104 Foreign J\*otices. — Englajid. 



ted as soon as done flowering. If low phrubby plants are preferred, 

 he would pot them in the autumn, giving a top-dressing with rich 

 loam and cow-dung. A good drainage for the camellia is indispen- 

 sable, that no stagnant water may sour the soil. When required to 

 flower them early, plants with the most j)rominent buds should be 

 selected; the temjjerature to commence at 50°, rising gradually to 

 60° as the buds expand. He would select the double striped varie- 

 gata, Co\viUii, pisoniacflbra, Chandlerzj, and corallina as the best for 

 forcing. He attributed the ftiiiiiig off of the buds to the want of 

 water, and recommended gardeners to allow no more than one or 

 two buds to remain on each branch, as he was confident that the 

 practice would insure a more certain supply, and very much increase 

 the size of the flowers. 



"Mr. W. Keane returned thanks to Mr. Shearer for bringing for- 

 ward, on such a short notice, his excellent paper on the culture 

 cf the camellia. It was a subject in which he felt particularly inter- 

 ested, as at Castle Martyr, the seat of the Earl of Shannon, where 

 he lived, the camellia was the topic of conversation with all persona 

 who visited the place. There were fourteen large specimens planted 

 out in the open air about sixteen years ago, and they were all, in 

 1834, when he last saw them, from twelve to thirteen feet high. 

 The largest, a double white, was thirteen and a half feet high, and 

 twenty-two feet in circumference, and every season feathered with 

 flowers from the bottom to the top. They were planted out in three 

 quarters peat, and one quarter cood rich loam, three feet deep, with 

 draina£;e of old bricks, lime rubbish, and rough gravel at the top. 

 They were planted beside a wall with an east aspect; if the winter 

 was severe, a few poles were placed in front, and mats were stretch- 

 ed from the poles to the wall, which was always found sufficient to 

 protect them from the inclemency of the weather. They generally 

 flowered beautifully in April and May. The system of propagation 

 he recommended was, to take the cuttings in July, or any other time 

 when the wood was perfectly ripe, and insert about ten or twelve in 

 a large 60-sized pot, well drained and tilled with sandy jteat and 

 loam, but very little loam to be used, as the tender roots are found to 

 grow better in sandy peat; when struck, to be potted singly into 60- 

 gized pots, the cuttings to be any of the common sorts, which serve 

 as good stocks for the better kinds to be grafted upon thetn. To be 

 grafted without ton^ueing, as the tongue is apt to decay ; then tied 

 with bast-matting; clay never to be a))plied over them, as the admis- 

 sion of light and air is found to be beneficial for the union of the sci- 

 on and the stock. To be kept in a pit heated by dung to about bb^ 

 or 60°. In March to be planted out in sandy peat upon shelves with- 

 in two or three feet of the glass, where they would grow rapidly until 

 taken up, if required, for forcing the following season; potting to be 

 performed when they were done flowering. 



"Mr. Caie was certain that, by proi>er management, camellias can 

 be flowered, by exciting or retarding the growth of the plant, to ma- 

 ture the wood and flowering buds, at any season of the year. He 

 considered spring the best time for shifting them; all decayed roots 

 to be cut away, and if the plants are in a sickly state, then placed in 

 heat from sixty to seventy degrees, where they are to remain until 



