the domestic economy of 

 China. The seeds are white, and are as well as those of any 

 other species, reduced to a coarse powder, which is stewed or 

 boiled in bags, and then pressed, when the oil is yielded. Dr. 

 Abel, trav. 176. Ker, bot. reg. 492. 



Oil-bearing Camellia. Fl. Nov. Shrub 6 to 8 feet. 



7 C. DRUPI'FERA (Lour. coch. 2. p. 499.) leaves ovate-ob- 

 long, somewhat crenated ; flowers terminal in twos or threes, 8- 

 petalled ; drupe 4-celled. Tj . G. Native of Cochin-China, 

 where it is also cultivated. The flowers are probably white. 

 The inhabitants of Cochin-china extract an oil from the seed by 

 pressure, which is used by them to anoint their hair, and for 

 various medical purposes ; it has a pleasant odour, and does not 

 easily become rancid. It will perhaps prove a distinct genus 

 from Camellia, as well as the following species. 



Drupe-bearing Camellia. Tree 10 feet. 



8 C. EURYOIDES (Lindl. bot. reg. t. 983.) leaves ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, acuminate, serrated, silky beneath ; branches hairy ; 

 peduncles lateral, 1-flowered, scaly. f; . G. Native of China. 

 Lodd. bot. cab. 1493. Thea euryoides, Booth in hort. trans. 

 Flowers white. 



Eurya-like Camellia. Fl. May, July. Clt. 1 822. Shrub 4 ft. 



Cult. All the species of Camellia are universally admired by 

 every collector of plants, on account of their beautiful rose-like 

 flowers, and elegant, dark-green, shining, laurel-like leaves. 

 They are very hardy green-house plants, and are easy of cul- 

 ture, requiring only to be sheltered from severe frost. The best 

 soil for them is an equal quantity of good sandy loam and peat. 

 Messrs. Loddiges find that light loam alone answers as well or 

 better, and in the Comte de Vandes gardens at Bayswater rotten 

 dung is mixed with loam and peat. The pots should be well 

 drained with pieces of potsherds, that they may not get soddened 

 with too much wet, as nothing injures them more than over- 

 watering, particularly when they are not in a growing state. 

 When growing freely, they can scarcely have too much, and 

 they should be watered all over the leaves with a fine rose pot. 

 They are readily increased by cuttings or inarching on the com- 

 moner kinds. The cuttings should be taken off at a joint as 

 soon as they are ripened, and planted in sand under a hand-glass, 

 where they will soon strike root ; when this is the case, they should 

 be planted singly into small pots, and set in a close frame, and they 

 must afterwards be hardened to the air by degrees. (Sweet.) 



The single red Camellia Japonica is propagated by cuttings 

 or layers and seed for stocks, and on these the other kinds are 

 generally inarched or budded. Henderson, of Wood-hall near 

 Hamilton, puts in cuttings at any time of the year, except when 

 they are making young wood ; lets them remain in a vinery for 

 a month or more, and then puts them in a hot-bed, where there 

 YOL. i. PART. vn. 



is a little bottom heat. A speedy mode of obtaining stocks is 

 by planting stools in a pit devoted to that purpose, and laying 

 them in autumn ; the following autumn most of the layers will 

 be rooted, when they may be taken ofF and potted, and used as 

 stocks the succeeding spring. Inarching or grafting is per- 

 formed early in the spring, when the plants begin to grow ; the 

 chief care requisite is so to place and fix the pot containing the 

 stock, as that it may not be disturbed during the connection of 

 the scion with the parent plant. The graft being clayed over 

 is then covered with moss to prevent its cracking. When inde- 

 pendent grafting is used, the mode called side grafting is generally 

 used, and the operation of tongueing is generally omitted. A few 

 seeds are sometimes obtained from the single and semi-double 

 kinds; these require 2 years to come up, but they make the best 

 stocks of any, but the seedlings are usually allowed to come into 

 flower before they are grafted upon, in case some new variety 

 should be produced, but the best cultivators cross-impregnate the 

 blossoms by cutting off the stamens before the anthers burst, and 

 when the stigma is in a perfect state, dusting it with the pollen 

 of the kind intended for the male parent. C. Sasanqua seeds 

 most readily, and is often employed as the female parent for 

 raising new varieties. The plants so raised from seed, if well 

 treated, flower in 4 or 5 years, and if nothing new is produced 

 they still make excellent stocks. Henderson of Wood-hall, who is 

 one of the most successful growers of Camellias in Scotland, 

 uses the following compost : equal parts of light-brown mould, 

 river sand and peat earth, and a little rotten leaves, mixed well 

 together ; and when the camellias require shifting put some 

 broken coal-char in the bottom of the pots, and some dry moss 

 or Hypnum over it. (Cal. mem. 3. p. 316.) 



Camellias have the best effect, and are grown to most advan- 

 tage, in a house entirely devoted to them. Such a house should 

 be rather high than otherwise, as the plants never look so well 

 as when 6 or 8 feet high, trained in a conic form, and clothed 

 with branches from the root upwards. The plants should be 

 raised near to the glass by means of a stage, which should be so 

 contrived that as they advance in height it may be lowered in 

 proportion ; only the very best crown or patent glass should be 

 used, because it is found that the least inequality of surface or 

 thickness of material, so operates on the sun's rays as to con- 

 centrate them, and burn or produce blotches on the leaves. 



To grow Camellias in perfection considerable care is requisite. 

 The roots are apt to get matted, so as after a time to render them 

 impervious to water. Hence frequent attention should be paid 

 to see that the water poured on the pots moistens all the earth 

 equally, and does not pass by the sides and leave the middle or 

 principal part dry. When the plants are in a growing state they 

 require to be liberally watered, and to have a greater degree of heat 

 than that which is usually given to green-house plants. If this 

 heat and watering is not given in November and December, the 

 plants will not expand their blossoms freely, neither will 

 vigorous shoots be supplied after the blossoming is over. To 

 form handsome plants they should be trained with single stems 

 to rods, and pruned so as to make them throw out side branches 

 from every part of the stem ; to encourage this, the plants 

 should not be set too close together on the stage. In summer the 

 plants should be set out of doors on a stratum of scoria or on 

 pavement, in a sheltered but open situation, or the glass roof 

 may be taken off. Some kinds do very well if planted out in a 

 green-house conservatory. The single and double red Camellia 

 will endure the open air when trained against a south wall, and 

 protected by mats in winter. Henderson, of Wood-hall, gives 

 the following account of his mode of treating Camellias : " The 

 best time for a regular shifting of the Camellia is the month of 

 February and beginning of March. After shifting all those that 

 require it, put them into a peach-house, vinery or pinery, or in 

 4 E 



