AND CONSERVATORY. 167 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE CAMELLIA, AZALEA, AND RHODODENDRON. 



These three noble evergreen shrubs agree well together 

 in the same house, and a few of the hardier kinds of heaths 

 may be grown with them. They differ in their several re- 

 quirements it is true, and therefore we must appropriate to 

 each a separate paragraph ; but the differences are few and 

 small and easily bridged over by careful management. It is so 

 desirable the amateur should experience something in the 

 nature of sympathy for his vegetable pets, that we embrace 

 every opportunity of indicatiug idiosyncrasies, or say, their 

 constitutional peculiarities, and to these indications, however 

 partial or imperfect they may be, we invite the especial atten- 

 tion of the reader. The three plants now to be considered 

 are so nearly hardy that they may be grown well in an airy 

 house without the aid of artificial heat, but we do not recom- 

 mend such an extreme procedure. If, however, there is heat 

 sufficient to exclude frost, they will be safer, and will attain to 

 a finer condition both of leafage and bloom than if unaided. 

 They are all characterised by a profuse production of flowers 

 in the winter or early days of spring, followed by a free 

 growth of new wood on which the flower-buds of the next 

 season are formed; and then they take a decided rest, making 

 no more sign of activity than the slow swelling of the flower- 

 buds preparatory to the next display of their glorious colours. 

 They need less air and light than heaths ; and camelHas are 

 somewhat famed for their enjoyment of old conservatories, 

 the roofs of which consist of heavy rafters and small squares 

 of very dirty glass while the floors are quagmires, and the 

 walls are clothed with the vegetation that belongs to damp 

 and ruin. "We must confess that we have seen gigantic 

 camellias covered with flowers "thick as hail," in houses so 

 dirty and dark that it was like visitiug one's grave to enter 



