AND CONSEETATORT. 171 



in some way or other there is glass over them. All they 

 need for some time is to be kept regularly watered, never wet 

 and never dry, safe from frost, but not to be stimulated by 

 heat till it is required to push them into bloom. 



As the flowering season approaches it is necessary to clean 

 the foliage. However clean it may appear, we prefer to set a 

 lad to work to sponge every leaf with tepid water ; it is as- 

 tonishing how exquisitely bright and green the leaves look 

 after the process. As they are washed set them aside and 

 remove a little of the top soil in the pots, not more than an 

 inch, and supply its place with two inches of rotten manure 

 and leaf-mould well chopped over. Eemove the plants into a 

 house where they will have a temperature of 45° by night and 

 55° by day. After they have been there a week, raise the 

 temperature to 50° by night and 60° to 65° by day, and make 

 it a rule never to flower a camellia in a higher temperature 

 than Go°. As the flowers open remove them to a house a few 

 degrees cooler, or lower the temperature of the house they 

 are in about 5°, which will prolong their beauty and ^jr6'ir»^ 

 them growing too soon, for they cannot grow and bloom properly 

 at one and the same time. 



Camellias will grow tolerably well in peat and sand if care- 

 fully looked after, but nothing is so good as turfy hazelly 

 loam, mixed with a fifth part of leaf-mould, or thoroughly 

 decayed hotbed manure and an equal proportion of sharp 

 sand. AYhen potting them, press the soil firmly round the 

 ball, for if it is put in loosely the water will run through it, 

 and leave the ball wherein the roots are perfectly dry, and the 

 latter will perish accordingly. To give a general rule for the 

 size of the new pot, we can only say that it should not exceed 

 two sizes larger than the one the plant is taken from. When 

 large camellias are shifted into tubs, it is a good plan to put a 

 ring of clay on the surface of the soil in the tub to mark as 

 nearly as possible the line of junction of the old soil and the 

 new. The water should be poured within this circle, so as to 

 wet the roots of the plant and keep the new soil as nearly dry 

 as possible. When a year has elapsed remove the ring of 

 clay and allow the water to penetrate the whole body of the 

 soil, as by that time the roots will have pushed into the new 

 stuff", and increased vigour of the growth above will show that 

 the ring of clay contributed in a material degree to the success 

 of the tubbing. 



